Editing Royal Thai Armed Forces (section)

====World War II (1942–1945)====
{{main|Thailand in World War II}}
[[File:Phap Mueang Thai (1943, p 090).jpg|thumb|Thai soldiers and governmental officials occupying a Burmese village.]]
To attack [[British Raj|British India]], [[British rule in Burma|British Burma]] and [[British Malaya]], the [[Empire of Japan]] needed to use bases in Thailand. By playing both nations against one another, [[Prime Minister of Thailand|Prime Minister]] [[Plaek Phibunsongkhram|Phibunsongkhram]] was able to maintain a degree of [[Neutral country|neutrality]] for some time. However, this ended in the early hours of 8 December 1941, when Japan launched a [[Japanese invasion of Thailand|surprise attack]] on Thailand at nine places along the coastline and from French Indo-China. The greatly outnumbered Thai forces put up resistance, but were soon overwhelmed. By 07:30, Phibun ordered an end to hostilities, though resistance continued for at least another day until all units could be notified. Phibun signed an [[armistice]] with Japan that allowed the empire to move its troops through Thai territory. Impressed by Japan's easy conquest of British Malaya, Phibun formally made Thailand part of the [[Axis powers|Axis]] by declaring war on the United Kingdom and the United States, though the Regent refused to sign it in the young king's name. (The [[List of ambassadors of Thailand to the United States|Thai ambassador to Washington]] refused to deliver the declaration, and the United States continued to consider Thailand an occupied country.) An active and foreign-assisted underground resistance movement, the [[Free Thai Movement|Free Thai]], was largely successful and helped Thailand to be viewed positively in the eyes of the victorious [[Allies of World War II|Allies]] after the war and be treated as an occupied nation rather than a defeated enemy.<ref>[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+th0031) Thailand]. Lcweb2.loc.gov (8 December 1941). Retrieved on 2012-01-18. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171108094215/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd%2Fcstdy%3A%40field%28DOCID+th0031%29 |date=8 November 2017 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Hughes|first1=Les|title=The Free Thai|url=http://www.insigne.org/OSS-Thai.htm|website=Insigne|access-date=8 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171108094922/http://www.insigne.org/OSS-Thai.htm|archive-date=8 November 2017|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref>