Pote Sarasin

Infobox Prime Minister
name = Pote Sarasin
พจน์ สารสิน
nationality = Thai


order = 9th Prime Minister of Thailand
monarch = Bhumibol Adulyadej
term_start = September 21 1957
term_end = December 26 1957
predecessor = Plaek Phibunsongkhram
successor = Thanom Kittikachorn
birth_date = birth date|1905|3|25|mf=y
birth_place = Bangkok, Thailand
death_date = death date and age|2000|9|28|1905|3|25|mf=y
death_place = Bangkok, Thailand
spouse = Siri Sarasin
religion = Buddhist

Pote Sarasin (March 25 1905 - September 28 2000; Thai พจน์ สารสิน, RTGS|Phot Sarasin) was a Thai diplomat and politician. He served as foreign minister from 1949 to 1951 and then served as ambassador to the United States. In September 1957 when Sarit Thanarat seized power in a military coup, he appointed Pote to be the acting prime minister. He resigned in December 1957. Pote also served as the first secretary-general of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization from September 1957 until 1964.

A close friend of Phibun, Pote provided financial aid to the field marshal after his release from prison in 1946. In return Phibun had Pote appointed deputy minister of foreign affairs in 1948.

As foreign minister Pote was a willful opponent of Phibun's attempts to recognise the French-backed Bao Dai regime of Vietnam, a stance that had the full support of parliament, the press, and much of the government. Pote recognised Bao Dai's lack of popular appeal and doubted the playboy-emperor's chance of success, and explained to a "New York Times" reporter that "if they [the Thais] backed Bao Dai and he failed, the animosity of the people of the country Vietnam would be turned against the Siamese." ["The New York Times", February 14, 1950] In the end Phibun discarded months of Foreign Ministry recommendations and on February 28 issued formal recognition of the royal governments of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. [cite book|title=Thai Foreign Policy|author=Konthi Suphamongkhon|publisher=Thammasat University Press (1984)] Embittered, Pote resigned. It was the only time a Thai foreign minister resigned on a matter of principle. [Konthi.] Shortly afterward, he became ambassador to Washington once again.

On September 21, 1957, Sarit chose Pote to head the coup-installed government, mainly because the American-educated diplomat had good relations with the Americans. Under him largely free and fair elections were held in December. [Fineman, Daniel. A Special Relationship: The United States and Military Government in Thailand 1947-1958] He resigned from the premiership that same month to resume his post as secretary-general of SEATO.

Family

Pote was a scion of the Sarasin family, one of Bangkok's oldest and wealthiest assimilated Chinese families. The Sarasins had always cultivated good relations with the bureaucratic elite of the 19th century, and by the early 1950s held substantial interests in real estate and rice trading. [ [http://www.amazon.com/dp/0674252101 The Encyclopedia of the Chinese Overseas, Thailandndash Changes in its economic future, page 220] ] His father, Thian Hee (Chinese: 黄天喜 [cite book|title=泰国华侨华人研究|author= [泰国] 洪林, 黎道纲主编|publisher=香港社会科学出版社有限公司|month=April |year=2006|pages=17|isbn=962-620-127-4] , whose official title was Phraya Sarasinsawamiphakh), was the son of a traditional Chinese doctor and pharmacist who had immigrated from Hainan to Siam in the 19th century. [cite book|title=A History of Thailand|author=Chris Baker, Pasuk Phongpaichit|publisher=Cambridge University Press|pages=98|isbn=0521816157]

Pote's sons, Pong, a businessman, and Arsa, who was also one of the former foreign ministers of Thailand and is now serving as King Bhumibol's Principal Private Secretary. [ [http://clicnet.swarthmore.edu/litterature/moderne/deverge/siam/s6.html Menues chroniques d'un séjour en Thaïlande (1989-1992)] ] Sarasin's three sons–Pong, Arsa and Pow had all served as the Deputy Prime Ministers of Thailand. [cite book|title=泰国华侨华人研究|author= [泰国] 洪林, 黎道纲主编|publisher=香港社会科学出版社有限公司|month=April |year=2006|pages=185-6|isbn=962-620-127-4]

References