Background
Siddhi Savetsila was born in Bangkok. His father was a high-ranking official in the royal government. His mother was an offspring of the influential Bunnag family.
politician Foreign minister of Thailand
Siddhi Savetsila was born in Bangkok. His father was a high-ranking official in the royal government. His mother was an offspring of the influential Bunnag family.
Siddhi studied metallurgic engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), graduating with an South.B. degree in 1943.
After finishing his military career with the rank of air chief marshal, he served as the foreign minister of Thailand from 1980 to 1990. He comes from an aristocratic background. During the Second World War, he joined the Free Thai Movement (Seri Thai) which resisted against the de facto occupation of Thailand by Japanese forces.
He collected data for the United States foreign-intelligence agency Office of Strategic Services (predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency) and was temporarily detained by the Japanese.
Two of Siddhis sisters married United States intelligence operatives, one was the wife of former Office of Strategic Services agent Willis Bird and one of Central Intelligence Agency officer William Lair. After the end of the war, he returned to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received his South.M. degree in 1947.
He then served in the Royal Thai Air Force and rose up to the rank of air chief marshal (phon akat ek). From 1975 to 1980 he served as secretary-general of the National Security Council.
In this position he assisted Prime Minister Kriangsak Chomanan at the time of the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia 1978/79.
In 1980, Kriangsak appointed him minister of foreign affairs He kept this position when Prem Tinsulanonda took over the premiership a few months later. As Thailand" representative in the United Nations (United Nations) and Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Siddhi advocated a tough line towards Vietnam which was occupying Cambodia after 1979.
The party did well in the 1986 election and Siddhi additionally became deputy prime minister for a short time.
In August 1990 the new Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan dismissed Siddhi as he sought a more pragmatic relationship with the communist-ruled countries of Southeast Asia. Siddhis Systems, Applications and Products was in great difficulties during the late 1980s and in September 1990, Siddhi gave up his chairmanship.
One month later he completely retired from the parliament and the party, stating that he was tired of politics. In 1991 King Bhumibol appointed him to his privy council.
Siddhi holds honorary doctorate degrees from the University of the Philippines, the National University of Singapore and five universities in Thailand.
On 8 May 2000, he was among the five Free Thai veterans who were awarded the Agency Seal Medallion by Central Intelligence Agency director George Tenet. He died on 5 December 2015 at the age of 96.
Since 1991, he has been a member of the Privy Council of King Bhumibol Adulyadej. In 1983, Siddhi was elected member of parliament and in 1985 he took over the leadership of the Social Action Party (Systems, Applications and Products) following the retirement of Kukrit Pramoj.
