Thanom Kittikachorn, a former prime minister whose military regime was ousted from office by a popular uprising in 1973, has died, the state-run news agency said. He was 92.
Thanom died of shock and heart failure late Wednesday after spending five months at Bangkok Hospital, the Thai News Agency reported, citing a hospital announcement early yesterday morning.
Thanom came to be popularly reviled as one of the country's "Three Tyrants" when he ran the country as a military dictatorship in a triumvirate in the 1960s and early 1970s with Field Marshal Praphas Charusathien and Colonel Narong Kittikachorn, Thanom's son and Praphas' son-in-law.
PHOTO: AFP
Thanom, who also held the rank of field marshal, was generally seen as the more conciliatory partner, and Praphas the hardliner.
The three were driven into exile following a bloody student-led uprising in October 1973.
They were accused of nepotism, massive corruption and ordering the massacre of protesters in the streets of Bangkok during the uprising.
A brief period of raucous democracy followed, which many influential and conservative Thais found unsettling, and feared would lead to a communist takeover similar to those that occurred in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in 1975.
Thanom was allowed to return to Thailand in late 1976 to serve as a Buddhist monk, sparking new demonstrations by pro-democracy protesters. Many believe his return was meant to set the stage for a counterrevolution, and on Oct. 6, 1976, a massacre of student protesters by police and the army took place at Bangkok's Thammasat University, and a coup installed a new, military-guided right-wing government.
Neither Thanom nor his two former partners in rule resumed any public political role. Thanom generally kept a low public profile afterward, though over the past decade, he made an effort to rehabilitate his public image -- arguing that he was not responsible for the violence unleashed on the 1973 protesters -- and sought to recover some property seized when he was overthrown. Praphas died in 1997.
Thanom was born Aug. 11, 1911 in the northern province of Tak. He attended Army Cadet Academy and his move up the ranks was accelerated after he took part in a 1947 coup.
During the 1950s Thanom served as deputy defense minister and defense minister, and was appointed a figurehead prime minister for nine months in 1958 before military strongman Sarit Thanarat assumed dictatorial powers until his death in 1963.
Thanom's regime -- like Sarit's -- was close to the US because of their shared drive against communism, and massive corruption. During the Vietnam War, his government allowed tens of thousands of US servicemen to be stationed in the country. The US bases were closed after his government was overthrown.
His government allowed a veneer of democracy, but even the mild dissent proved unacceptable to it, and it staged a coup against itself in 1971 to sweep away peaceful but pesky opponents in parliament. However, the high-handed tactic sharpened opposition to his rule, leading to the 1973 student revolution.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
THIRD ANNIVERSARY OF WAR: Ursula von der Leyen said that Europe was in Kyiv because ‘it is not only the destiny of Ukraine that is at stake. It’s Europe’s destiny’ A dozen leaders from Europe and Canada yesterday visited Ukraine’s capital to mark the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion in a show of support for Kyiv by some of its most important backers. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were among the visitors greeted at the railway station by Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha and the president’s chief of staff Andrii Yermak. Von der Leyen wrote on social media that Europe was in Kyiv “because Ukraine is in Europe.” “In this fight for survival, it is not only the destiny of Ukraine that is
RSS