Italy, 1970 — military coup conspiracy
Event Summary
This entry is coded 7 December 1970, corresponding to the Golpe Borghese, the failed neo-fascist coup in Italy planned for the night of 7 to 8 December 1970. It was named after Junio Valerio Borghese, the wartime commander of the Decima Flottiglia MAS and a hero to many postwar Italian fascists, who led the Fronte Nazionale in alliance with Stefano Delle Chiaie's Avanguardia Nazionale and army dissidents under Lieutenant Colonel Amos Spiazzi. Code-named Operation Tora Tora, the plan envisaged kidnapping President Giuseppe Saragat, killing the police chief, and occupying the interior and defense ministries, the presidential palace, and the RAI broadcaster to install an authoritarian regime against the rising left.
On the night, militants and members of the State Forestry Corps briefly entered the Interior Ministry, but Borghese abruptly aborted the operation hours before its climax. The plot became public only in March 1971, and all defendants were ultimately acquitted on appeal.
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
32512071970
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: The center-left government survived; Borghese aborted the coup and later fled to Spain, and the plotters were eventually acquitted.
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
Central Intelligence Agency
New York Times
Wikipedia
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 →