The Roles of Propaganda Organizations in Thailand (05)

The Roles of Propaganda Organizations in Thailand (05)

It was during this period of intense propaganda in Thailand that Indo-Chinese nationalists began to challenge the French authorities. The Thai Government took advantage by promising them, through its propaganda, that it would help them throw off the yoke of French colonial rule. The Thai Premier, in an attempt to conduct subversive activities against French rule in Indo-China, sent a secret mission to Vientiane to contact Prince Phetsarath, Viceroy of the Kingdom of Luang Prabang. The mission was headed by Major Sawai Saenyakorn, the Deputy Governor of the northeastern border province of Nong Khai.

As a result, the Thai Government established for the first time close connections with a group of the earliest important leaders of rightist Laotian nationalist movement. These later played a significant role, for nearly three decades, in independent Royal Lao Governments.

Oun Sananikone, a Laotian veterinary surgeon in the Lao northeastern province of Samneua, shared a pro-Thai feeling with Prince Phetsarath. He swam across the Mekong River to Thailand followed by another fifty Laotian nationalists to seek political asylum in Thai territory after his group had launched an unsuccessful coup in Vientiane. Oun Sananikone served as an announcer on Radio Thailand and was later commissioned as an officer in the Thai army. He played a leading role in the Thai propaganda campaign and in “a war of words” between Radio Thailand and Radio Saigon.

 Prince Phetsarath

Viceroy of the Kingdom of Luang Prabang

Cambodian nationalists, led by Pock Khun, came to Bangkok and found a “Khmer Issarak(Free Cambodian League).” Members of the League were recruited from among Cambodian refugees. In the meantime, Vietnamese nationalists, who sought sanctuary in Thailand, were supplied by the Thai authorities with arms, in order to conduct subversive activities against French rule in Indo-China.

This action matched the Thai Premier’s statement that France had no future in Indo-China and”…the Annamites(Vietnamese) would go to their rule, just as before, when Annam was a free nation.” Later on the Laotian along with the Cambodians and the Vietnamese joined the Free Indo-Chinese Force which was a battalion of foreign volunteers organized and trained by the Thai armed forces. This battalion was affiliated to the Thonburi Division of the Northeastern Army.