Soon after the coup in late May 2014, which did not surprise anybody, the army dispersed the crowds—red shirts and yellow—who had been fighting for months, from the streets of Bangkok. General Prayuth Chan-ocha, commander of the Royal Thai Army, appointed himself prime minister with the blessings of the ailing king, who it is said had given his consent to the last coup of 2006 also. After a few days of detention, the svelte Yingluck Shinawatra, the ousted prime minister, and other p