During the Japanese invasion of Southeast Asia in 1941, the Phibul government sided with Japan and Phibul declared war on the USA and Britain in 1942. But Seni Pramoj, the Thai ambassador in Washington, refused to deliver the declaration. Phibul resigned in 1944 under pressure from the Thai underground resistance and after V.J Day in 1945, Seni became premier. Seni changed the English name of the country back to Siam but kept Prathet Thai as the official Thai name.
In 1946 Seni was unseated in a general election and a democratic civilian group took power under Pridi Phanomyong, a law professor who had been instrumental in the 1932 revolution. Pridi’s civilian government survived long enough to create the 1946 Constitution of the Thai Kingdom, only to be overthrown by Phibul, in 1947.
Phibul suspended the constitution and reinstated Thailand as the country’s official English name in 1949. He took an extreme anticommunist stance, refusing to recognise the newly declared People’s Republic of China and also became a loyal supporter of French and US foreign policy in Southeast Asia. Pridi, meanwhile, took up exile in China.
In 1951 power was wrested from Phibul by General Sarit Thanarat, who continued the tradition of military dictatorship. However, Phibul retained the actual title of premier until 1957 when Sarit finally had him exiled. Elections that same year forced Sarit to resign and go abroad for medical treatment, he returned in 1958 to launch another coup. This time he abolished the constitution, dissolved the parliament and banned all political parties, maintaining effective power until he died of cirrhosis in 1963.
From 1964 to 1973 the Thai nation was ruled by the army officers Thanom Kittikachorn and Praphat Charusathien. During this time Thailand allowed the USA to establish several military bases within its borders in support of the US campaign in Vietnam.
Reacting to the political repression, 10,000 Thai students publicly demanded a real constitution in June 1973. On 14 October of the same year the military brutally suppressed a large demonstration at Thammasat University in Bangkok, but King Bhumibol and General Krit Sivara, who sympathised with the students, forcing Thanom and Praphat to leave Thailand. Oxford educated Kukrit Pramoj took charge of a 14 party coalition government and steered a leftist agenda past a conservative parliament.
Among Kukrit’s lasting achievements were a national minimum wage, the repeal of anticommunist laws and the ejection of US military forces from Thailand. Kukrit’s elected constitutional government ruled until 6 October 1976, when students demonstrated again, this time protesting against Tha nom’s return to Thailand as a monk. Thammasat University again became a battlefield as border patrol police and right wing paramilitary civilian groups assaulted a group of 2000 students holding a sit in. It is estimated that hundreds of students were killed and injured in the fracas, and more than a thousand were arrested. Using public disorder as an excuse, the military stepped in and installed a new right wing government with Thanin Kraivichien as premier.
This bloody incident disillusioned many Thai students and older intellectuals not directly involved with the demonstrations. Numerous idealists dropped out of Thai society and joined the People’s Liberation Army of Thailand, a group of armed communist insurgents based in the hills who had been active since the 1930s.
In October 1977 the military replaced Thanin with the more moderate General Kriangsak Chomanand in an effort to conciliate antigovernment factions. When this failed, the military backed position changed hands again in 1980, leaving Prem Tinsulanonda at the helm. By this time PLAT had peaked with around 10,000 members. A 1981 coup attempt by the Young Turks failed when Prem fled Bangkok for Khorat in the company of the royal family.
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