No desire to return home

I am surprised at Robin Grant’s contention. First, after the fall from power of his arch-rival, Field Marshall Pibulsongkram, and Thailand’s re-establishment of diplomatic relations with China on July 1, 1975, Pridi could have come home after 28 years in exile. He did not need permission from anyone to return, not even from General Prem, who came to power in 1980. Second, his bitterness against his motherland was deep and commonly known. His wife, Thanpuying Phoonsuk, lamented in her biography that Thailand had only given a place of birth to Pridi and thereafter nothing else. He had no desire to return or even be cremated in Thailand. If one reads her biography in Thai, one would understand why the bitterness.

My previous reference to history was to provide Meechai Burapa’s missing part of an important coup in 1947, which is more relevant to the failed coup in 1949. No cherry-picking of the historical fact was intended, since I have no master.

Songdej Praditsmanont

Bangkok