Greater Thailand during the 1970s

Say Thanom Kittikachorn regime survives until 1975

Could Thailand exploit the collapse of the kingdom of Laos, Khmer Republic ,and Myanmar's internal conflict move in and annex territory it formally held during world war 2.

What would be the impact of this
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OTL:

Because Khmer Rouge soldiers were crossing the border and attacking Vietnamese villages and killing Vietnamese citizens, Vietnam invaded Cambodia on Dec. 25, 1978. They took over almost the whole country in just a couple of weeks (some remnants of Khmer Rouge military units left). But they stopped the genocide.

But they occupied Cambodia for another 10 years. And they were frozen out of international development. In my judgment because . . .

they failed to meet the major player exemption, and that was that.

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Words and drawings from a Vietnamese soldier who participated in the occupation of Cambodia (his years of service were from '84 to '87)
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-29106034

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According to an older and retired Zbigniew Brzezinski (Jimmy Carter's national security guy), after the Vietnam invasion, we the United States helped China funnel weapons through Thailand to the Khmer Rouge remnants. Post-genocide, yes, that needs to be pointed out, but still, damn.
https://books.google.com/books?id=L...ering as a US proxy against Vietnam "&f=false

Some one needs to say it that the main motive was just to get revenge on Vietnam, and the whole business of tilting toward the China fraction and against the Soviet Union fraction was more of an excuse.
 
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My memory was that some of that was based on resentment over the US losing the War in Vietnam.

I feel that Thailand would have more support since they were an American ally and would be viewed as a counterweight to Vietnam. Also did not Thailand have an historical claim these lands?
 
My memory was that some of that was based on resentment over the US losing the War in Vietnam.

I feel that Thailand would have more support since they were an American ally and would be viewed as a counterweight to Vietnam. Also did not Thailand have an historical claim these lands?
Per map at top, Thailand had some recent historic claim, maybe earlier.

ATL:

And yes, if Thailand invades Cambodia and stops the Khmer Rouge genocide, everything is different. Since Thailand is a U.S. ally, they probably get some help. Hopefully, China decides there's not enough upside to continuing to supply Khmer Rouge remnants and/or it's too logistically difficult.

Thailand does a much more normal and readily accepted military occupation of, say, 1 to 3 years, some presence afterwards. Cambodia is able to tap into international development aid. And . . .

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More music in Cambodia, of all types. :) And good, medium- to fast-clip economic development. Maybe Cambodia will be viewed as a leader among equals. Almost as one of the Asian tiger economies, but with things going well, heck, we don't have to be so worried about whether we're receiving all this credit.
 
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There are two scenarios for the Thais, they could peacefully acquire these territories from the failing states in 1975, in exchange for providing safe refuge for leaders & families (Laos & Khmer Republic). Strategically it creates further depth for the Thais and, makes resettling refugees more manageable. IIRC the Thais had close to 100 k soldiers deployed in Laos IOTL, so it is possible and there were also military remnants from both the Khmer Republic and Laos that are likely to support such a move. So the available forces might be larger than initially perceived.

However it would result in armed conflict almost immediately and would probably need to be underwritten by American support. Which I think would be unlikely to occur, unless it is routed through a number of programs.

The second option for Cambodia would be to have the Thais invade from the West concurrent with the Vietnamese invasion of the Democratic Republic of Kampuchea, arriving at a partitioned Cambodia.

All in all, it is possible but it requires a substantive POD for it to occur.
 
Wouldn't nationalist feelings make this unlikely or would back the Thai due to anti-communism

Firstly, it depends how and when the Thais intervene in each respective country. With Cambodia they will overrun the western and north western provinces stopping at their respective provincial borders, after all the predations of the Khmer Rouge was known even at this stage due to the defection of a Khmer Rouge Battalion to the Khmer Republic in 1974. Hell the number of Cambodians that sought refuge at the French embassy following the fall of Phnom Penh supports the idea that people suspect what their fate will be.

Back to your question - the Royal Thai Army can use units that are primarily comprised of ethnic Khmers to stabilise the respective provinces, these provinces then declare their independence from Cambodia and this is recognised by Thailand. Over time as Cambodia degenerates into a dystopia, a vote could be held to unite these independence provinces with Thailand. Considering the refugees that would be fleeing into these provinces then it is likely that a vote will legitimately pass.

In Laos the Thais will conquer the provinces nearest to their borders, but would not attempt to conquer all of Laos due to logistical constraints and the presence of main force PAVN units.

With communist guerrillas or conventional forces and would this include Vietnam?

In 1975 in Cambodia the RTA will initially encounter scattered Khmer Rouge units, however within 3 - 6 months they will face a conventional offensive by the Khmer Rouge to oust them from the provinces. My assessment is that the Thais would defeat them, particularly if it is a conventional battle, however it will probably result in a drawn out frozen conflict with both sides raiding the other.

Laos they will fight the Pathet Lao quite quickly, but unless they push east are unlikely to face PAVN forces. The question is what will the PAVN do in this scenario, they will either stay in place or they will support their allies and attempt to drive the Thais back, which has the effect of postponing the Easter Offensive to probably 1976.
 
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