Thammasat University Massacre

The Thammasat University Massacre, or Massacre of 6 October 1976, is an attack on students and protesters that occurs on the campus of Thammasat University and at Sanam Luang in Bangkok.

Students from various universities are demonstrating against the return to Thailand of Field Marshal Thanom Kittikachorn, a former military ruler.

By the official count, forty-six people die in the attack, during which protesters are shot, beaten and their bodies mutilated.

According to Puey Ungpakorn: "sources at the Chinese Benevolent Foundation, which transported and cremated the dead ... revealed that they had handled “over a hundred corpses.” After Thanom is replaced by a civilian prime minister in October 1973, an army faction headed by Major-General Pramarn Adireksarn begins plotting a return to military rule.

Right-wing paramilitary groups are armed and trained and a crackdown on left-wing activists is prepared.

The Communist takeover of Indochina in 1975 at the end of the Vietnam War convinces many that Thailand could be the next communist target and that the nation's unruly left-wing students are aiding the enemy.The day before the massacre, a photo of a mock hanging by Thammasat demonstrators is published in the Bangkok press.

To many, the students in the photo appear to be hanging the Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn in effigy.

In response, outraged paramilitary forces gather outside the university that evening.Lieutenant-General Chumphon Lohachala, deputy director of the national police, orders an attack in the morning and authorizes free fire on the campus.

A junta headed by the defense minister, Admiral Sa-ngad Chaloryu, seizes power immediately after the massacre.

The membership of the junta is more moderate than that of Pramarn's faction and the relationship between the factions remains poorly understood.

The junta installs Tanin Kraivixien, a hard-line anti-communist and a royal favorite, as prime minister.

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