Don't think its quite as bad a picture as you're painting. Transition to War periods are usually paramount to a country's war preparations. So long as Thailand stays friendly with USA, there'll always be a carrier force within reasonable distance, and each force carries more than enough fire power to deter most countries.
If that's not enough, re-enforcements won't be far behind.
Just look how far Saddam got when he started the first Gulf War. Yes he managed a few miles in to Kuwait, but he didn't go any further.
