(Plaek Kita-sangkha, otherwise known as Chomphon P.)

(b. 14 July 1897; d. 11 June 1964) Thai; premier 1938 – 44, 1948 – 57 Highly controversial internationally but his country's principal nation-builder, the "Col. Nasser of Thailand", Phibun emerged two decades before his Egyptian equivalent. His quarter-century see-saw career either side of the Far Eastern War 1941 – 5 illustrates the enormous dangers facing a small non-Western state with the decline of nineteenth-century Western imperial world hegemony.

Phibun's real heyday was the 1930s, culminating in the early years of his first premiership, 1938 – 41. He was no Fascist demagogue, but rather the mouthpiece of the Thai army seen increasingly since the beginning of the century as the best defence of Thai sovereignty. Western colonialism had left Old Siam's heartland intact, but even the absolute monarchy regime had not dared to rely on Western indifference alone. Princes monopolized the highest ranks but by the 1920s able commoners of very modest origins like Phibun could secure scholarships to train in the West.

It was study in France which brought Phibun first into contact with Pridi Phanomyong, but only the second coup back in Bangkok in 1933 that featured him prominently. Indeed, it was this together with the suppression of a royalist counter-rebellion that established him as the saviour of the People's Party. By late 1934 he was Minister of Defence, and this led directly to his premiership in 1938.

A real balance of power in Eastern Asia promised "Thailand" (a direct translation of the native name adopted in 1939) a more genuine independence. Moreover, pan-Asianist Japanese saw Phibun from the start as a likely sympathizer in their struggle against the West. Japan's entry into the war on 7/8 December 1941 led swiftly to an alliance between them, as Japan sought to use Thailand as the launchpad for its capture of British Singapore and invasion of the Dutch East Indies. Japanese troops also entered British Burma from Thailand, although their vain attempt at invasion of India was delayed until 1944. Not threatened even in the Philippines from this Japanese base-area, the United States sought simply to scapegoat Phibun as a collaborator with Tokyo. Britain categorized Thailand as an outright Axis enemy.

In July 1944, with the Japanese war effort failing, Phibun followed General Tojo into retirement. Post-war, both were arraigned as war criminals, but the much shorter British occupation of Thailand made it possible for the Thai Supreme Court to free all the Thai accused. Phibun was only restored a degree of power by the military who overthrew the Pridi regime in November 1947, but, assisted by American aid, his second term as premier saw the beginnings of modern Thai economic development. In the end, however, the rivalry of Generals Phao and Sarit forced him into a final six years of exile in India and Japan.