How to Stage a Military Coup: From Planning to Execution

231 Pages·2009·2.88 MB·English

by  Ken Connor

How to Stage a Military Coup

How to Stage a Military Coup
From Planning to Execution

First published 2005 by Greenhill Books/Lionel Leventhal Limited
Park House, 1 Russell Gardens, London NW11 9NN
www.greenhillbooks.com
and
Stackpole Books, 5067 Ritter Road, Mechanicsburg, PA 17055, USA
Copyright © David Hebditch and Ken Connor 2005

The right of David Hebditch and Ken Connor to be identified as the authors of
this
work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or
introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means
(electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior
written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act
in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil
claims for damages.

British Library Cataloguing-in Publication Data
Connor, Ken
How to stage a military coup : planning to execution
1. Coups d’etat
I. Title II. Hebditch, David
321’.09
9781783830022
Library of Congress Cataloging-in Publication Data available

For more information on our books, please visit www.greenhillbooks.com, email
[email protected], or telephone us within the UK on 020 8458 6314.
You can
also write to us at the above London address.

Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Creative Print and Design Group, Ebbw Vale, Wales
Table of Contents
How to Stage a Military Coup
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Figures
Introduction
Chapter 1 - The Military in Politics
Chapter 2 - Motivation and Massage
Chapter 3 - Planning the Perfect Putsch
Chapter 4 - Recruitment, Training and Tactics
Chapter 5 - Keeping Your Coup Covert
Chapter 6 - A Word from Our Sponsor
Chapter 7 - Strategically Situated Exotic Islands
Chapter 8 - The Coup That Never Was
Chapter 9 - Outsourcing Your Coup
Chapter 10 - Where Next? Who Next?
Appendix A: - Military Coups d’État by Country
Appendix B: - Military Coups d’État by Date
Notes
Index
Table of Figures
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Introduction
The French expression coup d’état means a ‘sudden blow of state’ and dates
from 1646; we are not writing about a new phenomenon here. Of course, coups
existed long before we gave them the name. Caligula, Claudius and Julius
Caesar were just three of many Roman emperors who were propelled into or out
of power on the back of military takeovers.
Since the nineteenth century, coups have become a well-established means of
achieving what we now call ‘régime-change’. Indeed, in some countries coups
d’état are more frequent than government elections; there have been no fewer
than forty-five coups or coup-attempts in Paraguay in the past hundred years.
But even Paraguay is upstaged by Bolivia, which can boast some two hundred
coups (both failed and successful) since it gained independence from Spain in
1825. That makes the fall of Bolivian governments a seasonal event, as
predictable as the fall of autumn leaves but considerably noisier.
A satirical television sketch once showed a long-suffering government official
at his desk. On the wall behind him is a portrait of a moustachioed middle-aged
man in a morning suit and blue sash. Below, a plaque reads: ‘Viva el
Presidente!’ Suddenly, in the street outside his window, there is uproar and the
sound of small-arms fire. As soon as it subsides, the official emerges from under
his desk and flips the picture around. On the other side is the portrait of a
moustachioed middle-aged man in military uniform with a chest that groans with
medals. This time the slogan reads: ‘Viva el General!’
Of course, this implies that coups are a Latin American phenomenon or, more
disparagingly, a feature of life in ‘banana republics’. Coups d’état are a
worldwide political reality in which Africa is a serious rival to Central and South
America. The 1960s and 1970s were certainly busy decades for this form of
political change but the 1980s, 1990s and early years of the twenty-first century
have kept up the pace. Coups are not unknown in Europe, with sightings of
soldiers taking over radio stations and/or football stadiums in Greece, Germany,
Spain, Portugal, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. You may add Turkey and the
crumbling Soviet Union to the list if you think Turkey has – and the USSR had –