Thanat Khoman
ถนัด คอมันตร์
Thanat Khoman c. 1975
Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand
In office
11 March 1981 – 19 March 1983
Prime MinisterPrem Tinsulanonda
In office
3 March 1980 – 28 February 1981
Prime MinisterPrem Tinsulanonda
Leader of the Democrat Party
In office
26 May 1979 – 3 April 1982
Preceded bySeni Pramoj
Succeeded byBhichai Rattakul
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office
20 February 1959 – 17 November 1971
Prime Minister
Preceded byPrince Wan Waithayakon
Succeeded byThanom Kittikachorn
Personal details
Born(1914-05-09)9 May 1914
Bangkok, Siam
Died3 March 2016(2016-03-03) (aged 101)
Bangkok, Thailand
NationalityThai
Political partyDemocrat
Other political
affiliations		Free Thai Movement
SpouseMolee Khoman
Alma mater
Military service
Allegiance Thailand
Branch/service Royal Thai Army
Years of service1963–2016
Rank Senior Colonel[2]

Thanat Khoman (also Thanad; Thai: ถนัด คอมันตร์; RTGS: Thanat Khoman, 9 May 1914 – 3 March 2016)[3][4] was a Thai diplomat and politician. He was foreign minister from 1959 to 1971, leader of the Democrat Party from 1979 to 1982, and deputy prime minister from 1980 to 1983. He died at the age of 101 on 3 March 2016, a couple of months shy of his 102nd birthday.[5]

Early life

Thanat was born in Bangkok and came from a Thai Chinese family. His father, Phraya Phiphaksa Satayathipatai (Po Khoman) was one of Siam's first law school graduates and a judge on the Supreme Court of Thailand. Thanat attended Assumption College in Bangkok, before he went to France, graduating from a Bordeaux lycée. Supplied with a scholarship from the Thai foreign ministry, he continued his studies in Bordeaux and Paris, earning degrees from the Institute of Higher International Studies (IHEI) and Sciences Po in 1939, as well as a doctor of law degree from the University of Paris in 1940.[6][7]

Diplomatic career

After his return to Thailand, Thanat was obliged to join the diplomatic service, as the foreign ministry had financed his studies. During World War II he was stationed as a second secretary at the Thai embassy in Tokyo from 1941 to 1943. During this time, the Thai-Japanese agreement of 1942 was concluded, allowing Japanese troops to march through Thailand and use it as a base for attacks on British Burma and Malaya and leading to Thailand's entry into the war on the Axis side. However, Thanat disagreed with what was perceived as a virtual Japanese occupation of Thailand and joined the Seri Thai ("Free Thai") resistance movement that was supported by the British Force 136 and the American OSS. In February 1945, he was a member of a secret delegation to the Allied South East Asia Command in Kandy, Ceylon.[8][9]

After the Second World War, he held a number of diplomatic posts, including chargé d'affaires at the Thai embassies in Washington, D.C., and Delhi.[8] In 1950 he was chosen as the chairman of the UN Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE) in New York City. From 1952 to 1957 he served as the deputy to the Permanent Representative from Thailand to the United Nations. In 1957 he was promoted to the post of the Ambassador of Thailand to the United States.

Political career

Thanat Khoman with United States President John F. Kennedy at the White House, 1961

On 10 February 1959, he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand in the government of authoritarian Prime Minister Sarit Thanarat. His major contribution was in promoting regional reconciliation and cooperation in Southeast Asia. He was a participant in SEATO talks in 1961.[10] In March 1962 he signed a joint communiqué with United States Secretary of State Dean Rusk in which the United States promised Thailand support and defense against potential communist aggression. Despite being only an informal protocol, it was celebrated in Thailand as a bilateral pact of the two countries, dubbed the Thanat–Rusk Communiqué.[11][12]

In the 1960s Thanat played a key role in mediating between Indonesia and Malaysia. The choice of Bangkok as the founding place of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on 8 August 1967 was an expression of respect for his active role in the formation of this institution. On 17 November 1971 he resigned his post after a coup d'état.

After his resignation as foreign minister, Thanat entered national politics in 1979 and served as chairman of the Democrat Party until 1982. Between 1980 and 1982 he was also deputy prime minister in the government of Prem Tinsulanonda. In 1982 he retired from political life. He celebrated his 100th birthday in 2014.[13] His wife, Molee, is a maternal granddaughter of Tan Kim Ching.[14]

Honours

Thai Decorations

Foreign Honours

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Thanat Khoman.
  1. ↑ "สิ้น"ถนัด คอมันตร์"วัย 102 ปี". 3 March 2016.
  2. ↑
  3. ↑ Khoman, Sirilaksana (2014). Thanat Khoman: The Formative Years (แด่พ่อที่รักของลูก) (in Thai). Bangkok. p. 60. ISBN 9789744018243.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. ↑ "สิ้นแล้ว! ถนัด คอมันตร์ ด้วยโรคชรา อายุ 102 ปี" (in Thai). The Nation Broadcasting Corporation Limited. 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2016-03-03.
  5. ↑ Paddock, Richard C. (7 March 2016). "Thanat Khoman, Thai Statesman and Co-Founder of Asian Alliance, Dies at 101". The New York Times.
  6. ↑ Marjorie Dent Candee, ed. (1958). Current Biography Yearbook. H. W. Wilson. p. 226.
  7. ↑ "Thai Foreign Minister to Lecture at Gaston". The Hoya. 24 October 1968. p. 3.
  8. 1 2 Judith A. Stowe (1991). Siam Becomes Thailand: A Story of Intrigue. C. Hurst & Co. p. 377.
  9. ↑ E. Bruce Reynolds (2004). Thailand's Secret War: OSS, SOE and the Free Thai Underground During World War II. Cambridge University Press. p. 291. ISBN 9780511081026.
  10. ↑ Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "SEATO May Decide War Or Peace". March 26, 1961, p. 6. Retrieved on May 29, 2013.
  11. ↑ Louis J. Smith; David H. Herschler (2003). Foundations of Foreign Policy, 1969-1976. Foreign Relations of the United States. Vol. I. U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian. pp. 181–182.
  12. ↑ Arne Kislenko, "The Vietnam War, Thailand, and the United States" in Richard Jensen et al. eds. Trans-Pacific Relations: America, Europe, and Asia in the Twentieth Century(Praeger, 2003) pp 217–245.
  13. ↑ Somkiat Onwimon (2014-02-26). บันทึกอาเซียนกับ ดร.สมเกียรติ อ่อนวิมล. Daily News (in Thai). Archived from the original on 2014-03-22. Retrieved 2014-08-14.
  14. ↑ "Bangkok Travelbug - November 10 - The Siamese-Singapore connection". Tour Bangkok Legacies. 29 October 2010. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  15. ↑ ราชกิจจานุเบกษา, แจ้งความสำนักคณะรัฐมนตรี เรื่อง พระราชทานเครื่องราชอิสริยาภรณ์, เล่ม ๗๕, ตอน ๓๙ ง, ๒๐ พฤษภาคม พ.ศ. ๒๕๑๑
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