Indigenizing the Cold War: The Border Patrol Police and Nation-Building in Thailand

by Sinae Hyun

The Border Patrol Police (BPP) of Thailand was formed as a United States CIA’s paramilitary intelligence force in the early 1950s. In the early 1960s, changes in Thailand’s political leadership and the U.S. government’s strategies for fighting the spread of communism in Southeast Asia led to a transformation of the BPP. The organization became a civic action agency supported by the United States Agency for International Development and the Thai monarchy. Its civic actions, pinned on advancing anticommunist modernization, civilian counterinsurgency, and royalist nationalism, soon extended from the margins to the center of Thailand, and contributed to building the border of “Thainess” (khwam pen thai) . The growing tension between the royalist network, consisting of military and rightwing groups, and the democratization movements culminated in a massacre. On October 6, 1976, the Village Scout, a rural vigilante group that the BPP created through its civic actions, and the Police Aerial Reinforcement Unit (PARU), a subunit of the BPP, attacked peaceful protesters at Thammasat University. The success of a military coup on the same day solidified the victory of the royalist network, and it would continue to dominate Thai politics and society into the post–Cold War era.

Through a study of the Border Patrol Police’s transformations, Indigenizing the Cold War shows how the Thai ruling elite unfailingly pursued their nation-building. With an introduction of the “indigenization” concept and an in-depth analysis of postcolonial nation-building, this work challenges conventional Cold War studies. The Cold War in Thailand was not always and only about an ideological conflict between the communist and anticommunist. It was a war between the local ruling elite and the people, each pushing forward their visions for constructing a new nation-state. The “indigenization” framework reveals the nature of the collaboration between the global superpowers and the Asian local ruling elite, who took advantage of the American Cold War for legitimizing and continuing their authoritarian regimes.

248 pages, Hardcover

Published April 30, 2023

Reviews

[Jonah Lo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Armed with substantial interview data alongside valuable Thai language sources, Sinae Hyun effectively argues that the Border Patrol Police - a paramilitary created to check Communism in the Thai borderlands - successfully "indigenised" (i.e., instrumentalised for local use) the Cold War. Initially a largely CIA-backed outfit under the patronage of Phao Siyanon, it survived power struggles by constantly using Cold War conditions to its advantage - first CIA funding, then proving it was the better COIN/mass mobilisation apparatus than the military, proving it was the better covert action apparatus for Laos than the military, and forging an alliance with the monarchy. Along the way, she raises some fascinating points and insights - such as how Nixon's War on Drugs effectively constituted part of the broader Cold War, in terms of funding the same client state institutions to do the same operations, even if the objectives were ostensibly different. More importantly, she successfully makes her biggest meta-point: the Cold War in Anti-Communist Asia was not just driven by US/CIA machinations, but by the keen manipulations of local actors for power and profit.

However, while the case is effectively made, there are moments where the writing comes off as overly exhaustive in accounting for the number of BPP schools operating at any time, the amount of royal patronage or visits at any point, or the amount of foreign financing for any particular initiative. While the general trends are certainly appreciated, more work could be done into proving why each detail is so important. Moreover, the half-chronological flow of the book comes off as unusual and fairly stilted, and the last two chapters could be more succinct.