Thai Story

A journalist who took a stroll around Lumphini Park in the heart of Bangkok in mid-October was confronted by an extraordinary spectacle — royalist ultra-nationalist anti-government protesters in blackface, wearing skirts made of leaves and bizarre hats, waving banners rejecting a ruling by the International Court of Justice on the status of territory around Preah…

In 1971, with war raging in Indochina and Western powers desperate to prevent the spread of communism in Southeast Asia, the British embassy in Bangkok produced an analysis of the Thai monarchy. It was written by diplomat Joe Millington, and sent to London along with a cover note by British ambassador Arthur de la Mare.…

A confidential cable from British ambassador Richard Whittington in 1957 describes Western diplomats’ impression of King Bhumibol Adulyadej:

British cable from October 9, 1976 on a meeting between between senior diplomat Malcolm Macdonald and King Bhumibol of Thailand, three days after the massacre of students at Thammasat University.

Confidential cable from British ambassador David Cole on November 5, 1976, with comments on the involvement of King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit Kitiyakara in recent political events. Cole’s source was the Danish ambassador, who was close to Prime Minister Tanin Kraivixien whose wife was Danish.

A declassified secret cable in the UK national archives, reporting on a meeting between Sir Desmond Dreyer, admiral of the British navy’s Far East Fleet, with King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit. It appears that this cable has been ripped out at some point, and reattached with tape, rendering some parts of it illegible. Cable…

A confidential cable from British ambassador Berkeley Gage on April 17, 1957, suggests King Bhumibol Adulyadej and royalist politicians were already plotting with military leader Sarit Thanarat several months before the field marshal seized power in a September 1957 coup.

Confidential cable sent on October 13, 1976, from British ambassador David Cole to Foreign Minister Anthony Crosland. Excerpts: 10c: Did the King approve? A vital factor in the situation must have been the role of the King. In February 1976, following the downfall of the Kukrit Government, the King let it be known that he would…

On the morning of June 9, 1946, the 20-year-old Ananda Mahidol, King Rama VIII of Siam, was shot through the head and killed in his bedroom in the Barompiman Hall building in the Grand Palace complex in Bangkok. Later that day his 18-year-old brother Bhumibol Adulyadej was proclaimed King Rama IX. Bhumibol has reigned ever…