Indonesia, 1958 — rebel coup attempt
Event Summary
On 15 February 1958 dissident regional military commanders and civilian politicians in Padang, West Sumatra, proclaimed the Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Indonesia, the PRRI, after the expiry of a five day ultimatum demanding that President Sukarno return to a figurehead role and a new cabinet be formed under Mohammad Hatta and the Sultan of Yogyakarta. Led militarily by Lieutenant Colonel Ahmad Hussein and headed as prime minister by former central bank governor Sjafruddin Prawiranegara, the PRRI drew on regional grievances over economic centralization favoring Java and opposition to Sukarno's drift toward Guided Democracy and accommodation of the communists. On 17 February the Permesta movement in Sulawesi allied with it, and the United States secretly armed the rebels.
But General Nasution's central army swiftly counterattacked, retaking the Sumatran cities by mid-1958, and after the CIA pilot Allen Pope was shot down in May American support collapsed. The rebellion failed, and Sukarno emerged strengthened.
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
85002151958
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Sukarno and the central government survived and defeated the PRRI, and Sukarno emerged strengthened toward Guided Democracy.
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
Wikipedia
New York Times
Times of India
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 →