Word: coupes
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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With that Shakespearean shrug and a gracious pledge of loyalty to the new regime, Nigeria's "gentle soldier," Major General Yakubu Gowon, philosophically acquiesced to a bloodless palace coup that last week ousted him as his country's head of state. Gowon, who himself came to power following a coup in 1966, was the fifth leader of Black Africa to be deposed by a military revolt in the past 16 months.* He was also the first head of state on the continent to be deprived of office while attending a summit meeting of the Organization of African Unity...
...inheritor of these problems as Nigeria's new head of state is Brigadier Muritala Rufai Mohammed, 38, formerly Minister of Communications and architect of the 1966 coup that brought Gowon to power. Mohammed, who earned a reputation as the army's most brutally efficient commander during the Biafran war, is expected to govern in a more decisive-and possibly less humane-manner than Gowon. He has already cleaned house thoroughly, sacking all army commanders and their top aides, all Cabinet members and all the provincial governors of Nigeria's twelve states...
Defense lawyers justified their clients' abstentions by arguing that the Caramanlis government had prejudged their case by retroactively ruling the 1967 coup to be a criminal offense. Lawyers for 16 of the defendants then walked out of the courtroom, arguing that they could not conduct a defense "in this climate of terror and violence." Exasperated, the president of the court, Yiannis Deyannis, who was appointed a high court judge under the junta, yelled, "Let all those who wish to leave-leave...
...charge of insurrection might be hard to prove. The key issue was whether or not the colonels had in fact seized power illegally in 1967. But their superior officer, Lieut. General Gregorios Spandidakis, the army chief of staff-now also on trial -had approved and even joined the coup. Moreover, Premier Caramanlis himself had tacitly accepted the junta's legitimacy. It was the junta that summoned Caramanlis back to Greece to form a new government last year, and it was a President appointed by the colonels, Phaedon Gizikis, who swore in Caramanlis as Premier. Evidence that the colonels...
...Distinguished Service Medal to return to journalism-he was once a defense specialist for the New York Times, where he scored major beats on the secret U.S. bombing of Cambodia in 1969 and the SALT talks in 1971. But some Government officials have strong suspicions about this latest coup. Beecher, they suspect, may have been using material he recollected from his Government days to write the article. Beecher flatly denies the insinuation. "My story," he insists, "is entirely based on interviews I conducted in the past three weeks." Indeed, Beecher's story broke shortly after a three-week trip...