University of Virginia Library

BPP

The KMT are tolerated by the
Thais for several reasons: they have
helped in the counter insurgency
efforts of the Thai and U.S.
governments against the hill
tribespeople in Thailand; they have
aided the training and recruiting of
Burmese guerrillas armies for the
CIA: and they offer a payoff to the
Border Patrol Police (BPP) and
through them to the second most
powerful man in Thailand, Minister
of the Interior Gen. Prapasx
Charusathira.

The BPP were trained in the '50s
by the CIA and are now financed
and advised by AID and are flown
from border village to border village
by Air America. The BPP act as
middlemen in the opium trade
between the KMT in the remote
regions of Thailand and the Chinese
merchants in Bangkok.

The relationships, of course, are
flexible and changing, with each
group wanting to maximize profits
and minimize antagonisms and
dangers. But the established routes
vary, and sometimes double crosses
are intentional.

In the summer of 1967 Chan
Chi-foo set out from Burma
through the KMT's territory with
300 men and 200 packhorses
carrying nine tons of opium, with
no intention of paying the usual fee
of $80,000 protection money. But
troops cut off the group near the
Laotian village of Ban Houei Sai in
an ambush that turned into a
pitched battle.