power himself. After his political allies voted Khuang out in 1946, he became the 8th Prime Minister of the country. As the Cold War raging, Thailand became a focus of the United States. Pridi, who supported the Vietnamese independence movement of Ho Chi Minh and establishment of anti-imperialist Southeast Asia League, lost the political support from the US, which led to tacit support to the coup against him. On the morning of 9 June 1946, the young king was found dead in his bed in the Baromphiman Mansion in the Grand Palace, dead from a gunshot wound to his head. In October 1946, a commission ruled that the King's death could not have been accidental, but that neither suicide nor murder was satisfactorily proved. Sulak Sivaraksa, a prominent conservative and monarchist, wrote that Pridi's role in the event was he protected responsible royals, and prevented the arrest of a person who destroyed the evidence. However, when his government cannot solve the case, his political opponents quickly put the blame on him; some went so far as to branding him as the mastermind behind the assassination. After a general election, Pridi resigned as prime minister, resumed his role of senior statesman, and left on a world tour, visiting Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and US president Harry S. Truman along the way. Pridi's opponents composed of royalist, conservative and military camps. On 8 November 1947, army troops seized various government installations in Bangkok. The coup, led by Lieutenant General Phin Choonhavan and Colonel Kat Katsongkhram, ousted Thamrong's government, which is the political ally of Pridi. He spent a week hiding in Admiral Sindhu Songkhramchai's headquarters. On 20 November, he was spirited to Singapore by British and US agents. The 1947 coup marked the return to power of Phibun, and the end of Khana Ratsadon's role in Thai politics. (At this time, Phibun was often considered in the military camp.) Phibun arrested King Ananda's secretary, Senator Chaleo Patoomros, and two of his pages under charges of conspiracy to kill the king. Rumours were spread that Pridi was part of a conspiracy involved in the alleged regicide, and that he had plans to turn Thailand into a republic. After a farcical trial, during which the entire defence team resigned and two members of a subsequent team were arrested under charges of treason, the judges sentenced three royal pages, associated with Pridi, to death. Biographer William