The catalyst for the dramatic October 1976 political confrontation was the return to Thailand in mid-September of former Field Marshall Thanom Kittikachorn as a Buddhist monk, ostensibly to earn merit for his ailing ninety-one-year-old father. Thanom had been ousted in an October 1973 student uprising. Thanom's return led to student-led demonstrations calling for his expulsion from Thailand. Two political activists distributing anti-Thanom leaflets were found hung, which precipitated the political drama that followed. Students were convinced that police were involved in the hangings. As part of their demonstration, students organized a mock hanging of those lynched. Photos of the mock hanging were published on the front pages of several major newspapers. One of the student actors showed a remarkable resemblance to the crown prince of Thailand. The political right interpreted this as the student left insulting the revered institution of the monarchy. Whether the photos might have been intentionally doctored as a political "dirty trick" remains an unresolved issue.
In response to the alleged mock hanging of the crown prince, police and right-wing activists surrounded Thammasat University, where approximately two thousand demonstrators had spent the night. At 7:30 A.M. on 6 October, hundreds of police, including special riot squads and border patrol units, followed by right-wing groups such as the Red Guard, stormed the campus in response to an alleged firing of heavy weapons from within the campus. By noon, nearly all the students had been flushed from the buildings. Approximately 1,700 students were arrested for lèse majesté. It is estimated that approximately thirty students were killed and one hundred injured in the assault.
After the assault on Thammasat, later in the day, the military seized control of the government and called itself the Administrative Reform Council. Thus, Thailand's three-year experiment with democracy came to a crashing halt, and the 6 October coup ushered in Thailand's most repressive regime of the modern era.
To understand the trauma and tragedy of 6 October, it is critically important to understand the local regional context. Only the year before, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia all had become Communist, with Pol Pot leading the latter nation into the horror of the killing fields. The monarchy was abolished in both Laos and Cambodia. Thus, the Thai right was paranoid about the growing influence of the left in Thailand. In a real irony of history, this dramatic shift to the right in Thai politics occurred on the very same day that the Gang of Four was arrested in China.
Further Reading
Coordination Committee for the 20th Anniversary of October 6. (1996) Tula: Raw Kugh Phuu Borisut (October: We are Innocent). Bangkok, Thailand: Phim Dii Ltd.
Keyes, Charles F. (1987) Thailand: Buddhist Kingdom as Modern Nation-State. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
