Guinea, 1970 — dissident coup attempt
Event Summary
On the night of 21 to 22 November 1970 Portuguese forces launched Operation Green Sea, an amphibious assault on Conakry, the capital of Guinea, aimed among other goals at overthrowing the government of President Ahmed Sekou Toure. A force of between 350 and 420 Portuguese soldiers and Portuguese led Guinean fighters, some in uniforms resembling the Guinean army, landed at points around Conakry. Their objectives included toppling Sekou Toure, capturing or killing Amilcar Cabral, the leader of the PAIGC independence movement based in Guinea that was fighting Portugal in neighboring Portuguese Guinea, freeing Portuguese prisoners of war, and destroying PAIGC assets.
The attackers freed the POWs and hit some targets but failed to take the city or overthrow Sekou Toure, and they withdrew. The UN Security Council condemned Portugal for the invasion. Sekou Toure used the attack to launch sweeping purges, trials, and executions that consolidated his increasingly repressive one-party rule.
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
43811221970
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Ahmed Sekou Toure survived the Portuguese led invasion and used it to intensify his repressive rule.
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
CSP
Luttwak
Washington Post
Boston Globe
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 →