Remembrance of Veterans Day today

[webfact]

Remembrance of Veterans Day today



BANGKOK: -- His Majesty the King today designated Privy Councillor Gen Surayuth Chulanont to lay flower wreath at the Victory Monument this morning in remembrance of soldiers who died in wars.

The event today marked the country’s Veterans Day.

The celebration today also featured the parade of troops to honour those who died.

The military parade ceremony was presided over by Defense Minister Gen Prawit Wongsuwan.

Official remembrance ceremony takes place annually at Victory Monument.

The monument was erected in 1941 to commemorate the victory of Thailand in Franco-Thai War.

This war was a brief conflict waged against the French colonial authorities in Indo-China.

The conflict resulted in Thailand annexing some territories in Laos and Cambodia. These territories originally belonged to the Kingdom of Siam before the forced ceding to France in 1893 and 1904.

A total of 59 military personnel died in this conflict.

A total of 807 names of military personnel were inscribed in plates at the monument. They died fighting to defend the country since 1940-1954.

Red poppy is a symbolic flower in Thailand, as well in other countries. It’s the symbol of peace.

Red poppies are sold on Veterans’ Day under the initiative of the War Veterans Organization. The money from the sales of poppies are given to the veterans and their families.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/content/149329


-- Thai PBS 2016-02-03

[tomross46]

May God bless His Majesty the King, Thailand and the soldiers that have died defending Thailand.

[stoneyboy]

Staggering numbers.

RIP.

[bangrak]

'The monument was erected in 1941 to commemorate the victory of Thailand in the Franco-Thai War'

'History' as viewed with Thai nationalist glasses through a tiny rear-view mirror focussed on 'victories' only...

IMHO, in Thailand, the first true 'History' book worth the name has yet still to be published.

I remember sitting on our terrace, with a (true) 'veteran' and his family, so proud he was of his three elephant medals commemorating Thai victories in ancient wars. He told me all the details which had been told (taught) him about these won wars. The timescale he gave me pointed out at Siamese/Thai victories indeed, in a battle or a campaign, but not in a 'war'. Even when we would not have liked them as much as we do, could I have told him that f.i. one of his (Siamese) victories occured just a while before the Burmese squashed the Siamese armies and charred and flattened Ayuddhia...? I guess he would not even have believed it, ...and would probably have left at once, and very angry...! The desinformation which is called education here. Pride and face, the Thais are the bravest and have never been defeated...

A short while ago, 'the other paper', briefly, showed a map with all the territories lost by Thailand, with Laos and the other half of Cambodia to... the French, the long tongue of, now Burmese, land corresponding to the upper part of South Thailand, but on the Andaman side, to the British together with most of the continental Malaysian territories it controlled... So, some Thais do know, but...

Oh, well...

[yardrunner]

Does this also include the members of the Thai expeditionary force who served on the western front on the side of the allies in the 1914 -1918 war

[Living in a cartoon]

I was always curious about the Victory Monument as I used to reside in the area.

Turns out it is about the cowardly behavior of a despot (Phibun) allied with the Imperial Japanese. They (the Japs) forced the French to cede some land to their Thai allies.

Well, in the end Thailand had to give all the land back. Not decisive or a victory in any way. shape or form.

Phibun fled (of course), but later returned to the PM chair.

Face it guys. Thailand has no real military force that could defend anything. It exists to make their THOUSANDS of generals very wealthy.

But, what the heck. If it makes them proud, that's what really matters. Right?

[Living in a cartoon]

Staggering numbers.

RIP.

Yeah, 59 dead. Staggering.

How do you define catastrophic? Maybe 100?

You are being sarcastic, aren't you?

[eliotness]

Can anyone recommend a good book about the Thai army? Serious question, not being sarcastic, I'd like to know.

[jucel]

Thais should be taught at school to have a bit more respect for countries that saved them from certain subjugation.

[englishoak]

Havnt more military died in the south in peace times than conflict ? or public.

Do they get a day of respect too ? just asking like

Edited February 4, 2016 by englishoak

[Living in a cartoon]

Can anyone recommend a good book about the Thai army? Serious question, not being sarcastic, I'd like to know.

