Word: coupes
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Last summer, when 6-ft. 3-in. Mali President Modibo Keita returned to his capital of Bamako from a month-long visit to the Soviet Union, he told dignitaries at the airport: "Look, Modibo is back. There has been no coup, as certain foreign sources predicted there would be. I tell you, there will never be a coup in Mali." Last week Keita, 53, was cruising down the Niger River on the presidential yacht, General Soumare. By the time he got back to Bamako, he was out of a job, the victim of a quick and bloodless coup organized...
Once again, a freewheeling African civilian government had been overthrown by a more conservative military, the ninth such coup since...
...tanks rolled out into Bamako's silent streets to secure key points. The rebels arrested the army's chief of staff and most government leaders and disarmed the militia. When Keita's yacht docked, troops seized the unsuspecting President and whisked him off to detention. The coup was over, but the difficulties for Mali's new leaders were...
...Free elections have been promised, and private enterprise has been invited into the country. Clearly, the new rulers of the former French colony were abandoning Keita's policy of increasing dependence on Communist China and the Soviet Union. In Paris, officials were something less than dismayed by the coup. Keita had failed to keep pledges of reform made in exchange for French support of Mali's currency, and there were strong hints that France may have encouraged his overthrow. Now, further French assistance is reported to be in the offing...
...coup attempt in Egypt or Syria, a blockade thrown against Israel for Egypt, a pro-Soviet political upheaval in Albania, a Soviet power play against Yugoslavia-all are situations in which the Soviets could use their new seapower with unpredictable results. Some Western strategists worry that the friendly neighborhood presence of Russian ships may tempt the Arabs to take foolish chances soon against Israel, in the belief that the Russians would rush to their aid if Israel lashed back in force...