Thailand prides itself as never having been colonized, but that is almost not true. During and after WWII Thailand almost became like the current North Korea/South Korea,split in two.

 

The Japanese Imperial Army set up their regional headquarters in Bangkok during the Second World War, from which they directed Burma and Singapore, whom they had conquered.

 

During that period, the Thai elite had sent their sons to US Ivy League universities to study, and there these Thais met folks who would become members of the Office of Strategic Services, or the OSS.

 

When the war began and Japan entered Bangkok, these Thai students collected to form what became known as the Free Thai movement. They were trained in military tactics at places like Catalina Island off the coast of California and in the Smokey Mountains of the eastern US. After training, many were inserted back into Thailand, where they bravely subverted the Japanese as well as subverting Japanese efforts in Burma. The OSS also inserted Americans into Thailand to work with the Free Thai movement.

 

When the war ended, there was a plan to split Thailand into an area controlled by China, as well as an area from Ayuthayya south to be controlled as a colony of the UK, who wanted to merge it with its colony in Burma. This was quashed by OSS Chief “Wild” Bill Donovan, who convinced President Truman into forcing both China and the UK to give up their colonial ambitions. Hence, Thailand remained free. The members of the Free Thai movement, most of whom have now passed, are true Thai heroes. (Many members of the Free Thai movement also worked with the US during the Vietnam War to keep Thailand free from a Communist takeover.)

 

Key foreign players in this WWII episode include the future silk magnate Jim Thompson, as well as Donovan, who later was named US Ambassador to Thailand.

 

The OSS eventually became the CIA. Thailand owes its post-WWII sovereignty to Bill Donovan and President Truman, as well as the Thai members of the Free Thai movement who worked with Donovan, Thompson and other members of the OSS.

Sounds a bit much.

The Free Thai movement is/was vastly overrated in its importance. Whatever plans Chiang Kai Chek and some Brit had are also. Sounds good on paper, where are you going to get the troops to occupy the country in a postwar world? Chiang would be fighting for his life in a year and with Demobilization, the British did not have adequate troops for their own colonies, let alone getting another.