ABSTRACT
A Thai Break (1940-45) The sad state of Vietnamese revolutionary activities in Siam improved during World War II, thanks to regional and international changes and above all because of new Siamese policies towards the Vietnamese. Emboldened by the German defeat of France in mid-1940 and Japan's simultaneous expansion into Southeast Asia, Siamese leaders dusted off their plans to recover Indochinese territories 'lost' to the French at the turn of the century. Although Japan was the crucial backer for the Siamese in their bid to break up western Indochina, what is less known is how the weakening of France in 1940 allowed Siamese leaders to bring their clandestine relationship with Vietnamese anticolonialists into the open (see Chapter O. From 1940 Siamese leaders of all political persuasions began to adopt a remarkably sympathetic view of the Vietnamese anticolonial movement, communist or not. This first occurred when Phi bun Songkhram sought the support of the Vietnamese in his brief war against the French in western Indochina in 1940-41. To this end, his government reversed its previous hard line by relaxing immigration requirements, freeing ICP militants from jails, and supporting certain Vietnamese militants who would later lend their services to the Viet Minh.
