Kriangsak Chamanan (, ; 17 December 191723 December 2003) was the 15th prime minister of Thailand, serving from 1977 to 1980. His tenure began when he assumed power following the October 1977 Thai coup d'état, and ended with his resignation in 1980. He concurrently served as Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces from 1977 to 1978.
Born in Samut Sakhon to a wealthy business family, Kriangsak attended the prestigious Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy and trained as a professional soldier. During World War II, he was posted in the occupied Shan State, and fought against the French in the Franco-Thai War as platoon leader.Smith, Martin. Burma: Insurgency and the Politics of Ethnicity". Zed Books. 1991. During the Korean War, he served as the commander of Infantry Battalion III, which fought in the Battle of Pork Chop Hill, making him one of only a few non-citizen officers to receive the U.S. Legion of Merit. Kriangsak was promoted to the position of general in 1973, and army chief of staff a year later. Following a "democratic experiment" in Thailand that ended with the 6 October 1976 massacre, Kriangsak helped Admiral Sangad Chaloryu carry out a military coup that installed judge Thanin Kraivichien as prime minister. As a moderate pragmatist opposed to Thanin's extreme right-wing policies, Kriangsak ousted him in a coup d'etat in 1977.
Taking office as prime minister at a time when Thailand's relations with its communist neighbours had deteriorated due to the previous administration's confrontational policies, Kriangsak pursued a policy of détente, successfully normalising diplomatic relationships with Thailand's former enemies while rejuvenating relations with the United States. In the domestic sphere, Kriangsak reversed Thanin's repression of civil liberties, defusing the internal communist insurgency by granting amnesty to political detainees and any communist cadres who chose to return. He also partially restored Thai democracy, holding a general election in 1979. After a decrease in public support due to difficulties in dealing with the 1970s energy crisis, Kriangsak resigned the premiership in 1980, and is often noted as the only coup leader to voluntarily resign.
In 1985, dissatisfied with his successor, Prem Tinsulanonda, Kriangsak staged a failed coup against Prem, after which he was pardoned. In his retirement, he was invited to the InterAction Council of Former Heads of State and Government in solving various global issues, becoming the only Thai prime minister and one of fewer than three from Asia at the time of his membership. After suffering several years of declining health, Kriangsak died in 2003.
Kriangsak is credited with "steering Thailand to democracy" in a time when communist insurgents were rampant internally and neighbouring countries turned to communist rule following the communist takeover of Vietnam: South Vietnam (by the Viet Cong), Laos (by the Pathet Lao), and Cambodia (by the Khmer Rouge). Due to his landmark foreign and domestic developmental policies, Kriangsak is generally considered one of the greatest prime ministers of Thailand.
Early life and career Kriangsak Chamanan was born on 17 December 1917 in Mahachai Subdistrict, Mueang Samut Sakhon District, Samut Sakhon Province, a prominent Chinese trading port to the southwest of Bangkok. He was born to a wealthy business family that ran the Mahachai trading company, which dealt in importing and exporting goods between Thailand and the West and Japan. Mahachai in the 1800s and 1900s was one of Thailand's largest trading ports and grew to become the first city district with its own local government in 1897.Krīangsak, Chamanan. thīralưk Ngān Phrarātchathān Phlœng Sop Phon ʻēk Krīangsak Chamanan: ʻadīt Nāyokratthamontrī 12 Pho. Yo. 2549 translated as Official Documents of Cremation Volumes in honour of former Thai president Kriangsak Chomanan. Krung Thēp: Khunying Wirat Chamanan, 2006. Print.
Education From age six to twelve, Kriangsak attended Samut Sakhon Wittayalai and later Patumkongka School. After graduating from primary school, Kriangsak moved to Bangkok to attend the prestigious Amnuay Silpa School (Its alumni include six prime ministers of Thailand) where he excelled academically.
He later attended Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy, known for its intense training program and one of the lowest admission rates among learning institutions in Thailand, until he graduated in 1938. During his time in the army, he further attended the Thai Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC) and the Thailand National Defence College.
After his time in the Korean War, he also got a scholarship to attend the United States Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, a graduate school for United States Army and sister service officers, interagency representatives, and international military officers. He became the only Thai person to be included in the Fort Leavenworth Hall of Fame.
