The 6 October 1976 massacre, also known as the 6 October event (Thai: เหตุการณ์ 6 ตุลา RTGS: Hetkan Hok Tula) in Thailand, was a violent crackdown by Thai police and lynching by right-wing paramilitaries and bystanders against leftist protesters who had occupied Bangkok's Thammasat University and the adjacent Sanam Luang, on 6 October 1976. Prior to the massacre, thousands of leftists, including students, workers and others, had been holding ongoing demonstrations against the return of exiled former Prime Minister Thanom Kittikachorn to Thailand since mid-September. Official reports state that 46 were killed (on both sides) and 167 were wounded, while unofficial reports state that more than 100 demonstrators were killed. In the "Documentation of Oct 6" project, historian Thongchai Winichakul argued that the official death toll should be 45, since one demonstrator died in jail after the incident.
In the aftermath of the events of 14 October 1973, the military dictatorship which had ruled Thailand for more than a decade was overthrown. Political, economic and ideological factors caused the society to polarize into socialist-minded left, and conservative and royalist right camps. The unstable political climate which was exacerbated by the existence of fragile coalition governments, frequent strikes and protests, and the rise of communist governments in neighboring countries led at least two factions of the armed forces to conclude that they needed to launch another coup in order to restore order; one faction plotted to bring Thanom back in order to provoke turmoil which could be used to justify a coup.
On 19 September 1976, Thanom returned to Thailand, was instantly ordained at Wat Bowonniwet Vihara, and was visited by the King and the Queen, resulting in anti-Thanom protests and demonstrations. On 5 October, the protesters were accused of lese-majeste following a mock play which led to right-wing allegations that its actor looked like the Crown Prince; the police and rightist paramilitary groups then gathered outside the university. Between 05:30–11:30 on 6 October, the police used war-grade weapons, including assault rifles, grenade launchers, anti-armor rounds, and grenades, to wage the crackdown against the surrounded protesters who briefly tried to defend themselves but they were quickly defeated.
Some scholars have taken the position that the monarchy partly contributed to the events which unfolded by supporting Thanom's visit.
Background
The 14 October 1973 uprising overthrew the unpopular regime of Field Marshal Thanom Kittikachorn, and saw him flee Thailand together with Field Marshal Praphas Charusathien and Colonel Narong Kittikachorn, collectively known as the "three tyrants". Growing unrest and instability from 1973 to 1976, as well as the fear of communism from neighboring countries spreading to Thailand and threatening the interests of the monarchy and the military, convinced the latter to bring former leaders Thanom and Praphas back to Thailand to provoke turmoil and justify another coup to restore order. It is told that in February 1976, admiral Sangad Chaloryu, Commander of the Armed Force and eventual coup leader of 6 October 1976, got an audience with the King and ask him for permission for a coup. The King did not forbid the admiral, and told him to ask Thanin Kraivichien, a staunch royalist and anti-communist judge and the next prime minister, for advice.
In response to Praphas's return on 17 August 1976, thousands of students demonstrated at Thammasat University for four days until a deadly clash with Red Gaur and Nawaphon. Apparently the coup plotters were not ready yet, and Praphas left the country. One month later, on 19 September, Thanom returned to Thailand and headed directly to Wat Bowonniwet Vihara, a temple heavily associated with royalty, where he was ordained as a monk in a private ceremony. Massive anti-Thanom protests broke out as the government faced an internal crisis after Prime Minister Seni Pramoj's attempted resignation was rejected by the Thai Parliament. On 23 September, the King and the Queen visited Thanom at the temple, with one lady-in-waiting reportedly overhearing that the queen had prior knowledge of the arson at the temple. "[I] plea[d with] the people to help prevent [this]. Don't let mean people destroy the temple."
On 24 September, in Nakhon Pathom, a small city just west of Bangkok, two labor activists posting anti-Thanom posters were attacked and beaten to death, their bodies then being hung from a gate. The murders were soon shown to have been committed by members of the Thai police. A dramatization of this hanging was staged by student protesters at Thammasat University on 4 October. The following day, as Seni struggled to put together his cabinet, a Thai language newspaper, Dao Siam (ดาวสยาม), published a photograph of the mock hanging on its front page, pointing out that the student at the end of the noose allegedly bore a resemblance to Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn. Army-controlled radio stations promptly accused the student protesters of lèse-majesté and coordinated royalist and rightist paramilitary forces: the Village Scouts, Nawaphon, and Red Gaurs, to assemble. Units of Thai Border Police, known to have had a close relationship with the monarchy, were also ordered to move into Bangkok without the Prime Minister's knowledge. At dusk on 5 October, about 4,000 members of the paramilitary forces, joined by uniformed police, gathered opposite Thammasat University. The massacre took place the following day.
Massacre
The police and paramilitary forces blocked all exits from the university from dawn on 6 October, and, at 05:30, began shooting into the campus using war-grade weapons: assault rifles, machine guns, pistols, grenade launchers, armor-piercing recoilless rifles, scoped rifles, and anti-tank guns. The forces fired into the university grounds, later claiming that this was in response to sniper fire from inside the campus, but neutral observers on the spot reported hearing little if any shooting coming from the students. Prevented from leaving the campus or even evacuating the wounded, the student leaders offered surrender and negotiation with the Prime Minister, Seni Pramoj. It is unknown if the Prime Minister still held any real power that morning. The student representatives, including the actors accused of lèse majesté, turned themselves in, hoping for a chance to meet with the Prime Minister. However, they were arrested and taken into custody.
