Black, White & Red Thais

The spectacular drive of the Viet Minh Communist army through Laos last week threatened to set off a chain reaction through Southeast Asia (see map). The ethnic majority in this region is Thai (pronounced tie), an ancient racial group distinct from both Chinese and Indians.

There are White Thais (whose women wear mostly white), Black Thais (who wear black), and, more recently, Red Thais (from the political colors they wear), who have their own autonomous administration in southern Yunnan (Red China). But Thais, of one color or another, inhabit Viet Nam, Laos, Cambodia, Siam and northern Burma. In Laos the Communists have already set up their own puppet government (see above), but Communist propaganda speaks of "liberating" the Thai people as a whole and establishing among them a "Free Asian Republic."

The only real opposition the Communists have met so far has been from the French. But with a large section of French Indo-China in their hands, the Communists will be in a position to exert heavy pressure on non-French neighboring countries where governments are weak and inexperienced.

Siam, the monarchy of songwriting King Phumiphon Adundet, may be the Communists' next objective. Siam's population (17 million) is largely Thai, and the government is torn with dissension. On the Siamese side of the Laos border there are already some 50,000 pro-Communist Chinese and Vietnamese rebels, organized and trained by Chinese and Viet Minh agents. They sit astride the traditional opium-smuggling routes, and are believed to have accumulated stocks of modern arms. Field Marshal Phibun Songgram's border guards find it prudent not to trouble them. Former Premier Pridhi Panomyong has long been under Red Chinese tutelage in Peking.

Cambodia (pop. 3,000,000) is one of the three Associated States of French Indo-China; its King Norodom Sihanouk Varman, visiting New York a fortnight ago, had a warning for the free world: unless the French give his people more independence "within the next few months," there is real danger that they will rebel against the present regime and become a part of the Communist-led Viet Minh. Said he: "They do not want to die for the French."

Burma, former British colony (pop. 16.8 million) which became an independent republic in 1948, has no realistic control over its northeast regions, where it has a long frontier with Red China and Laos. Here Burmese, Red Chinese and Li Mi's Nationalist Chinese mix like the colors of a dangerous kaleidoscope. If they can fight their way to the Mekong River at the border of Laos and Burma, the Viet Minh Communist forces of Ho Chi Minh will be in a position to strengthen the anti-government forces in Burma.

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