Thailand RETURN OF PHIBUN AND THE MILITARY
Tanks in the streets of Bangkok following 1932 coup
Courtesy New York Times Paris Collection, National Archives
As a result of Pridi's fall from grace and the manner in
which the civilian government that succeeded him handled the
investigation of the king's death, Phibun's military faction
regained some of the stature that it had lost through its wartime
association with the Japanese. Reviving the nationalistic theme
of its years in power, Phibun's group played on intense public
resentment of the war reparations Thailand had to pay and the
economic dislocation the payments were believed to have caused.
Army officers also blamed the civilian government for a
humiliation the military suffered in 1946 when their units,
facing expatriated Chinese Guomindang (Kuomintang--KMT) forces in
the north, were ordered to disband in the field and were left
without supplies or transport. They also criticized the civilian
government's conciliatory policy toward minorities--Chinese,
Muslims, and hill tribes.
Phibun had been arrested as a war criminal in 1945 but was
released by the courts soon afterward. Always an efficient leader
and known as a staunch anticommunist, Phibun had retained his
constituency of supporters in the officer corps. Even the
civilian elite, dismayed at the economic disorder and frightened
at the rise of communist insurgencies in neighboring countries,
regarded him as an attractive candidate for office. Some
observers contended that his rehabilitation had been due to
United States influence.
Data as of September 1987
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