Republic of Korea, 1961 — military coup
Event Summary
On July 3, 1961, seven weeks after the May 16 coup, Major General Park Chung Hee moved against the junta's own nominal leader. Lieutenant General Chang Do-yong, who as chairman of the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction had simultaneously held the posts of prime minister, defense minister, and army chief of staff, was ousted and arrested along with dozens of officers on charges of conspiring to stage a countercoup. Chang had led a moderate faction favoring a swift return to civilian rule and had promised the US a transfer to civilian control, positions that put him at odds with Park's group.
A CIA weekly intelligence summary days later called the ouster a major move by Park to establish undisputed control, noting the follow on arrest of other Supreme Council members of doubtful loyalty. Park assumed the chairmanship, becoming the unchallenged head of the junta. Chang was sentenced to death in January 1962 for allegedly obstructing the coup, had the sentence commuted, and was pardoned in May 1962, after which he left for the United States and an academic career.
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
73207031961
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Lieutenant General Chang Do-yong, chairman of the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction and concurrent prime minister, arrested and later sentenced to death, commuted, pardoned in May 1962, and allowed to emigrate to the United States. He was not physically harmed..
Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; 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
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 →