|
|
|
Book Review
Asia
| E. Bruce Reynolds. Thailand's Secret War: The Free Thai, OSS, and SOE during World War II. (Cambridge Military Histories.) New York: Cambridge University Press. 2005. Pp. xx, 462. $85.00.
|
| On December 12, 1941, after the Japanese attack on Thailand, Luang Phibun Songkhram, the prime minister, agreed to an alliance with Japan, and on January 25, 1942, he declared war on Great Britain and the United States. The history of the Thai-Japanese alliance has been examined by E. Bruce Reynolds in an earlier book, Thailand and Japan's Southern Advance, 1940–1945 (1991). His new book is a very detailed study of the competition among the intelligence services of the United States, Great Britain, and Nationalist China to influence, manipulate, and control the anti-Japanese Free Thai underground for their own purposes. The United States was interested in building up its contacts with the region, strengthening its regional trade and diplomacy. The British wanted to regain their colonial position and to punish the Thai for their alliance with the Japanese, which had enabled Japanese forces to move quickly into Burma, Malaya, and Singapore. Nationalist China would have liked to expand its presence to the south, linking up with the large Chinese community in Thailand. These different, competing policies greatly affected the organization and progress of the Free Thai movement. |
. . . |
There are about 543 more words in this article.
Please log in (or, if you are not yet an
authorized user, please go to the
User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
|