Craig Watson
speaker
4,699 appearances
13 recordings
1 series
first heard May 2026
last heard 17 Aug
Craig Watson’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 13 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 5.
Appearances
Thailand was the last independent state in mainland Southeast Asia, hemmed in by British-controlled Burma and Malaya to the west and French Indochina to the east.
For over a century, Thailand had survived by playing European imperial powers against each other.
But by the late 1930s, this strategy was becoming obsolete.
Europe was distracted by Hitler's Germany.
Colonial powers were weakening.
Japanese power was visibly ascending.
Fiboncam recognized both danger and opportunity.
He could resist Japan and invite invasion, or he could ally with Japan and profit from a rising Asian power.
Japanese diplomats approached Thailand with sophistication.
They offered a military alliance and support for Thai territorial expansion at French expense.
This addressed Thailand's deepest national wound, the humiliation of the nineteenth century territorial losses to France.
The Franco Thai War of nineteen forty to nineteen forty one became transformative.
With Japan providing military support, advisors, tanks, and aircraft.
Thai forces defeated the French for the first time in history.
By May of nineteen forty one, Thailand had recovered fifty four square kilometers of Cambodian territory and portions of Lao.
For Fim Bun Song Kram, this was extraordinary.
He had achieved what Thai leaders could.
Never dreamed to do, reclaiming territory from a Western imperial power.
Domestically, his position was dramatically strengthened.
The parallel to China's Century of Humiliation, the foundation of your very podcast is quite striking.
Showing 141–160 of 4,699 · page 8 of 235
← Previous
Next →