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This reminds me of the Wonga Coup (http://www.amazon.com/The-Wonga-Coup-Ruthless-Determination/dp/1586485008 http://www.amazon.com/The-Wonga-Coup-Ruthless-Deter

by rdl 11y ago

This reminds me of the Wonga Coup (http://www.amazon.com/The-Wonga-Coup-Ruthless-Determination/dp/1586485008 http://www.amazon.com/The-Wonga-Coup-Ruthless-Determination/...), the Mark Thatcher operation to try to "regime change" Equatorial Guinea, a small, oil-rich country with a non-democratic government. I'm kind of surprised these kind of operations aren't more frequently attempted. Plus, it would be relatively easy to "succeed" in the very short term -- the problem is in few cases would there be long term better governance as a result.

notahacker 11y ago
There's also Frederick Forsyth's "The Dogs of War", a work of fiction which may have been part of the inspiration behind both plots (Forsyth was rumoured to have mingled with people preparing an actual coup in Equatorial Guinea whilst researching the book) The history of post colonial governance in many African countries is a regular sequence of coups and coup attempts; it's a fair assumption that moneyed Western interests have played a role in sponsoring many of them and simply found existing local opposition groups and ambitious military generals to be a less risky option for conducting operations than foreign mercenaries.
- alricb 11y ago
  The Dogs of War was made into a movie with Cristopher Walken and Tom Berenger, featuring the Manville gun as a kind of super grenade launcher.
- smacktoward 11y ago
  The history of this type of thing goes back even farther, to the mid-19th century -- see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filibuster_%28military%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filibuster_%28military%29. (Back then it was Caribbean and Latin American states that were the usual targets, rather than African ones. But the same logic applies -- the targets were still relatively new post-colonial states, it's just that the colonial power that had most recently been losing its grip was Spain.)
jpatokal 11y ago
Bob Denard threw no less than four coups in the Comoros, with varying degrees of success: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Denard#The_Comoros https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Denard#The_Comoros

by rdl 11y ago

notahacker 11y ago

There's also Frederick Forsyth's "The Dogs of War", a work of fiction which may have been part of the inspiration behind both plots (Forsyth was rumoured to have mingled with people preparing an actual coup in Equatorial Guinea whilst researching the book) The history of post colonial governance in many African countries is a regular sequence of coups and coup attempts; it's a fair assumption that moneyed Western interests have played a role in sponsoring many of them and simply found existing local opposition groups and ambitious military generals to be a less risky option for conducting operations than foreign mercenaries.

alricb 11y ago
The Dogs of War was made into a movie with Cristopher Walken and Tom Berenger, featuring the Manville gun as a kind of super grenade launcher.
smacktoward 11y ago
The history of this type of thing goes back even farther, to the mid-19th century -- see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filibuster_%28military%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filibuster_%28military%29. (Back then it was Caribbean and Latin American states that were the usual targets, rather than African ones. But the same logic applies -- the targets were still relatively new post-colonial states, it's just that the colonial power that had most recently been losing its grip was Spain.)

jpatokal 11y ago

Bob Denard threw no less than four coups in the Comoros, with varying degrees of success: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Denard#The_Comoros https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Denard#The_Comoros