# Coup The sudden, illegal seizure of government power — typically by military or political insiders rather than popular revolution. In the vault, coups appear across three contexts: Cold War–era regime changes orchestrated or supported by intelligence agencies (the [[CIA]]'s role in Iran 1953, Guatemala 1954, Chile 1973), the domestic debate over whether January 6, 2021 constituted an attempted coup or "autogolpe" (self-coup by an incumbent), and the palace coups within authoritarian systems (like [[Nikita Khrushchev]]'s removal by the Politburo in 1964). The concept matters because the line between a coup and other forms of power seizure — insurrection, revolution, constitutional hardball, legal but norm-breaking executive action — is where much of the vault's analytical work lives. ## See Also - [[CIA]] — historical role in foreign coups - [[Nikita Khrushchev]] — removed by internal party coup - [[Political Repression]] — the enforcement that follows successful coups