Ross Mayfield writes about Coup d'eta.  I grew up with the word although I didn't even know how to spell it.  Whenever my father came home intoxicated, he would tell my brother and I that one of us must become a general and rescue the country through Coup d'eta.  That was when General Park Jung-Hee was in power.

My father said he tried the peaceful ways and none worked.  He even met with General Park at one time and demanded that the general hand over the power to civilians.  The general's answer was that he wanted to but he couldn't because of his followers, soldiers who overthrew the administration my father was in.  I guess the general was trapped on the back of a tiger he unleashed.

So my father attempted to put together his own Coup d'eta without success.  Other generals were sympathetic but were not willing to bet their life on the line.  In the end, my father was sentenced to death for his anti-government activities.  Thankfully, he was let go after promising to quit politic.  I am glad he did because, while the general eventually got assassinated by his own man, my father is still very much alive.

Update:

I couldn't find the photo taken after the meeting with General Park on March 17th, 1963, so I took a picture of the one in my father's autobiography.

Get out!  Can't!  How about a picture then?

The shorty on the left is General Park.  My father is the one on the right.  If he looks pissed off, that's because the general had the nerve to say no to him.  Heh.  Steel meets steel was the thought I had when I first saw the picture.