Though a US treaty ally, has a long history of strategic expediency. Thailand’s Pivot By Richard Halloran

Saab photo Today, Thailand is a prime target for the People’s Republic of (PRC) as it seeks to gain influence in —and has the annual Cobra Gold and Cope Tiger been visibly receptive. In late June, the exercises that bring US air, ground, and commander of the Royal Thai Armed naval forces together in Thailand with Forces, General Thanasak Patimapra- he US Air Force and their counterparts from all over Asia. korn, was welcomed in Beijing where Thailand have had a long Thailand is also one of two treaty allies he conferred with General Fan Chan- and sometimes troubled of the US in Southeast Asia—the other glong, a vice chairman of the Central history. On the upside, being the —and sits at the Military Commission (CMC), which Thailand opened many geographic and political center of a re- is chaired by President Xi Jinping and Tof its air bases to American combat gion of increasing strategic importance. governs China’s armed forces. aircraft during the war in , and At the same time, the Thais are evi- The Thai leader also met with the seven of them remain available to the dently living up to their reputation for chief of the general staff of the People’s US today. Moreover, Bangkok is host to playing off one side against another. Liberation Army and member of the 100 AIR FORCE Magazine / September 2013 Gripen fi ghters fl y in a three-ship forma- tion. Part of Thailand’s appeal to the US military is geographic. It sits at the nexus of many US and Chinese interests. Staff map by Zaur Eylanbekov

CMC, General Fang Fen- ghui. Cutting through the diplomatic rhetoric, Xinhua, China’s official news agency, reported that the Thais and Chinese discussed “a com- prehensive strategic coop- erative partnership.” Xinhua said that included “strategic communication, personnel exchanges and training, joint military exercises and train- ing, maritime security, and multilateral security.” A senior USAF officer notes that while “every na- tion in Asia has relations with both China and the US,” Thailand is perhaps the most active in seeking to expand AIR FORCE Magazine / September 2013 101 USAF photo Associated Press photo

its military, political, and economic , and Vietnam. But notably sent combat troops to join the United engagement with China, particularly absent from that lineup was anyone Nations Command in Korea. In a con- with the People’s Liberation Army. from Thailand. tinuing campaign to stem the spread A June 2012 report from the nonpar- of communism in Asia, Thailand was tisan Congressional Research Service JUSMAGTHAI among the founding nations of the in Washington concluded, “Thailand’s In joint training besides Cobra Gold Southeast Asia Treaty Organization reliability as a partner, and its ability and Cope Tiger, Thailand is host to 40 (SEATO). to be a regional leader, are uncertain.” other military drills with the United President Kennedy deployed troops Moreover, the report said that when States. Those exercises are arranged to Thailand in 1962 to prevent com- the Obama Administration published and supervised by the Joint US Military munist forces in from spilling its plans to “rebalance” US foreign Advisory Group Thailand, or JUS- over into northeast Thailand. That same policy priorities in late 2011, “new MAGTHAI, that is separate from the US year, Secretary of State and moves in the US-Thailand alliance Embassy in Bangkok. JUSMAGTHAI is, Thai Foreign Minister Thanat Khoman were notably lacking.” in effect, the US Embassy to the Royal issued a communiqué in which the US More recently, Secretary of Defense Thai Armed Forces. committed itself to “the preservation Chuck Hagel indicated US displeasure A key tenet of the AirSea Battle of the independence and integrity of with Thailand during the Shangri-La concept being developed by USAF Thailand as vital to the national interest Dialogue, the annual summit meet- and the US Navy is a greater reliance of the United States.” That statement ing of defense officials and civilian on allies for forces, support, and fi- has been the basis of US-Thai military specialists sponsored by the Interna- nancial backing as well as for access relations ever since. tional Institute of Security Studies in to air bases, naval ports, and training During the , Thailand . On the sidelines, Hagel met sites. Thus, Thailand fills the bill on sent troops to Vietnam but, more im- with senior officials from allies , many counts. portantly, permitted the US to use its , the Philippines, and Contemporary US-Thai security bases to launch B-52s, F-105s, and Australia, plus partners and potential relations began during the Korean other aircraft on bombing and attack partners from Singapore, , War of 1950 to 1953, when Bangkok missions over North and South Vietnam. The B-52s were based at U Tapao Royal Thai Air Base, and their operations included the Linebacker II campaign in December 1972. Elsewhere in Thailand, USAF fi ght- ers were based at Korat, Takhli, and Ubon; reconnaissance aircraft were at Udorn; special operations units oper- USAF photo TSgt.by Keith Brown ated from Nakhon Phanom; and combat support was based at Don Muang, near Bangkok. Part of the appeal of a US relationship with Thailand is geographic. Thailand is perched alongside the South China Sea, the most heavily traveled waterway in the modern world as it connects the Pacifi c and Indian Oceans. US Navy vessels use the sea to transit between the two oceans, and the South China A1C Victor Reynosa waits for an engine start up on a C-130 before a 2006 Cope Sea carries more commercial traffi c than Tiger mission at Korat RTAB, Thailand. the Suez and Panama Canals combined. 102 AIR FORCE Magazine / September 2013 Left: French Premier Georges Pompidou (r) addresses the 1963 opening session of the USAF photo Southeast Asia Treaty Orga- nization, an international al- liance for collective defense of Southeast Asia, as US Secretary of State Dean Rusk (l), British Foreign Secretary Alexander Douglas-Home, Thai Foreign Minister Thanat Khoman listen. Center: An F-105 with the 561st Tactical Fighter Squadron at Korat. Right: A B-52 lands at U Tapao RTAB, Thailand, in 1972, after a combat mission over Vietnam.

