Colonel Narong Kittikachorn, the last of the “three tyrants” who ruled Thailand with an iron fist from 1963 to 1973, died on May 14 at the age of 90.
Narong was part of a dictatorship headed by his father Field Marshal Thanom Kittikachorn and his father-in-law, Field Marshal Praphas Charusathien, who served as deputy premier and interior minister.
Marred by political turbulence and accusations of massive corruption, the trio’s decade-long rule came to an abrupt end following a deadly crackdown on protesters participating in the October 1973 student-led uprising.
Later known as the “Day of Great Sorrow”, the October 14 crackdown by security forces left 77 dead and 857 injured, according to official figures.
Colonel Narong has long been accused of firing at the protesters with a machine gun from a helicopter hovering over Ratchadamnoen Avenue – an allegation that he and his father denied.
Historical accounts of the lethal crackdown differ, though some books on the 1973 uprising claim official documents show that neither Thanom nor Narong issued orders for the use of lethal force against protesters.
Their version of the story
Thanom told Asiaweek magazine in a 2000 interview that the helicopter Narong was flying during the protests was not armed and his son was not carrying a weapon at the time.
“When he saw the situation, with so many people and small children in there [Thammasat University], he told his men: ‘You cannot go in there. This is not the way to do things’,” Thanom was quoted as saying.
Four years before his death at the age of 92 in 2004, the ex-dictator continued to deny accusations that he was behind the mass shooting of protesters in 1973.
Narong backed that story in a separate interview many years later. He claimed to have aborted a senior general’s plan for a joint Navy-Army unit to storm Thammasat University after assessing the situation from his helicopter.
Blaming a shadowy figure
In a September 2013 interview with Thai PBS when he was 80, Narong claimed that he never viewed the October 1973 protesters as enemies. He said the mostly young protest leaders had been manipulated by the ruling trio’s political rivals in an attempt to topple the regime.
“I felt sorry for them because they were used as political tools,” Narong said.
He added that the “plot” had been masterminded by a senior general angry at the Thanom government’s decision not to appoint him as armed forces supreme commander.
“He used every possible means to destroy us,” Narong claimed.
In his 2013 interview, given just months after the 40th anniversary of the crackdown, Narong stuck to his version of the story, maintaining that he “had done the right thing” and was unconcerned about being judged by others.
“When I die, it’s over. My father died and so did my father-in-law. When it’s my turn, I don’t know if things will be good or bad. I don’t live to know it by then,” Narong said.
His father-in-law, Praphas, died in August 1997, aged 84.
‘I have to rent my own house’
Narong was born on October 21, 1933, and had five siblings – one brother and four sisters.
He graduated from Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy and later the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in the United Kingdom.
Following the 1973 uprising, his father was forced to step down as prime minister and the trio fled the country. Their assets were seized by the succeeding government.
Narong said in the 2013 interview that all of his family’s assets were seized, including his father’s childhood home in Tak province and his mother’s land acquired before Thanom came to power.
He said he had to “rent my own house” from the Treasury Department, referring to his family’s Bangkok mansion.
Narong returned to Thailand in 1977 and later entered politics by joining the Chartthai Party. He was elected as an MP for Ayutthaya province in 1983, then reelected twice in 1986 and 1988.
After a military coup overthrew the elected Chatichai Choonhavan government in 1991, Narong was appointed to the non-elected National Legislative Assembly.
He served as the leader of the Liberal Party between 1986 and 1992. The small party was dissolved by court order in 1993 after it failed to contest the general election in March 1992.
By Thai PBS World’s Political Desk
