Pibul Songgram
(1897–1964), prime minister of Thailand. Born Plaek Khittasangkha, Pibul Songgram received French military training and rose from humble origins to become a second-echelon leader of the military coup that established a constitutional monarchy in 1932. In 1933, he participated in the ouster of Prime Minister Phya Manopakam and was involved in suppressing Prince Boworadet's royalist, antigovernment rebellion. He became minister of defense in 1934 and prime minister in 1938. In 1939, as part of his modernity platform, he changed the name of the country from Siam to Thailand (later naming himself field marshal). Pibul held the post of prime minister longer than any other leader in Thailand.
In June 1940, after France fell to Nazi Germany, Pibul aligned Thailand with Japan to avoid a destructive takeover by Japan and to regain territory lost to French colonialism. In 1944 he resigned as prime minister to make way for a noncollaborationist government to deal with the victorious Allied powers. Although he was arrested for war crimes by his successor, Kowit Aphaiwong, charges were later dropped.
In 1947, Pibul led a coup against Kowit, and in 1948 he again became prime minister. With the military rent with factions, he survived attempted coups in 1949 and 1951. In 1952, after new elections under a revised constitution that assigned more than one hundred parliamentary seats to unelected military officers, he appointed a cabinet that favored one of the factions; in 1957 that faction won parliamentary elections amid charges of vote rigging. In 1958, Pibul's government was toppled in a military coup led by Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat, the leader of the other faction. Pibul then fled into exile and died in Japan.
Further Reading
Ray, Jayanta Kumar. (1972) Portraits of Thai Politics. Tokyo: Orient Longman.
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