This chapter discusses how, even as Thailand's lay Buddhist elites attempted to project their principle of Buddhist apoliticism internationally, preconditions for political disturbances within the Thai clergy were being met. This reflected a combined effect of social change and political unrest within the kingdom and intensifying Cold War strife in the broader region. Thailand's Buddhist elders initially forbade monks from volunteering for military service before leaving the monkhood, considering enlistment a violation of the monastic rules. But within the year they themselves routinely blessed the departing troops, lending their prestige to the Bangkok government's expeditionary forces. Such ceremonial farewells further eroded the Thai Buddhist clergy's purported disavowal of secular political affairs.
