USA Coup

Was there a time when the US military was prepared to lanch a coup?
I read somewhere that one was planed agnest Nixon. :confused:

With Nixon, I believe what you are referring was not a coup per se, but a concern that he might act irrationally in the final days of Watergate. If I recall it correctly, there was a quiet understanding engineered by Al Haig -- Nixon's chief of staff -- that any irrational orders concerning nuclear weapons would not be followed. This really involved the Secretary of Defense (then James Schlesinger), under the 2-man rule then (and now) in effect regarding nuclear weapons release. While the President gives the order to launch, the SecDef must validate the order. I don't know whether there might have been a broader understanding in the military had Schlesinger, for some reason, given his assent.

For something more along the lines of an actual coup, there's a thread going now on the Business Plot during FDR's administration.
 
Wouldn't MacArthur's failure to salute Truman, and the insistence that he had the power to launch nukes without the President's approval, be scarily close to a coup?
 
For the Chairman and Joint Chiefs to attempt a putsch against the President and the Congress, things would have to be pretty bad. I think the Pentagon would only remove the civilian leadership if the generals believed they were acting in defense of the constitution.
 
Wouldn't MacArthur's failure to salute Truman, and the insistence that he had the power to launch nukes without the President's approval, be scarily close to a coup?
Yeah, but Dougie always was an overrated self promoting unproffesional hack.

He credited himself with all successes and blamed his men for his failures.

In case anyone is keeping score at home, for a proffesional officer it's supposed to go the opposite. you credit your troops with your successes and blame YOURSELF for the failurse.
 
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