Military Model Scene

Title: Red Shirt / Yellow Shirt
Author: Dean Wilson
Publisher: Helion & Co
ISBN: 978-1-804512-11-1

Protest and Insurrection in Thailand 2005-2014, number 46 in the Asia @ War series from Helion & Co. A 74-page soft-cover book.
This one opens with an Introduction which takes us through some background of the military history of Thailand, starting from 1892 and the first Franco-Thai war. It takes us through to the Second Gulf War in 2003/04 and starting in 2004, an ongoing insurgency in the southern part of the country. I for one was quite surprised at just how many different conflicts the country has faced over the years. The next chapters cover the Royal Thai Army in the twenty-first century, along with the make up of the Royal Thai Police, with the number of divisions involved may come as another surprise to many. Chapter 3 describes the various Political Crises between 2005-2010, leaving chapter 4 to deal with the various crises from 2010 to 2014, when there was a military coup, largely as a result of the inability of the 2 large political groups (the Peoples Alliance for Democracy, or PAD/Yellow Shirts and the National United Front for Democracy, or UDD/Red Shirts) to find a way of agreeing a way forward. Violent protests and strikes as well as other issues ended up with the Army moving to take control. Helpfully, the final chapter gives us some biographies of Who's Who in the story.
I am sure I am not the only one living in Europe who thinks of Thailand largely as a friendly and popular holiday destination, and perhaps very little appreciation of the turmoil that has engulfed the country over the 21st century in particular. Plenty of archive photos throughout the book, plus the usual set of pages with colour artwork in the middle of the book, with maps and illustrations of uniforms, ground equipment and helicopters. I found this an interesting read and personally learnt a lot more about the history of Thailand.
Thanks to Helion & Co for the review copy.

Robin