coup d’état — Bunk History

Hawaiian landscape.

The Hawaiians Who Want Their Nation Back

In 1893, a U.S.-backed coup overthrew the Islands’ sovereign government. What does America owe Hawai‘i now?

by Adrienne LaFrance via The Atlantic on December 11, 2024

Drawing of Patrice Lumumba with Congolese people in the background.

The Real Story Behind Patrice Lumumba’s Assassination

A new book sorts through the fate of the leader of the fight for Congolese independence.

by Isaac Chotiner via The New Yorker on October 30, 2023

A photograph of Patrice Lamumba, superimposed on an outline of Africa and the CIA's seal.

When America Helped Assassinate an African Leader

The murder of independent Congo’s first prime minister, the subject of a new book, had lasting psychological effects on the whole continent.

by Michela Wrong via The Atlantic on October 23, 2023

Chilean President Gabriel Boric at the forty-seventh anniversary of the assassination of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Karpen Moffitt.

The Pinochet-Era Debt that the United States Still Hasn’t Settled

Chile’s president was in Washington over the weekend to mark a grim anniversary. Congress is still asking questions about the U.S. role in the 1973 coup.

by Pablo Manríquez via The New Republic on September 27, 2023

Smoke pours from La Moneda, the Chilean presidential palace, during the military coup.

50 Years After “the Other 9/11”: Remembering the Chilean Coup

Some personal reflections on history, memory, and the survival of democracies.

by Ariel Dorfman via The Nation on September 11, 2023

Museum display of Nixon and Kissinger on the phone, a telephone, and the transcript of their call.

Chile: The Secrets the US Government Continues to Hide

Fifty years after the military coup that brought down Salvador Allende and installed Pinochet as dicator, top secret US documents still need to be declassified.

by Peter Kornbluh via The Nation on August 31, 2023

Salvador Allende campaigning before Chile’s parliamentary elections, Santiago, February 1973.

Defending Allende

On September 4, 1973, an enormous multitude of Chileans poured into the streets of Santiago to back the besieged government of Salvador Allende.

by Ariel Dorfman via New York Review of Books on August 24, 2023

Lili’uokalani, Queen of Hawaii, 1917.

The 1893 Hawaiian Coup and the Realities of American Expansion

To most 21st century Americans, Hawaii is a tropical paradise. But how that paradise became part of the United States is a long, complex, and often dark story.

by Ben Railton via The Saturday Evening Post on January 17, 2023

Two bunches of bananas with Chiquita labels.

When the United Fruit Company Tried to Buy Guatemala

How a sitting, elected national government found itself in the position of having to buy its own country.

by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò via The Nation on December 7, 2021

Coup leaders Admiral Massera and General Videla dressed in uniform

Argentina’s Military Coup of 1976: What the U.S. Knew

Declassified documents show the State Department had ample forewarning that a coup was being plotted, and that human rights violations would be committed.

via National Security Archive on March 23, 2021

Artistic graphic of two newcaster superimposed on the image of protesters in a Guatemalean city

The (Literally) Unbelievable Story of the Original Fake News Network

In Guatemala, the CIA hired an American actor and two radio DJs to oust a president.

by Sylvia Brindis Snow, Shane Snow via Narratively on August 27, 2020

How The CIA Overthrew Iran's Democracy In 4 Days

The first episode of NPR's new history podcast tells the story of a 1953 coup that set the stage for US-Middle East relations ever since.

by Lawrence Wu, Michelle Lanz via NPR on February 7, 2019

AFL-CIO president Lane Kirkland stands behind a podium speaking into an array of microphones.

When US Labor Backed US Imperialism

After the successful purges of leftists from unions, US labor leaders were enlisted by government officials to join in their global imperialist operations.

by Micah Uetricht, Jeff Schuhrke via Jacobin on May 26, 2025

Declassified and redacted White House top secret documents.

JFK Files: Revelations from the Covert Operations High Command

Special Group and PFIAB meeting minutes provide dramatic view of CIA operations.

by Peter Kornbluh, Arturo Jimenez-Bacardi via National Security Archive on April 7, 2025

Frank Wisner's photo covered with official seals.

The Making of a Cold War Spy

The life and work of Frank Wisner, one of the CIA’s founding officers, offers us a portrait of American intelligence’s excesses.

by Adam Hochschild via The Nation on March 11, 2025

Haitian gang members carrying assault rifles, standing in the center of a stylized rifle sight.

