Egypt, 1961 — dissident coup conspiracy
Event Summary
This entry is coded 23 November 1961, in the aftermath of the breakup of the United Arab Republic. On 28 September 1961 Syrian officers seceded from the UAR, a blow Nasser took as a personal defeat. In October 1961 he launched a sweeping nationalisation and socialist program in Egypt, believing full socialism would have prevented the secession, and moved to reorganise the state.
In late 1961 he established a Presidential Council and decreed it the authority to approve senior military appointments, an attempt to curb the autonomous power base that Field Marshal Abd al-Hakim Amer had built inside the officer corps and intelligence apparatus. Amer's allies threatened to mobilise against Nasser, forcing him to retract the initiative, and in early 1962 Amer directly confronted Nasser for the first time. The November coding therefore reflects the post-secession internal power struggle inside the Egyptian leadership rather than a discrete named plot.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
65111231961
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Nasser retained power but had to back down from curbing Amer's control of the army in late 1961 and early 1962.
Baseline coding: Plot discovered and disrupted before execution. 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
Boston Globe
Chicago Daily Tribune
Washington Post, Times Herald
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 →