Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

's powerful Coup Group was composed of powerful military officers who planned and carried out a coup d'état

Siamese coup d'état of 1947

The Siamese coup d'état of 1947 was a Thai coup d’état that happened on the evening of 7 November 1947, ending in the early hours of the morning on 8 November. The coup ousted the government of Rear Admiral Thawan Thamrong Nawasawat, who was replaced by Khuang Aphaiwong as Prime Minister of...

 in November 1947. Their prestige and influence were quickly enhanced by Field Marshal Plaek Phibunsongkhram's return to politics. They would however outlast him and dominate Thai politics for the next two decades. Most would eventually receive high ranks, becoming General

General

A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....

s and Field Marshals.

Membership

The Coup Group consisted of approximately forty junior army officers led by a small number of commanding officers, many of whom had been forced into retirement by Pridi Phanomyong

Pridi Phanomyong

Pridi Banomyong was a highly revered Thai politician. He was a former Prime Minister and Senior Statesman of Thailand, and was named one of the world's great personalities of the 20th century by UNESCO in 2000.-Family background:...

 at the end of the Second World War - men with little other than conspiracy to keep themselves occupied.

The coterie's leading members were Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat

Sarit Dhanarajata

Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat , was a Thai career soldier who staged a coup in 1957, thereafter serving as Thailand's Prime Minister until his death in 1963. He was born in Bangkok, but grew up in his mother's home town in Lao-speaking northeastern Thailand and considered himself a northeasterner...

, commander of the Bangkok-based First Division, Police General Phao Siyanon

Phao Sriyanond

Phao Sriyanond was a director general of Thailand's national police who was notorious for his excesses against political opponents. He eventually fled the country and died in exile.-Rise to power:...

, the powerful chief of police, Field Marshal Phin Chunhawan

Phin Choonhavan

Field Marshal Phin Choonhavan was a Thai military leader. Phin was a leader of several coups against the government, most notably the 1947 coup...

, Phao's father-in-law, the politically prominent Lieutenant-General Kat Katsongkhram, and Marshal of the Royal Thai Air Force Fuen Ronnaphakat, the air force's combat-experienced commander.

Less senior members included Phin's son, Chatchai Chunhawan

Chatichai Choonhavan

General Chatichai Choonhavan was the Prime Minister of Thailand from 1988 to 1991. He was the only son of Field Marshal Phin Choonhavan, and is of Thai Chinese descent with ancestry from Chenghai District...

, and Sarit's protégés Thanom Kittikachorn

Thanom Kittikachorn

Field Marshal Thanom Kittikachorn was a military dictator of Thailand. A staunch anti-Communist, Thanom oversaw a decade of military rule in Thailand from 1963 to 1973, until public protests which exploded into violence forced him to step down...

 and Praphat Charusathian.