The Shan State and people in the Thai State's perception during the Cold War period (1948-1988)

Abstract

The Cold War period witnessed the transformation of the modern Thai nation-state from a territorial nation to a royalist nation. From the second premiership of Field Marshal Plaek Phibunsongkhram to the end of General Prem Tinsulanonda’s government, the monarchy’s role in shaping the Thai nation was steadily expanding. This transformation signified the Thai elite’s successful adaptation of the global Cold War system. Accordingly, the Thai state established an ideological boundary centered in the monarchy in order to reinforce its rather permeable borders. The Shan State and people put both these boundaries to the test. During the early phase of the Cold War, Shan territory served as an anti-communist buffer zone between Thailand and Communist China. After Kuomintang remnants had been evacuated from the Shan State, intensified insurgencies in Burma propelled General Ne Win to bring the country under military rule. The political and economic crises brought about by the junta’s Burmese Way to Socialism led minorities like the Shan to flee to the Thai borderlands, where they functioned as a buffer against communism. Finally, during the latter phase of the Cold War, the narcotics issue was beginning to supersede the communist threat. The Prem administration ordered the expulsion of the drug warlord-cum-Shan nationalist Khun Sa and his Shan United Army (SUA) from Thai territory in 1982, six years after their base had been established at Ban Hin Taek in Chiang Rai province. This research studies the Thai state’s perception of the Shan State and people and how this reflected the Thai nation-state’s transformations throughout the Cold War period. It concludes that the shifts in the Thai state’s perception of the Shan indicate significant developments in the Thai national narrative and the identification of threats to the Thai nation.