Military career Kriangsak fought in the Korean War as a commander of the Thai Army in the 21st Infantry Regiment, which earned the nickname "Little Tigers" for their valour. He showed exemplary skills as a major, playing a pivotal role in defending Pork Chop Hill. On 15 March 1953, by direction of the US president and under the provision of the 1942 Act of the US Congress, then-lieutenant Kriangsak became one among few non-U.S. military personnel to be awarded the Legion of Merit (Officer degree) for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services.General Orders No.8, Order of the Secretary of the US Army, W.C. WESTMORELAND, General United States Army, Chief of Staff. Published HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY, Washington, D.C., 4 February 1969. TAGO-849A-February 340-472*-69
He became a full general in 1973, and army chief of staff a year later. In 1974, he also secretly brokered a prisoner exchange with the Burmese government, in which the opium warlord Khun Sa was ransomed for the freedom of two Soviet doctors whom Khun Sa's followers had kidnapped.*Lintner, Bertil. "Death of a Drug Lord". Asia Times Online. 1 November 2007. Retrieved 14 January 2018. p.2
In 1977, Kriangsak was part of the National Administrative Reform Council (NARC), which staged a successful coup d'état against Prime Minister Thanin Kraivichien. Thanin himself had come into power the year before, after another coup by Sangad Chaloryu suspended the constitutional monarchy. The NARC was composed entirely of what contemporaneous press reports characterised as moderate military leaders, not from the extreme right wing. It was distinguished from previous military ruling groups "as an effort to institutionalize power relationships within the military in contrast to the personal factions and cliques which entered the political arena in the past." Kriangsak was then asked to become prime minister, partially against his will, according to his wife Khunying Virat Chomanan.Frank C. Darling, Thailand in 1976: Another Defeat for Constitutional Democracy, Asian Survey, Vol. 17, No. 2, A Survey of Asia in 1976: Part 2 (Feb., 1977), p. 132; Published by: University of California Press
Prime Minister of Thailand (1977–1980)
Coup d'état and ascension
Prior to Kriangsak, the Thanin Kraivichien administration had spiraled the country into a perilous state of civil war. Incidents involving the Communist Party of Thailand (CPT) in rural areas across Thailand and border clashes with Cambodia and Laos incidents were becoming increasingly frequent. The administration's forceful suppressive policy had the perverse effect of increasing the CPT's popularity. Furthermore, members and close aides of the royal family also became targets of attacks by the communist insurgents, including the assassination of the queen's secretary and a bomb explosion near the king while he was visiting the south of Thailand. The country-wide deterioration and increased activity of communist insurgents induced reactions within the Thai armed forces. The first attempt to overthrow the Thanin administration took place in March 1977 and was led by General Chalad Hiranyasiri. However, it was unsuccessful and Chalad was executed on Thanin's order. With increasing unrest, the Thanin government was finally successfully overthrown on 20 October 1977 when a clique of Thai military officers known as the Young Turks pressured Kriangsak and General Sangad Chaloyu, who had led the 1976 coup that ousted the elected civilian government of Seni Pramoj and appointed the royal favorite Thanin as prime minister. Kriangsak was later appointed the new prime minister by a majority vote through both the National Assembly and the NARC.
As prime minister, Kriangsak moved to moderate and neutralize his predecessor Thanin's severe measures, which had driven young Thai intellectuals from multiple universities to join the communist insurgency in the countryside. In 1978, in a major risk to his political position with his right leaning supporting base, he submitted an amnesty bill to the National Legislative Assembly to release the Bangkok 18, a group of leftist students and labor activist jailed after the Thammasat University massacre that preceded the 1976 coup. The move greatly bolstered his international position as a Southeast Asian humanitarian leader and was noted in commemorations from many international bodies. He also started a successful amnesty program for communists as part of a reconciliation policy. Garrett, Stephen A. "Human Rights in Thailand: The Case of the Thammasat 18." Universal Human Rights, vol. 2, no. 4, 1980, pp. 43–56. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/761850.
Kriangsak is widely credited with defusing the long-running communist insurgency in northern Thailand. He was reported to have met in 1979 with Deng Xiaoping, then supreme leader of the People's Republic of China, allowing China to ship arms to the rebel Khmer Rouge in Cambodia in exchange for the PRC withdrawing its support for the communist insurgency in Thailand. These reports were confirmed contemporaneously by the Sunday Times and wire services. However, claims of a deal involving the Khmer Rouge was denied by the Thai government, which cites his policy of reunification and offers of amnesty as the primary reason for the decline of the communist insurgency. The other benefit of the deal with China for Thailand was that it would not have Vietnamese troops on its border. In the same way Kriangsak had secret deals with rebel armies across the border in Burma, which provided a buffer zone against Burmese aggression.
Domestic and developmental policy