That military spending dropped off after the Asian financial crisis hit in the late 1990s and has not picked

DOD cerphoto 2nd by ClassPetty Offi Gloria Barry J. up since. Trade and invest- ment, however, have gone up sharply, much of it car- ried on by ethnic Chinese in Thailand. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, Thailand al- lowed the US access to U Tapao and other airfields as stopovers for flights into Iraq and Afghanistan. Thai- land also sent 130 soldier- engineers to construct a RTAF Sgt. Suttiphan Jankeeree (l) and Sgt. Khvunchi Pinij show USAF Maj. Jean Trakinat (second from left) and MSgt. Joe Sitterly (r) the edible part of a plant dur- runway at Bagram Air Base, situated ing a search and rescue training mission in a 1996 Cobra Gold exercise. The 32nd some 25 miles northeast of Kabul. To Cobra Gold was this year. help with reconstruction in Iraq, Thai- land sent 450 medics and engineers As a treaty ally, Thailand offers a After the end of the war in Vietnam, after the US invasion. U Tapao was critical advantage for the US over other Thailand began to expand its military especially useful in the US disaster nations on the shores of the South China relations with China. According to relief efforts in the region after the Sea. Thailand is also not engaged in the CRS study, “Bangkok pursued 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and in territorial disputes with China over a strategic realignment with Beijing subsequent calamities. islands, shoals, or the sea itself. in order to contain Vietnamese influ- Relations have not always been rosy. China has claimed much of the South ence in neighboring .” The In 2006, the Thai Army staged a China Sea as territorial waters. Beijing Thais established diplomatic ties with bloodless coup—the 18th since a con- is keenly aware of its vulnerability in the Beijing in 1975, well before other stitutional monarchy was proclaimed in South China Sea, seeing it as a choke Southeast Asian nations did the same. 1932—to oust Prime Minister Thaksin point that could strangle the fl ow of The Stockholm International Peace Shinawatra and declare martial law. most of its imported oil. China also has Research Institute (SIPRI) reports The US expressed its disapproval by long historical ties to Southeast Asia, that Bangkok went on an arms buy- suspending several foreign assistance having at times occupied large parts ing spree in China in the 1980s and programs worth $29 million, including of Vietnam and holding other states, ’90s. Thailand acquired ship-to-ship those providing for defense procurement, including Thailand, as vassals. Large and surface-to-air missiles, frigates, professional military education, and train- numbers of Chinese have emigrated radar for fire control, and 500 tanks ing for peacekeeping operations. Those to Thailand and continue to maintain and 1,260 armored personnel car- funds were restored in 2008, as an uneasy personal and political ties with China. riers. political stability returned to Bangkok. AIR FORCE Magazine / September 2013 103 His opponents—the “yellow shirts”—are determined to prevent his return or to put him in prison. Violence between them has erupted before and could break out again.

Long History

USAF photo TSgt.by CohenYoung A. In the 1930s, with Japanese milita- rism on the rise, Siam came under the control of military dictators, threw in with , and changed its name from Siam to Thailand. Though it is largely ignored today, Thailand declared war on the US after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. This was a Thai attempt to regain territories lost earlier to Britain and . Then, toward the end of the war, Bangkok abandoned its Japanese ally to make a deal with the US and its allies. Above: MSgt. John Gaona watches from a door as members of the Royal Thai Air Force get ready for a static- line jump from a C-17 during Cope Tiger 2010. Right: US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel speaks with ministers of defense from , Bangladesh, , New Zealand, Photo by Erin KirkA. Cuomo and Malaysia at the 2013 Shangri-la Dialogue meeting in Singapore.

The banner joint for Thailand and, indeed, for all of US Pacific Command’s operating area, is Cobra Gold, the 32nd version of which was run in February with 13,000 par- ticipants. Though originally a bilateral event, Cobra Gold has evolved—over Thai objections—into a multilateral exercise. First Singapore, and then others, joined in; this year’s event included units from Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, and Malaysia. leaders, Bangkok’s politics are what Americans seeking clues as to the Observers have come from 20 more a senior American officer delicately future relationship of US relations with nations, including (for the first time) termed “fragile,” and that affects the Thailand might look to the historian Burma this year. China sent its first nation’s relations with the US. Nicholas Tarling, an authority on observers in 2008. The drills included King Bhumibol Adulyadej is not Southeast Asia. Tarling has pointed to extensive field exercises, a command well, and there is concern over the the Thai tendency to seek some sort post exercise, and humanitarian train- line of succession. Crown Prince Maha of compromise, “to go with the tide ing. is said to be unpopular when they had to, a policy that had a Exercise Cope Tiger 13, in March, because of his reputation as a playboy. long history behind it.” reflected Pacific Air Forces’ stated Former Prime Minister Thaksin In the first half of the 21st century, desire to nurture military relations Shinawatra, whose sister, Yingluck there are signs this tendency to ma- with the Thai air force. About 365 Shinawatra, is the current prime min- neuver between competing powers is airmen from Kadena Air Base in ister, is in self-imposed exile after continuing. Today, the Thais may once Okinawa, Japan, and from Osan AB, having been ousted in a coup and then again be seeking a beneficial middle South Korea, joined with 1,500 Thai convicted of alleged abuse of power. ground by playing the United States and Singaporean airmen at the Korat But he still has a sizeable band of off against the People’s Republic of and Udon Thani air bases for a 10- followers, the so-called “red shirts.” China. I day exercise. They practiced fighter maneuvers, air combat tactics, close Richard Halloran, formerly a New York Times foreign correspondent in Asia and air support, and airdrops. military correspondent in Washington, D.C., is a freelance writer based in Honolulu. Besides the concern over the worri- His most recent article for Air Force Magazine, “Hawk’s World,” appeared in the some influence of the Chinese on Thai July issue. 104 AIR FORCE Magazine / September 2013