On the night of November 7 into the early hours of November 8, 1947, the Thai military staged a coup that overthrew the government of Prime Minister Rear Admiral Thawan Thamrong Nawasawat, the front man for elder statesman Pridi Banomyong. Tanks moved into central Bangkok, Thamrong was arrested, and troops searched for Pridi, who had been tipped off and escaped into exile. The coup, led by Lieutenant General Phin Choonhavan and Colonel Kat Katsongkhram with Field Marshal Plaek Phibunsongkhram as its senior figure, was driven by royalist and military factions seeking to reverse the political order that had prevailed since the 1932 revolution, and it exploited the political crisis following the still-unexplained 1946 death of King Ananda Mahidol.
Royalist Khuang Aphaiwong was installed as prime minister; Phibun returned to the premiership in April 1948 and dominated Thai politics for the next nine years.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Target identified in Coup Atlas research: Thawan Thamrong Nawasawat, Prime Minister of Thailand (overthrown)
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Thawan Thamrong Nawasawat (deposed prime minister)
Pridi Banomyong (elder statesman behind the government, fled into exile)
Plaek Phibunsongkhram (senior coup figure, later prime minister)
Phin Choonhavan (coup leader)
Kat Katsongkhram (coup leader)
Khuang Aphaiwong (royalist installed as prime minister)
Sources
The coup of 8 November 1947 was a military coup that ousted the government of Pridi Banomyong's front man Luang Thamrong, to make royalist Khuang Aphaiwong prime minister; it was led by Plaek Phibunsongkhram, Phin Choonhavan and Kat Katsongkhram.
The armed forces began the coup by sending a squadron of tanks to Amphorn Gardens near the government centre, arrested Prime Minister Thamrong, and searched for Pridi, who had been warned beforehand and escaped.
The first postwar coup, in November 1947, saw a group of military officers launch a bloodless coup toppling Thamrong's government; it was led by Lt Gen Phin Choonhavan, and Field Marshal Plaek Phibulsonggram became prime minister in April 1948.
SOURCE REVIEWEDBangkok Post, "Coups Trample on Democracy's Fragile Roots"open source ↗
A U.S. State Department account describes the royalist-conservative Democrats as having supported the army and police officers in their successful seizure of power in the autumn of 1947 to terminate Thailand's democratic government and replace it with an authoritarian regime under Field Marshal Pibulsonggram.
SOURCE REVIEWEDU.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1951, Vol. VI, Part 2, Document 82 (editorial note)open source ↗
Editorial Note
Sources differ on whether to date the coup to the night of 7 November or its completion in the early hours of 8 November; the Cline dataset uses 8 November, consistent with Wikipedia's title. Wikipedia, the Bangkok Post retrospective, and a State Department FRUS editorial note were read directly and agree on leadership (Phibun, Phin, Kat), the arrest of Thamrong, Pridi's escape, and the installation of Khuang Aphaiwong.
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Thawan Thamrong Nawasawat, Prime Minister of Thailand (overthrown).
Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset, v2.2.2
Peyton, Buddy, Joseph Bajjalieh, Michael Martin, and Andrea Gerald. 2026. Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset. Cline Center for Advanced Social Research. V.2.2.2. February 17. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. doi: 10.13012/B2IDB-9651987_V10
“Ananda Murdered, Siamese Declare,” November 17, 1947
“Siam’s Army Seizes Country in a Coup,” November 9, 1947
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →