StilesBC wrote:
> Maybe you know something that I don't, but I was not aware that
> Thailand was at all involved in Cambodia's genocidal crisis war
> better known by Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge. In my travels through
> SE Asia, I visited numerous war museums in Thailand, Cambodia and
> Vietnam. By far the most significant war of the recent past for
> the Thais (and the Burmese) has been WWII. A trip to the war
> museum in Kanchanaburi (next to the Bridge on the River Kwai and
> the Death Railway) would probably be sufficient to convince you of
> this. 10's of thousands died in this war, as Thailand officially
> supported the Japanese yet a large anti-Japanese movement was also
> present. 10's of thousands of POWs died in the construction of the
> railway alone. Unfortunately, all statistics of casualties in
> imperial Japan are very shaky. They did not keep track of how many
> were murdered like the Nazis seemed to do.
Well, I'm not going to disagree with you. Matt1989 has also
identified WW II as Thailand's last crisis war. It's just that when
I read about Thailand in WW II, I don't see any genocidal fury. I
see a country doing what it has to do to keep from being overrun by
the Japanese, and no more.
By the way, it's not necessary for a war to be fought on a country's
soil to be a crisis war. WW II was not fought on America's soil,
except for the Pearl Harbor attack. Someone who looked at American
history for wars fought on American soil would think that WW II was a
brief skirmish.
StilesBC wrote:
> I'm looking into it further, but it is my belief that
> Thailand/Burma and Cambodia/Vietnam/Laos are operating on separate
> generational timelines.
Here I have a definite conflict. I did a complete generational
analysis of Burma last year.
** Burma: Growing demonstrations by the '88 Generation' raise fears of new slaughter
** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/cgi ... 26#e070926
Burma's last crisis war was clearly the civil war that climaxed in
1958.
StilesBC wrote:
> Which is why I think it is important to see the potential for a
> clash between Buddhist nations in the south with the paranoid Han
> Chinese of the north. Looking further, you can see that not only
> Thailand and Burma share similarities with the Tibetans but the
> Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh and Bhutan also seem to identify
> themselves most with a Burmese/Tibetan heritage. There are still
> border disputes between China and India leftover from the
> Sino-Indian war of 1962 (India cliams Arunachal Pradesh, China
> claims it as "Southern Tibet"). The southern Chinese state of
> Yunnan is also very spiritual and diverse, much to the chagrin of
> the Han.
I don't see the Burmese, or even the Thai, as genocidal enemies of
the Chinese. As important as the Buddhist issue is, the ethnic
differences are profound. The Khmer people came north from Malaysia,
while the Thai people came south from China, and that's a more
important distinction in this case, in my opinion.
And as you imply, India and China don't get along, and they're headed
for war with absolute certainty.
If you want to do a complete generational analysis and history of
Thailand, that's great -- I'd like to see it. You can find some
examples by doing a google search on: "site:generationaldynamics.com
generational history". If you do it, please try to work "The King
and I" into your history.
Sincerely,
John