If you can read Thai, yeah, there are plenty of books on the heroic exploits of the RTA. They are always brave and always win.

There are plenty of books on the US presence in Thailand during the Vietnam War of Liberation that are of interest.

Also, the Wikileaks from the US embassy are a very interesting read.

PS: The CIA was instrumental in assuring that the portrait of a certain personage was available to every Thai household. To be mounted above any other image in the abode.

To be perfectly clear, we are dealing with children in the LOS. It is the center of the universe after all. They don't need to be responsible adults.

[Caveat Emptor]

I'm sure many would like to have said a lot on this subject but why bother as it would have been ' Gone in Sixty Seconds ' or less.

[brewsterbudgen]

I'm sure many would like to have said a lot on this subject but why bother as it would have been ' Gone in Sixty Seconds ' or less.

The sycophants got in quick though!!

[bangrak]

'Red poppy is a symbolic flower in Thailand, as well in other countries. It's the symbol of peace'

Yet another, though small, typical example of the misconceptions fed to the Thais, ignoring the historical facts, recuperated by Thai officials!

The truth about the red poppies has at the origin NOTHING to do with Thailand, nor are they the symbol of peace, just the opposite as a matter of fact...

What did happen in reality?

Most of the fiercest battles of the 1st WW have taken place in France and in Belgium ('Flanders' Fields'), from close to the North Sea coast to up in the Champagne region.

The soil of this whole area of plains (a few hills only) was very rich and intensive agriculture had made a huge wheat field of it. Among the zillions of wheat stalks, some wild plants were growing too, considered as pests and as much as possible eradicated, one of these being ...the red poppy.

Come to those plains the horrors of WW 1, which was for its largest, and most deadly, part a 'war of positions', with mazes of trenches and fortifications, ...and a huge concentration of artillery on both fighting sides, tens of thousands losing their life for a stretch of trench, some ruin, ...to be retaken by the others at the same human cost on the next day or so.

In 1915 with the war raging there, no wheat was sown, the whole landscape was litterally overturned and reshaped by the the heavy artillery shelling, ...but the wild plants came back, the maligned red poppy too, in the late spring and summer, more in 1916, spreading in 1917, covering swats of land in 1918.

Soldiers seeing those bloodred flowers coming up, and multiplying, under incredibly harsh conditions, in their imagination made of these poppies a symbol for their lost comrades, who had poured their, red, blood on that same soil, and in their exponential growth the so fast increasing number of casualties. Well over a million lifes were lost there and then on that small part of earth...

Red poppies were first worn in the British, then still Empire, later in Belgium and France, as a sign of remembrance, towards November 11th, when the WW 1 horror was stopped in 1918.

...It is a very strong symbol, indeed, against the absurdity and madness of war!

(Odd to see this 'misconception' in a country honoring Henry Dunant as a hero, while it was in WW 1 that his Red Cross first illustrated itself so brilliantly, but, again, it's for different reasons the Red Cross is made use of in the Thai 'curriculum'...)

Edited February 4, 2016 by bangrak

[Bluespunk]

I was always curious about the Victory Monument as I used to reside in the area.

Turns out it is about the cowardly behavior of a despot (Phibun) allied with the Imperial Japanese. They (the Japs) forced the French to cede some land to their Thai allies.

Well, in the end Thailand had to give all the land back. Not decisive or a victory in any way. shape or form.

Phibun fled (of course), but later returned to the PM chair.

Face it guys. Thailand has no real military force that could defend anything. It exists to make their THOUSANDS of generals very wealthy.

But, what the heck. If it makes them proud, that's what really matters. Right?

On land and air the Thai army did quite well and defeated the French in almost every battle fought [though the French forces were using outdated equipment and were fewer in number, however...], on sea however they were completely routed and the navy suffered heavy losses.

The conflict was in the balance when the Japanese forced the French to accept the eventual treaty.

Ultimately it was the Vietnamese who gained most from this "war", as they realised just how weak the French were and acted upon this knowledge once the Japanese conquerors were driven out at the end of world war 2.

[Living in a cartoon]

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.