{{Short description|Thai right-wing paramilitary organization}} {{about|the Thai paramilitary organization|the energy drink|Krating Daeng|the brand with red gaurs|Red Bull}} {{Distinguish|Red Guards}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2017}} [[File:อาร์มแขนของกลุ่ม "กระทิงแดง".jpg|thumb|An arm patch of the Red Gaurs (unknown year, a remake after the Thammasat University Massacre)]] The '''Red Gaurs''' ({{langx|th|กระทิงแดง}}, ''Krathing Daeng'') were an extreme right-wing paramilitary organization active in Thailand during the 1970s. The Red Gaurs played a key role in the 6 October 1976 massacre of students and activists at Thammasat University.<ref name="Terrorism">{{Citation |first1=Alex P. |last1=Schmid |first2=Albert J. |last2=Jongman |title=Political Terrorism |publisher=Transaction Publishers |year=2005 |page=672 |isbn=978-1-4128-1566-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NgDks1hUjhMC&pg=PA672 }}</ref><ref name="Puey">{{Citation |author=Puey Ungphakorn |title=Violence and the Military Coup in Thailand |journal=Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars |volume=9 |number=3 |year=1977 |page=10 |url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/35147971/Bulletin-of-Concerned-Asians-Scholars |accessdate=27 January 2012}}</ref> The organization derives its name from the gaur (/ɡaʊər/, ''Bos gaurus''), also called the Indian bison, the largest extant bovine. The gaur is native to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia.
==Establishment and activities== thumb|Sudsai Hasdin, purported initiator of the Red Gaurs (1974) It was set up by the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) of the Thai military to counter the country's students movement after the democratic revolution of October 1973.<ref name="Puey"/> Major-General Sudsai Hasadin has been reported being its main organizer.<ref name="Terrorism"/> From mid-1974 on, the paramilitary organization's units were publicly armed with firearms and grenades. Afterwards, they enjoyed practical immunity to criminal prosecution, or even warnings from police or army staff. The Red Gaurs violently attacked demonstrators at the protests against individual articles of the 1974 constitution, against U.S. military bases in Thailand, and at the protests against the return of deposed military dictators Thanom Kittikachorn and Praphas Charusathien.<ref name="Puey"/>
In August 1975, the group assaulted the Thammasat University, trying to burn down the school building.<ref name="Puey"/><ref name="Giles">{{Citation |first=Giles Ji |last=Ungpakorn |title=From the city, via the jungle, to defeat: the 6th Oct 1976 bloodbath and the C.P.T. |work=Radicalising Thailand: New Political Perspectives |publisher=Institute of Asian Studies, Chulalongkorn University |year=2003 |page=5 |url=http://data3.blog.de/media/661/2347661_35e0d731fd_d.pdf |accessdate=27 January 2011 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131012011400/http://data3.blog.de/media/661/2347661_35e0d731fd_d.pdf |archivedate=12 October 2013 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> Assassinations of labor and peasants union officials<ref name="Terrorism"/> (namely of the Peasants Federation of Thailand),<ref name="History">{{Citation |first1=Chris |last1=Baker |first2=Christopher John |last2=Baker |first3=Pasuk |last3=Phongpaichit |title=A History of Thailand |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2009 |page=192 |isbn=978-0-521-76768-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TEdueeBj1H0C&pg=PA192 }}</ref> as well as progressive politicians, and grenade attacks on crowds have been attributed to the Red Gaurs.<ref name="Stengs">{{Citation |first=Irene |last=Stengs |title=Worshipping the Great Moderniser: King Chulalongkorn, Patron Saint of the Thai Middle Class |publisher=NUS Press |year=2009 |page=237 |isbn=978-9971-69-429-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1wG8BZOhqtcC&pg=PA237 }}</ref> The organization's militants often attacked and injured photojournalists who tried to take pictures of them and their guns. The Red Gaurs interfered in the campaign for the 1976 parliamentary election by harassing candidates and attacking political parties they perceived as "leftist"<ref name="Puey"/> (in particular the New Force Party).<ref name="Somboon">{{Citation |author=Somboon Suksamran |title=Buddhism and Politics in Thailand |publisher=Institute of Southeast Asian Studies |year=1982 |page=79 |isbn=978-9971-902-43-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mzeTnSf4J1gC&pg=PA79 }}</ref> Besides, the Red Gaurs were also employed to guard road construction crews against attacks in areas with communist insurgents.<ref name="Terrorism"/>
==Membership and support== The ultra-royalist vigilante group focused its activities on Bangkok.<ref name="Stengs"/> Its membership consisted mainly of discontent young unemployed, vocational school students<ref name="Terrorism"/><ref name="History"/> and high school drop-outs.<ref name="Puey"/> The majority of their key cadres however, were veterans of the Vietnam War or former mercenaries in Laos,<ref name="Somboon"/> and former army soldiers dismissed for disciplinary infractions. The Krathing Daeng militants were well paid, provided with free liquor,<ref>{{Citation |first=Benedict |last=Anderson |title=Withdrawal Symptoms: Social and Cultural Aspects of the October 6 Coup |work=The Spectre of Comparisons: Nationalism, Southeast Asia and the World |publisher=Verso |year=1977 |pages=157–158 |isbn=978-1-85984-184-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w8eypkzAcNoC&pg=PA157 }}</ref> taken on drinking sprees, and to brothels paid for with public funds.<ref name="Giles"/>
They were heavily funded and backed by the United States government.<ref>{{Citation |first=Michael |last=Leifer |title=Dictionary of the Modern Politics of South-East Asia |year=2001 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=0-415-23875-7 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofmode0000leif }}</ref> The US provided at least 250 million baht to help organize the Red Gaurs.<ref>"[http://www.textbooksproject.8m.com/from_14th_to_6th_of_october.htm From 14th to 6th of October] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707070258/http://www.textbooksproject.8m.com/from_14th_to_6th_of_october.htm |date=7 July 2011 }} Collected articles by Puey Ungpakorn, Saneh Chamarik, Benedict Anderson, Edited by Charnvit Kasetsiri and Thamrongsak Petchlert-anan (language: Thai), p. 299</ref> Paul M. Handley, the author of ''The King Never Smiles'', an unofficial biography of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, reports that the king also gave support to both the Red Gaurs and the "Village Scouts", another patriotic anti-leftist paramilitary organization.<ref>{{Citation |first=Paul M. |last=Handley |title=The King Never Smiles |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2006 |pages=227, 232 |isbn=0-300-10682-3}}</ref>
==See also== * Nawaphon * Rubbish Collection Organization *Village Scouts
==References== {{reflist}}
Category:20th century in Thailand Category:Paramilitary organizations based in Thailand Category:Anti-communism in Thailand Category:Far-right politics in Thailand Category:1973 establishments in Thailand Category:1970s crimes in Thailand Category:Extrajudicial killings in Thailand Category:Right-wing militant groups Category:Political violence in Thailand Category:Massacres in Thailand Category:Monarchist organizations Category:Anti-communist organizations