France, 1961 — military coup conspiracy
Event Summary
On 21 April 1961 four retired French Army generals, Maurice Challe, Edmond Jouhaud, Andre Zeller and Raoul Salan, launched the Algiers putsch, also called the Generals' putsch, to force President Charles de Gaulle to abandon negotiations with the Algerian National Liberation Front and keep French Algeria. Although this event is coded here as a conspiracy, it was in fact executed: the 1st Foreign Parachute Regiment seized the strategic points of Algiers overnight and the rebels arrested the government's general delegate. The metropolitan phase aimed at Paris never materialised because the commanders in Oran and Constantine refused to join, French intelligence learned of the plan, and conscript soldiers refused to obey.
De Gaulle proclaimed a state of emergency, declared over the radio that the affair was not serious, and the rebellion collapsed. Challe surrendered on 26 April; he and Zeller received fifteen year sentences, while Salan and Jouhaud escaped and helped found the OAS. The only known fatality was a French sergeant killed defending a radio transmitter.
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
22004211961
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: De Gaulle survived; the putsch collapsed within days and hastened Algerian independence in 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
CSP
Luttak
Wikipedia
New York Herald Tribune
The Irish Times
Chicago Daily Tribune
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 →