Haiti’s Agents Of Fear

Haitians are caught between the grip of violent gangs and the messy legacies of foreign intervention.

by Matthew J. Smith via Noema on October 29, 2024

Soldiers honoring Robert Imbrie's casket in Washington, D.C. on September 29, 1924.

A Century Ago, a Mob Brutally Attacked an American Diplomat in Persia

The July 1924 killing of Robert Imbrie fueled the rise of the Pahlavi dynasty and set the stage for a CIA-backed 1953 coup and the 1979 Iran hostage crisis.

by Francine Uenuma via Smithsonian on September 5, 2024

Chiquita Must Pay for Its Crimes in Latin America

70 years since President Árbenz was ousted for standing up to Chiquita, the firm might finally be held to account for its ties to a far-right paramilitary group in Colombia.

by Klas Lundström via Jacobin on July 10, 2024

Hands manipulating the earth like a Rubik's cube.

When the C.I.A. Messes Up

Its agents are often depicted as malevolent puppet masters—or as bumbling idiots. The truth is even less comforting.

by Daniel Immerwahr via The New Yorker on June 10, 2024

Three men fight on a rooftop, above a large city on a river.

The Golden Age of the Paranoid Political Thriller

On the grand tradition of movies reflecting a deep distrust of those in charge.

by Keith Roysdon via CrimeReads on March 25, 2024

A cartoon Trump is shooed away by a hand in a judge's robe

The Case for Disqualification

Three years later, amid another national election, the American public is still slow to understand the enormity of January 6, 2021.

by Sean Wilentz via New York Review of Books on January 30, 2024

Henry Kissinger

Henry Kissinger, War Criminal Beloved by America's Ruling Class, Finally Dies

In a demonstration of why he was able to kill so many people and get away with it, the day of his passage will be a solemn one in Congress and newsrooms.

by Spencer Ackerman via Rolling Stone on November 30, 2023

“All the Consent That’s Fit to Manufacture”

An interrogation of The New York Times’ archive reveals a sordid record of support for American wars, right-wing dictatorships and U.S.-backed regime-change.

by Writers Against the War on Gaza via The New York War Crimes on November 29, 2023

Tank on the street of Santiago, Chile.

How Pinochet's Chile Became a Laboratory for Neoliberalism

The Chicago Boys and the tragedy of the Chilean coup.

by Vincent Bevins via The Nation on November 14, 2023

A white mob poses for a photograph in front of the charred remains of the Daily Record building they burned.

Majority-Black Wilmington, N.C., Fell to White Mob’s Coup 125 Years Ago

The 1898 Wilmington massacre overthrew the elected government in the majority-Black city, killed many Black residents and torched a Black-run newspaper.

by DeNeen L. Brown via Retropolis on November 10, 2023

Image from book cover of "Petroleum and Progress in Iran."

There Will Be War

U.S.-Iranian relations, the interrelationship between Iranian development and the global oil market, and the future of economic warfare.

by Michael Brenes, Gregory Brew via Warfare And Welfare on February 1, 2023

People swimming along the Hawaiian coast.

My Whole Life Is Empty Without You

A necessarily abridged perspective of place in Hawai‘i.

by J. Matt via Lapham’s Quarterly on November 14, 2022

Robert De Niro as Gen. Dillenbeck, in "Amsterdam."

Did American Business Leaders Really Try to Overthrow the President, Like in "Amsterdam"?

How David O. Russell’s movie messes around with the story of the Business Plot.

by Jonathan M. Katz via Slate on October 8, 2022

Black and white photo of protestors climbing the Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2021.

Ask the ‘Coupologists’: Just What Was Jan. 6 Anyway?

Without a name for it, figuring out why it happened is that much harder.

by Joshua Zeitz, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Scott Althaus, Matt Cleary, Ryan McMaken via Politico Magazine on August 19, 2022

Major General Smedley Butler addresses nearly 16,000 veteran bonus marchers camped in Washington, D.C., July 20, 1932. Smedley urged them to stay until the bonus has been paid. (AP Photo)

The Plot Against American Democracy That Isn't Taught in Schools

How the authors of the Depression-era “Business Plot” aimed to take power away from FDR and stop his “socialist” New Deal.

by Jonathan M. Katz via Rolling Stone on January 1, 2022

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