[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 54 (Thursday, May 4, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E652-E653]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO THE FREE THAI

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. PORTER J. GOSS

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 4, 2000

  Mr. GOSS. Mr. Speaker, on May 8, 2000, the Director of Central 
Intelligence will present Agency Medallions to five members of the Free 
Thai Movement at the George Bush Center for Intelligence. In addition 
Agency Medallions will be awarded to thirty-eight Free Thai members or 
their survivors.
  In December, 1941, following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Tokyo 
turned its attention to Southeast Asia. After a token resistance, 
Thailand's leader, Field Marshal Phibun Songkhram, signed an alliance 
with Japan which sanctioned a Japanese military presence throughout the 
country. In January, 1942, under pressure from Japan, Bangkok sent a 
diplomatic note to the Thai minister in Washington, M.R. Seni Pramoj, 
directing him formally to declare war on the United States.
  Instead, Seni pocketed Bangkok's diplomatic instructions and launched 
a bold plan to aid the Allies in the liberation of Thailand. Under his 
guiding hand, and the leadership of General William Donovan's fledgling 
intelligence and clandestine warfare organization (the Organization of 
Strategic Services--OSS) the Free Thai movement was born. Seni brought 
young Thai student volunteeres from universities across the United 
States together into a ``Free Thai'' command which was to serve under 
Donovan's OSS.
  The Free Thai were among Thailand's best and brightest. They risked 
their lives in abandoning scholars' robes at Cornell, Caltech and MIT 
in favor of jungle fatigues and rifles. Trained by the OSS, they were 
dispatched into Thailand by submarine, seaplane and airdrop. Some 
walked overland from China to make contact with a nascent resistance 
and prepare the way for Thailand's liberation. The

[[Page E653]]

first volunteers dispatched were captured or killed, but on October 5, 
1944, the OSS Detachment in Szemao, China, received a radio message 
from Free Thai agents who had successfully made contact with the 
resistance. For the remainder of the war, intelligence flowed out of 
Bangkok. The Free Thai volunteers, working hand-in-hand with the OSS, 
provided accurate information on Japanese military deployments, rescued 
captured Allied soldiers, and prepared the ground for the eventual 
Japanese surrender. We would like to recognize and commemorate their 
bravery.

                          ____________________