Congo, 1966 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
For about ten days from 27 June 1966 an attempted coup unfolded in the Republic of the Congo, or Congo Brazzaville, against the Marxist government of President Alphonse Massamba-Debat, sparked by the demotion of the paratroop commander Marien Ngouabi, the future president, who had been accused of insubordination as Massamba-Debat tried to bring the army under a single command. Ngouabi's elite paratroopers took over part of the capital Brazzaville and cut its telecommunications and transport links. A contingent of over 200 Cuban army troops then resident in Brazzaville protected the government radio station and the Massamba-Debat government against the rebelling paratroopers.
After the confrontation President Massamba-Debat was able to remain in power by giving in to some of the coup leaders' demands, releasing Ngouabi and reinstating him. The unresolved tension between the president and the northern military faction persisted until Ngouabi finally overthrew Massamba-Debat in September 1968.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Datasets agree. At least two of the three reference datasets we check against carry this event, and none of them disagrees about its date or its result.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
48406271966- Albrecht/Koehler/Schutz (CAM) id
CAM-484-1966-06-27
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Alphonse Massamba-Debat survived by conceding to the rebels; Ngouabi later overthrew him in 1968.
Baseline coding: Coup attempt failed to remove the incumbent. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
Luttwak
Powell and Thyne
Wikipedia
Boston Globe
LA Times
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →