[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 21 (Thursday, February 2, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1979-S1980]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                      TRIBUTE TO M.R. SENI PRAMOJ

  Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I rise to offer congratulations and best 
wishes to M.R. Seni Pramoj, one of America's great friends, and one of 
Asia's most accomplished democratic leaders, as his 90th birthday 
approaches.
  And as we prepare to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of 
the Second World War, I would like to remind the Senate of Seni's great 
service as Thai Ambassador to the United States when the war began.
  Seni Pramoj began his career in the 1930's, as one of Thailand's 
first legal scholars. During that decade, he helped to draft many of 
Thailand's modern laws, including the law abolishing the unequal 
treaties Thailand was forced to sign during the colonial era. He 
lectured to a generation of students at Thammasat School of Law, and 
before the end of the decade was made a judge on Thailand's Supreme 
Court.
  These accomplishments gained him national recognition far beyond the 
legal field. And in 1940, at the young age of 35, Seni found himself 
appointed Ambassador to the United States.
   [[Page S1980]] A year and a half later, on the day of the surprise 
attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Army entered Thailand. A powerful 
faction within the Thai Government, favoring collaboration, ordered the 
Thai military not to resist. And later in December, now in full 
control, they signed a military alliance with Japan.
  Their next step was to order Seni by cable to deliver a formal 
Declaration of War to the U.S. Government. As a patriot and a man of 
conscience, Seni did not hesitate to do his duty as he saw it. As he 
recounts the story, he went to the State Department the day after 
receiving this cable, and told then-Secretary of State Cordell Hull:

       Sir, I regret to say that I have been instructed by my 
     government to declare war on the United States. But I refuse 
     to do it because there is no reason, and I have already cut 
     myself loose from Bangkok. I cannot bring myself to declare 
     war on the United States.

  Seni placed the Declaration of War in a safe at the Embassy on 
Kalorama Road, where it remained for the rest of the war. He refused 
further to leave the Embassy when the ruling faction in Bangkok ordered 
him to do so. And instead, he devoted himself to the Allied cause, 
writing every Thai student in the United States to announce his 
decision to form a resistance force called the Seri Thai or Free Thai 
movement.
  Virtually all of the 110 Thai students in the United States at the 
time joined the Seri Thai. Seventy of them trained under the OSS as 
guerrilla fighters. Others served as technical experts. Some carried 
out broadcasts in the Thai language. Still others helped American 
military authorities to identify sites of great cultural and historical 
value to Thailand, in order to preserve them from Allied bombing raids 
toward the end of the war.
  The Seri Thai movement was equally successful inside Thailand. 
Inspired by Seni's wartime broadcasts, and trained by his student 
recruits, it ultimately armed about 50,000 Thai partisans. And 
following the Japanese surrender, Seri Thai formed the first postwar 
government, with Seni himself as Prime Minister.
  Seni's career since then has been just as distinguished. He was a 
founder of the Prachatipat or Democrat Party--now Thailand's oldest 
political party, and ably led by Prime Minister Chuan. He has been, as 
well, a highly successful lawyer and musician; and Prime Minister once 
again in the 1970's.
  Altogether, it is no exaggeration to say that for the past 60 years, 
Seni has been at the center of Thai law and politics. And his sincere 
commitment to democracy, moderation, and the rule of law has helped 
Thailand become the prosperous democracy so many people around the 
world admire today.
  In a letter to President Franklin Pierce, written in 1856 and 
reprinted in the book ``A King of Siam Speaks,'' which Seni and his 
brother Kukrit Pramoj edited some years ago, King Rama IV expressed the 
hope that the United States and Thailand would forever regard one 
another with ``friendship and affection,'' and support one another in 
times of difficulty. And nearly 150 years later, few have done more to 
make the King's hope a reality than Seni Pramoj.
  All American friends of Thailand join in wishing M.R. Seni Pramoj 
best wishes as his 90th birthday approaches. And we thank him for a 
service to both our countries which we will not forget.


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