Plaek Phibunsongkhram[b] (14 July 1897 – 11 June 1964) was a Thai military leader, politician, and revolutionary who served as 3rd prime minister of Thailand from 1938 to 1944, during the Second World War, and again from 1948 to 1957.

Inspired by the Italian fascism of Benito Mussolini, he established a de facto military dictatorship run along fascist lines, promoted Thai nationalism and Sinophobia, and allied Thailand with Imperial Japan in World War II.

[citation needed] On 16 December 1938, Phibun replaced Phraya Phahon as Prime Minister of Thailand and as the Commander of the Royal Siamese Army.

[citation needed] After the revolution of 1932, the Thai government of Phraya Phahol was impressed by the success of the March on Rome of Benito Mussolini's Italian fascist movement.

Phibun saw these policies as necessary, in the interest of progressivism, to change Thailand's international image from that of an undeveloped country into a civilized and modern nation.

[citation needed] In 1941, in the midst of World War II, Phibun decreed 1 January as the official start of the new year instead of the traditional Songkran date on 13 April.

Phibun believed Thailand could recover territories ceded to France by King Rama V because the French would avoid armed confrontation or offer serious resistance.

The technologically and numerically superior Thai force invaded French Indochina and attacked military targets in major cities.

Phibun and the Thai public viewed the outcome of the Franco-Thai War as a victory, but it resulted in the rapidly expanding Japanese gaining the right to occupy French Indochina.

Phibun's administration also realised that Thailand would have to fend for itself if a Japanese invasion came, considering its deteriorating relationships with Western powers in the area.

[citation needed] When the Japanese invaded Thailand on 8 December 1941, (because of the International Date Line this occurred an hour and a half before the attack on Pearl Harbor), Phibun was reluctantly forced to order a general ceasefire after just one day of resistance and allow the Japanese armies to use the country as a base for their invasions of the British colonies of Burma and Malaya.

Pridi Banomyong was appointed acting regent for the absent King Ananda Mahidol, while Direk Jayanama, the prominent foreign minister who had advocated continued resistance against the Japanese, was later sent to Tokyo as an ambassador.

[14] In 1944, as the Japanese neared defeat and the underground anti-Japanese Free Thai Movement steadily grew in strength, the National Assembly ousted Phibun as prime minister and his six-year reign as the military commander-in-chief came to an end.

Phibun's resignation was partly forced by two grandiose plans: one was to relocate the capital from Bangkok to a remote site in the jungle near Phetchabun in north central Thailand, and another was to build a "Buddhist city" in Saraburi.

[citation needed] Khuang Aphaiwong replaced Phibun as prime minister, ostensibly to continue relations with the Japanese, but, in reality, to secretly assist the Free Thai Movement.

Phibun was reportedly thrilled by the democracy and freedom of speech he had witnessed during a long trip abroad to the United States and Europe in 1955.

Unlike his first premiership, Phibun faced noticeable opposition from people connected to the Free Thai Movement due to his alliance with the Japanese, including from within the military.

Negotiations between the government and the coup organizers swiftly broke down, leading to violent street fighting in Bangkok between the navy and the army, which was supported by the Royal Thai Air Force.

It reinstated the Constitution of 1932, which effectively eliminated the Senate, established a unicameral legislature composed equally of elected and government-appointed members, and allowed serving military officers to supplement their commands with important ministerial portfolios.

[7] In 1956, it became clearer that Plaek, allied to Phao, was losing to another influential group led by Sarit which consisted of "Sakdina" (royalties and royalists).

Both Plaek and Phao intended to bring home Pridi Banomyong to clear his name from the mystery around the death of King Rama VIII.

[17] In February 1957, public opinion turned against Phibun at the end of his second term when his party was suspected of fraudulent practices during an election, including the intimidation of the opposition, buying votes, and electoral fraud.

[18] Phibun was then forced into exile after the coup, first fleeing to Cambodia, but later settled in Japan after Sarit's new regime rejected his requests to allow him to return to Thailand.

[19][20] After his death, Phibun's ashes were transferred to Thailand in an urn and decorated with military honours in Wat Phra Sri Mahathat (also called "The Temple of Democracy") he had founded in Bang Khen.