APPOINTED Prime Minister of Thailand by King Bhumibol in 1963, Thanom Kittikachorn overthrew his own Government in 1971 and ruled for the next two years as a military dictator. His regime was one of corruption and repressiveness, characterised at its most extreme by the execution of political opponents without trial. He and his deputy, Field Marshal Praphas Charusathien, and his son Colonel Narong Kittikachorn (Praphas’s son-in-law), who formed something of a triumvirate, were widely known as the “three tyrants” in their own country.
The friendship of America, to whom Thanom extended the use of Thai territory for military bases during the Vietnam War, was at first convenient. American withdrawal from South-East Asia made his position more precarious, and after the bloody suppression of a student uprising against the triumvirate in October 1973 the three were driven from the country into exile.
Thanom Kittikachorn was born in 1911 in the northern Thai province of Tak. He graduated from the military cadet school in Bangkok and served as commander of a unit on the Burma-China border during the Second World War, when Thailand was an enforced ally of Japan, which had invaded it as a jumping-off point for its landings in Malaya.
As a lieutenant-colonel in 1947, Thanom took part in a coup led by Colonel Sarit Thanarat and was rewarded with command of the 11th Infantry Division. In 1951 he entered politics as a (non-elected) MP. By 1957 he had risen to Defence Minister and a year later he assumed the posts of acting Prime Minister during the absence of Sarit (now Prime Minister and a field marshal) for medical treatment, Defence Minister and Commander-in-Chief of the Army.
He resigned within a year but returned to power after the death of Sarit in 1963, thereafter appointing himself field marshal, Admiral of the Fleet, and Marshal of the Air Force, as well as head of the Saha Prachachai Party. He was one of the founding fathers of the Association of South East Asian Nations and is credited with having helped to open up Thailand’s markets to the world.
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In November 1971, however, citing what he described as subversive behaviour by members of parliament and the unstable situation in neighbouring Vietnam and Cambodia, he staged a coup against his own Government, which he described as having been infiltrated by communists. During the Vietnam War he allowed tens of thousands of US military personnel to be based in camps in Thailand and authorised the use of Thai airbases for the bombing of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. During this period, Bangkok developed all the unsavoury attributes of a GIs’ “R&R” town, with its accompanying drug and prostitution problems.
Although giving lip service to the notion of democracy, Thanom introduced widespread censorship and execution without trial, and banned public assembly for groups of more than five people. All this provoked considerable unrest. On October 14, 1973, there was an uprising by tens of thousands of students in Bangkok, demanding an end to military government.
Although there was severe retaliation, with police and troops opening fire on the demonstrators and killing 77 of them, it had become clear after 24 hours that the authority of the regime had been fatally eroded. After a hasty audience with King Bhumibol, Thanom left the country for the United States, accompanied by his son and Field Marshal Praphas.
Extraordinarily, Thanom returned to Thailand three years later as a novice Buddhist monk. This provoked a violent reaction from students who protested at Thammasat University in Bangkok. In a general climate now — in the wake of the communist victories in Vietnam and Cambodia — of suspicion of leftwing sentiment, there was a severe backlash from the country’s forces of law and order, and more than 100 students were killed on October 6, 1976, when right-wing sympathisers of Thanom stormed the university.
He disclaimed any complicity in the violent reaction to the demonstrations, but the fact that he was cleared by a police investigation did not carry much weight with the Thai people. Thereafter he was content to live quietly in Bangkok, where he shunned the limelight.
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He is survived by his wife, Chongkol, and by a son and daughter.
Field Marshal Thanom Kittikachorn, Thai military ruler, was born on August 11, 1911. He died on June 16, 2004, aged 92.