Word: thanom
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...last week. "Give me some time so I can wake up." Sanya's bewilderment was understandable. Three weeks ago, he was hastily installed in the Premier's vacant seat when a revolt of Thai students (TIME, Oct. 29) prompted King Bhumibol Adulyadej to oust and exile General Thanom Kittikachorn, General Praphas Charusathiara and Colonel Narong Kittikachorn-the unpopular military trio that had ruled Thailand. Like most of his countrymen, Sanya, formerly rector of Thammasat University, has only gradually recovered from the shock of that brief revolution, which saw scores of Thai students gunned down in the streets...
DURING THE LONG YEARS of the Indochina War, Thailand served as a giant aircraft carrier for the United States military, providing six bases where American bombers refueled before once again bombing Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Thailand was ruled by a rightist military dictatorship--headed by Marshal Thanom Kittikachorn--that used American aid to bulwark their own positions atop Thai society...
...last week the number of students flooding into Bangkok had swelled to several hundred thousand. They gathered in front of the Parliament building where police attacked them with tear gas, and the riot was on. Vehicles and government buildings were burned, including the offices of Thanom's son, Colonel Narong Kittikachorn, who was suspected by many students of maneuvering to be Thailand's next Prime Minister. I watched the modern office building that houses the national lottery being put to the torch. Explained one student: "It's good that we burn the lottery, because it only robs...
Then word flashed through the crowd that Prime Minister Thanom had offered his resignation to King Bhumibol Adulyadej. On Thai television a little more than an hour later, the nation watched a tired but composed King announce that the government had resigned. Sanya Dharmaskti, 66, the scholarly, British-educated rector of Thammasat University, was named Prime Minister of a caretaker government...
...King, though relatively powerless, has great prestige with the people. With the support of key military officers, he used the revolt as a lever to pry the unpopular Thanom from office. The students clearly had won a stunning victory. Cheering and pounding on the sides of commandeered buses, they sped through Bangkok waving Thai flags and holding up portraits of the King...