Military Career
Sarit Thanarat was educated at a monastery school, and entered the Royal Thai Military Academy in 1919, not completing his military studies until 1928, after which he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant, slowly rising through the Officer Corps. During World War II he served as commander of an infantry battalion and took part in the invasion and occupation of the Shan States in Burma. Unlike many of his fellow officers, Sarit was not discharged at the end of the war. Instead, he was promoted to command the 1st Infantry Regiment of the Bangkok-based Guards Division. As a colonel, he played a leading role in the 1947 military coup that overthrew the government of Prime Minister Thawal Thamrong Navaswadhi, a protege of Pridi Phanomyong, reinstalling the previously deposed Field Marshal Luang Pibunsongkram as premier. Sarit thereafter took a lasting interest in politics.
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