Sarit Thanarat
(1909–1963), Thai prime minister. Sarit Thanarat graduated from the militaryacademy of Chula Chom Klao in 1929. He was an efficient and ambitious army officer. Commander of the First Division stationed in Bangkok, Sarit supported military dictator Pibul Songgram (ruled 1948–1957). Sarit served as defense minister and commander in chief from 1947 to 1957. He engineered a nonviolent coup that deposed the government of Pibul in 1957. Following a year of the caretaker government, in October 1958 Sarit declared himself the prime minister of Thailand. Sarit proceeded to rule the country with an iron hand, banning opposition parties and newspapers and suspending constitutional amendments, while simultaneously seeking to stamp out Thailand's opium trade, end police corruption, and battle organized crime.
Sarit Thanarat with Robert F. Kennedy in Bangkok in February 1962. (BETTMANN/CORBIS)Sarit tried to build up traditional Thai values. Promotion of Buddhism and cultivation of the monarchy were the main features of his policies. Sarit cleverly utilized the monarchy both to enhance his own legitimacy and to strengthen the institution of the monarchy itself. Sarit collaborated closely with the United States to contain communism in Southeast Asia. Bilateral relations between Thailand and the United States were further strengthened by the Rusk-Thanat Agreement of 1962, which represented an American guarantee of Thai security. Sarit supported the rightists in Laos in their fight against the Communist-oriented leftist organization Pathet Lao. His economic policies resulted in U.S. and Japanese investment, rise of a new wealthy class due to land speculation, and sustained economic growth of 5 percent per year. The legacy of Sarit after his death in 1963 was Thai involvement in the Vietnam War and the establishment of development-oriented technocratic agencies.
Further Reading
Chaloemtiarana, Thak. (1979) Thailand: The Politics of Despotic Paternalism. Bangkok, Thailand: The Social Science Assocation of Thailand.
Fineman, Daniel. (1997) A Special Relationship: The United States and Military Government in Thailand, 1947–1958. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press.
Tarling, Nicholas, ed. (1992) The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia. Vol. 2. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.
Wyatt, David K. (1986) Thailand: A Short History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
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