Yemen Arab Republic, 1978 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
The dataset records an attempted military coup in the Yemen Arab Republic, or North Yemen, on 15 October 1978, during the early and highly precarious rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who had taken power only in July 1978 after the assassinations in quick succession of his two predecessors, Ibrahim al-Hamdi in 1977 and Ahmad al-Ghashmi in June 1978. Saleh inherited a fractured country wracked by tribal rivalries, tension with Marxist South Yemen, and plotting within the divided military, and few observers expected him to survive long. In October 1978 a coup attempt was mounted against the new president, one of several early challenges he faced, and it was suppressed, with the plotters arrested and a number executed.
Against all expectations Saleh consolidated his position through patronage, tribal balancing, and force, going on to rule North Yemen and then, after the 1990 unification, all of Yemen for more than three decades until he was forced from power in the Arab Spring uprising of 2011 to 2012.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Datasets agree. At least two of the three reference datasets we check against carry this event, and none of them disagrees about its date or its result.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
67810151978- Albrecht/Koehler/Schutz (CAM) id
CAM-678-1978-10-15
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Ali Abdullah Saleh crushed the October 1978 coup attempt and went on to rule Yemen for over three decades.
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
Globe and Mail
The Guardian
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 →