Cambodia: THE ENDLESS PAST & PRESENT SUFFERING(2/5)[FR]

While seeking close economic links with Japan, Germany and Italy, Siam did not wish to do so at the cost of older ties with countries such as Britain. At the end of 1938, however, when the pro-Japanese Phibun Songkhram became prime minister, the country embarked upon a short-lived experiment in fascism. In 1939 and 1940 political tension was high in Europe and the Thais seized the opportunity to confront the French. A series of border incidents were sufficient to raise patriotic fervour among the public, and early in 1941 a Thai army invaded Cambodia and Laos. The Japanese brought pressure upon both the agreement was reached. The French ceded Laotian and Cambodian territory which they had obtained in 1907, and the Thais were elated that they had so rapidly satisfied their revanchist aims at the expense of a great colonial empire. In 1940, the Second World War initially seemed destined, like the 1914 war, to be fought out largely on European soil, and the Thais once more stressed their neutrality. However, in 1941 tensions rose in Asia, and in December the Japanese entered the conflict in spectacular fashion. On 7 December, the same day as Pearl Harbour, Japanese troops invaded Thailand, and a few hours later the Thai government announced a cease fire. Within a fortnight Japan and Thailand had singed a formal treaty of alliance, and soon after that, repudiating recently-signed non-aggression pacts; Thailand declared war against Britain and the United States. The British ...

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