A Sentimental Journey: Psychological Warfare and National Identity in Thailand's “American Era”

From the early 1950s, the United States increasingly intervened in public and political life in Thailand. Central to these efforts was the use of psychological operations to shape popular sentiment. These activities are typically considered only in reference to the conflict in Indochina. However, I view psychological warfare in Thailand not as a sideshow, but as an instantiation of the broader strategy of counter-communist intervention in Asia. Surprisingly, we know little about the forces that shaped the particular character this intervention took Thailand. In part, this absence reflects assumptions of this formative period in the country’s modern political and social history. American social and economic models are thought to be unambiguously pervasive. Indeed, Benedict Anderson declared the period from the 1950s to the 1970s Thailand’s “American Era.” I seek to challenge this account, by focusing on how the reactions of the Thai government and the social subjects of psychological warfare were influential in shaping US operations. The Thai government astutely used US resources and projects to assert its own vision of Thai national identity. Moreover, American anxieties over the appeal of communism to poor Thais resulted in the translation of psychological operations into material developmental programs. I explore these dynamics through an examination of how psychological operations were realized as tactical interventions within Thai society. First, I look at US support for the rehabilitation of the Thai monarchy under King Bhumibol. Second, I examine the gendered construction of the communist threat in Thai villages, with particular attention to the portrayal of Thai women as passive victims of male political activity. Third, I consider the formation of mobile film units to promote development programs in isolated Northeastern Thai villages. By focusing on these dynamics, I demonstrate the complex interaction of Thai social change and American intervention during the early Cold War.