After a free-fire order was issued by the Bangkok police chief around 07:30–08:00, the campus was stormed with the police shooting and capturing university buildings. Some right-wing paramilitaries, working with the police, followed them into the university. Students trying to flee by diving into the Chao Phraya River were shot at by naval vessels. Some who were trying to flee the university via the front gate and the fence were lynched by the paramilitaries and bystanders. Witnesses (protesters and bystanders) reported that the paramilitaries assaulted, robbed, sexually abused, and shot the protesters, even some who had already surrendered. Some were hanged from trees and beaten, while others were set afire. Although the majority of victims were shot by the police, some were injured and even killed by the ensuing mob of people that took part in the chaos. The mob also desecrated many of the bodies. At 11:00, the police gathered the surrendered students in the football arena, where men and women were forced to lie on their stomach and undress to their underwear.
The official death toll was 45, including 5 perpetrators. The official records were autopsy reports. However, the unofficial death toll, given by the organization which handled the corpses, was more than 100.
Neal Ulevich's photograph was the best-known depiction of the event. Winner of the 1977 Pulitzer Prize for spot news, it illustrates the brutality and lynch-mob mentality surrounding the event, and has since become a symbol for the massacre, and has inspired numerous works of art.
On the afternoon of 6 October after the massacre, the major factions of the military which formed the general staff agreed in principle to overthrow Seni, a plot that King Bhumibol was aware of and did not oppose, which ensured the success of the coup-makers. Later that evening, Admiral Sangad Chaloryu, the newly appointed supreme commander, announced that the military, under the name of the "National Administrative Reform Council" (NARC) had seized power to "prevent a Vietnamese-backed communist plot" and to preserve the "Thai monarchy forever". The king appointed a well-known anti-communist and royalist judge, Thanin Kraivichien, to lead a government that was composed of men loyal to the king. Thanin and his cabinet restored the repressive climate which had existed before 1973.
The Embassy of the United States in Bangkok, in a contemporary report to the Department of State, referred to the monarchy's "apparent approval" of the coup. The report mentions that student leaders were "neutralised" partly due to concerns about their involvement "in an insult to the royal family." The British ambassador reported that the monarchy had acquiesced to the military leaders of the coup, and may have approved of it.
The trial
After the massacre, none of the perpetrators were held accountable; however, 3,094 students and civilian survivors were detained. Many of the detainees were brutally abused by police. Most were released without charges except for 18 protest organizers, who were accused of rebelling against the state, causing public unrest, attempted murder of government officials and affiliating with communist acts. However, after pressures from within and outside the country, the last 18 detainees were eventually released two years after they were captured and given amnesty by Bhumibol. It has been speculated that the amnesty given to protestors was within the interest of the government and military, as its broad language implicitly shielded perpetrators of the massacre from any future prosecution and legally labeled the defendants as "wrongdoers", while quashing further public discussion of the trial or the massacre.
Significance
Return of bureaucratic polity
For forty years from 1932, when the absolute monarchy was abolished, until 1973, when military rule was overthrown in favor of democracy, military officers and civil servants held sway in Thai politics and dominated the government, with King Bhumibol serving as the ceremonial head of state in accordance with his role as a constitutional monarch established by the 1932 constitution. The Thai political system was known as a "bureaucratic polity" which was dominated by the military and civilian bureaucrats. The massacre disproved the argument that the bureaucratic polity was on the retreat as the military came to play a central role once more in Thai politics, a situation that would continue throughout the 1970s and 1980s until the 1988 general election, when all seats were democratically elected, including that of the prime minister, who from 1976 to 1988 was appointed by the king.
Withdrawal symptoms
Benedict Anderson argues that the massacre and subsequent support for the return to dictatorship represented "withdrawal symptoms" by the middle class who favored stability and peace above democracy.
Following in the footsteps of previous military strongmen like Plaek Phibunsongkhram and Sarit Thanarat, Thanom became prime minister in 1963 following Sarit's death. He oversaw a massive influx of financial aid from anti-communist countries, such as the United States and Japan, fuelling the Thai economy, as well as increasing American cultural influence. But by the early 1970s, the US was withdrawing its troops from Indochina. In such a context, the Thai middle class and lower-middle class who had supported student efforts in 1973 to topple the Thanom regime were more a product of their immediate history than devotees of democracy. They lacked political experience and so had no real idea of the consequences of ending the dictatorship, which was simultaneously blamed both for failing to exact fuller commitments from its allies and for excessive subservience to Washington.
The support given by the Thai middle class and lower-middle class to the 1973 student protests was not an unconditional stamp of approval for democratic processes and the chaos that followed. As the economic boom turned into a slump following the 1973 oil crisis and a labor movement began to grow under the new liberal conditions, the "chaotic democracy" from 1973 to 1976 was seen as having threatened the economic interests of the middle class and lower-middle class. As a result, they turned their backs on democracy and welcomed the return to dictatorship on 6 October 1976, hence Anderson's use of the phrase "withdrawal symptoms".
King Bhumibol's role
Overview
King Bhumibol had supported student protesters in their demonstrations in 1973 that led to the downfall of the Thanom regime and resulted in the period of "chaotic democracy" from 1973-76. By 1976, he had turned against the students and, according to many scholars, played a crucial, if not the most important, role in bringing about the massacre and a return to military rule after a three-year flirtation with democracy. There were two reasons for this about-face. First, Thailand's neighbors either were facing communist insurgencies or had fallen to communist rule and become communist countries, while the US was withdrawing its military presence from the region. The pivotal year in the trajectory of the king's involvement in politics was 1975. South Vietnam fell to the communists and the Communist Party of Vietnam was able to unify the country under its rule and drive out the US.