Kriangsak Chamanan

Mahachai in the 1800s and 1900s was one of Thailand's largest trading ports and grew to become the first city district with its own local government in 1897.

From age six to twelve, Kriangsak attended Samut Sakhon Wittayalai and later Patumkongka School.

After graduating from primary school, Kriangsak moved to Bangkok to attend the prestigious Amnuay Silpa School (Its alumni include six prime ministers of Thailand) where he excelled academically.

Kriangsak Chamanan (เกรียงศักดิ์ ชมะนันทน์, ; 17 December 1917 – 23 December 2003) served as prime minister of Thailand from 1977 to 1980.

Kriangsak Chamanan was born on 17 December1917 in Mahachai Subdistrict, Mueang Samut Sakhon District, Samut Sakhon Province, a prominent Chinese trading port to the southwest of Bangkok.

He was born to a wealthy business family that ran the Mahachai trading company, which dealt in importing and exporting goods between Thailand and the West and Japan.

Kriangsak fought in the Korean War as a commander of the Thai Army in the 21st Infantry Regiment, which earned the nickname "Little Tigers" for their valour.

He showed exemplary skills as a major, playing a pivotal role in defending Pork Chop Hill.

He later attended Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy (โรงเรียนนายร้อยพระจุลจอมเกล้า,, abbreviated as รร.จปร.), known for its intense training program and one of the lowest admission rates among learning institutions in Thailand, until he graduated in 1938.

During his time in the army, he further attended the Thai Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC) and the Thailand National Defence College.

After his time in the Korean War, he also got a scholarship to attend the United States Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, a graduate school for United States Army and sister service officers, interagency representatives, and international military officers.

He fought against the French in the Franco-Thai War from 1940–43, serving as platoon leader, and against the communists in both the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

In Korea, he served as commander of Infantry Battalion III which fought in the Battle of Pork Chop Hill, from which he was one of only a few of the non-citizen officers to receive the Legion of Merit.

After the Korean War, Chomanan joined the United States Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, where he is the only Thai person to be included in the Fort Leavenworth Hall of Fame.

On 15 March 1953, by direction of the US president and under the provision of the 1942 Act of the US Congress, then-lieutenant Kriangsak became one among few non-U.S. military personnel to be awarded the Legion of Merit (Officer degree) for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services.

Moreover, the founding of PTT also served to lessen the reliance on the global energy market, which was affected by a severe global oil price crisis in the 1970s.

His other notable works include the founding of the Chatuchak Market which also helped to solve the Din Daeng Garbage Mountain issue, the Village Health Volunteers organization which acts as a crucial model in Thailand public primary care, the founding of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the passing of the first-ever bills to include tourism in the government economic development plans and the upgrading of the Tourism Authority of Thailand from organizational level to state level, the passing of the current consumer protection acts and organizations and the founding of Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University.

After his time in office, he was invited to the InterAction Council of Former Heads of State and Government in solving various global issues, becoming the only Thai prime minister until now and one of fewer than three from Asia at the time of his membership.

A professional soldier, in WWII he was posted in occupied Shan State.

He became a full general in 1973, and army chief of staff a year later.

In 1974, he also secretly brokered a prisoner exchange with the Burmese government, in which the opium warlord Khun Sa was ransomed for the freedom of two Soviet doctors whom Khun Sa's followers had kidnapped.

After staging a successful coup, he was asked to become Prime Minister in 1977.

In 1977, Kriangsak was part of the National Administrative Reform Council (NARC), which staged a successful coup d'état against Prime Minister Thanin Kraivichien.

Thanin himself had came into power the year before, after another coup by Sangad Chaloryu suspended the constitutional monarchy.

The NARC was composed entirely of what contemporaneous press reports characterised as moderate military leaders, not from the extreme right wing.

It was distinguished from previous military ruling groups "as an effort to institutionalize power relationships within the military in contrast to the personal factions and cliques which entered the political arena in the past."

Kriangsak was then asked to become prime minister, partially against his will according to his wife Khunying Virat Chomanan.

Prior to Kraingsak, the Thanin Kraivichien administration had spiraled the country into a perilous state of civil war.

Incidents involving the Communist Party of Thailand (CPT) in rural areas across Thailand and border clashes with Cambodia and Laos incidents were becoming increasingly frequent.

The administration's forceful suppressive policy had the perverse effect of increasing the CPT's popularity.

Furthermore, members and close aides of the royal family also became targets of attacks by the communist insurgents, including the assassination of the queen's secretary and a bomb explosion near the king while he was visiting the south of Thailand.

The country-wide deterioration and increased activity of communist insurgents induced reactions within the Thai armed forces.

The first attempt to overthrow the Thanin administration took place in March 1977 and was led by General Chalad Hiranyasiri.

However, it was unsuccessful and Chalad was executed on Thanin's order.

With increasing unrest, the Thanin government was finally successfully overthrown on 20 October 1977 when a clique of Thai military officers known as the Young Turks pressured Kriangsak and General Sangad Chaloyu, who had led the 1976 coup that ousted the elected civilian government of Seni Pramoj and appointed the royal favorite Thanin as prime minister.

He ruled till 1980 and is credited with "steering Thailand to democracy" in a time where communist insurgents were rampant internally and neighbouring countries turned to communist rule following the communist takeover of Vietnam: South Vietnam (by the Viet Cong), Laos (by the Pathet Lao), and Cambodia (by the Khmer Rouge).

Regarded as one of the most notable statesmen in modern Thailand, his landmark developmental policies include the founding of Eastern Seaboard through the founding of PTT, facilitating the building of a deep-sea port in Laem Chabang and negotiating for bilateral trade agreements between Thailand and Japan through Takeo Fukuda to include Thailand in the flying geese paradigm.

Chomanan founded the Petroleum Authority of Thailand, transforming it into PTT in a merger between three fragmented state-owned energy companies, serving as a major economic and industrial stimulus in the rise of Thailand secondary production economy in the 1980s and 1990s.

Kriangsak died on 23 December 2003, aged 86.

He was survived by his wife Khun Ying (Lady) Virat Chomanan, son Major General Pongpipat Chomanan and daughter Ratanawan.