Samuel Doe

== 1980 coup d'etat and new government ==
[[File:William R. Tolbert, Jr. (President of Liberia) on September 23, 1976, from- CAC CC 001 18 11 0000 1060 (cropped).jpg|left|thumb|President Tolbert had become very authoritarian in later years]]
{{main|1980 Liberian coup d'état}} Commanding a group of Krahn soldiers, Master Sergeant Samuel Doe led a [[military coup]] on 12 April 1980 by attacking the [[Executive Mansion (Liberia)|Liberian Executive Mansion]] and killing President [[William R. Tolbert Jr.]] His forces killed another 26 of Tolbert's supporters in the fighting. Thirteen members of the Cabinet were publicly executed ten days later. Shortly after the coup, government ministers were walked publicly around Monrovia in the nude and then summarily executed by a firing squad on the beach. The convicted were denied the right to a lawyer or any appeal.<ref>{{cite news|last=White|first=Robin|title=My Verbal Sparring with Charles Taylor|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-17845592|publisher=BBC News|access-date=26 April 2012|date=26 April 2012}}</ref> Hundreds of government workers fled the country, while others were imprisoned.

After the coup, Doe assumed the rank of general and established a People's Redemption Council (PRC), composed of himself and 14 other low-ranking officers, to rule the country. The early days of the regime were marked by mass executions of members of Tolbert's deposed government. Doe ordered the release of about 50 leaders of the opposition [[Progressive Alliance of Liberia|Progressive People's Party]], who had been jailed by Tolbert during the rice riots of the previous month.[[File:Swing and Doe.png|thumb|U. S. Ambassador to Liberia [[William L. Swing]] presenting credentials to Commander-in-Chief Samuel K. Doe, head of state and chairman, People's Redemption Council]]

Shortly after that, Doe ordered the arrest of 91 officials of the Tolbert regime. Within days, eleven former members of Tolbert's cabinet, including his brother [[Frank E. Tolbert|Frank]], were brought to trial to answer charges of "high [[treason]], rampant [[corruption]] and gross violation of [[human rights]]."<ref>{{cite journal |journal=TIME Magazine |date=18 April 1980 |title=LIBERIA: After the Takeover, Revenge |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,924057,00.html#ixzz0dsadsRgy|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080928150953/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,924057,00.html#ixzz0dsadsRgy|url-status=dead|archive-date=28 September 2008}}</ref> Doe suspended the Constitution, allowing these trials to be conducted by a Commission appointed by the state's new military leadership, with defendants being refused both [[legal representation]] and [[trial by jury]], virtually ensuring their conviction.

Doe abruptly ended 133 years of Americo-Liberian political domination. Some hailed the coup as the first time since Liberia's establishment as a country that it was governed by people of native African descent instead of by the Americo-Liberian elite. Other persons without Americo-Liberian heritage had held the Vice Presidency ([[Henry Too Wesley]]), as well as Ministerial and Legislative positions in years prior. Many people welcomed Doe's takeover as a shift favoring the majority of the population that had largely been excluded from government participation since the country's establishment.

However, the new government, led by the leaders of the ''coup d'état'' and calling itself the [[People's Redemption Council]] (PRC), lacked experience and was ill-prepared to rule. Doe became head of state and suspended the constitution but promised a return to civilian rule by 1985.

In the first alleged plot against his government, nine military personnel arrested two months after the original 1980 coup were reportedly jailed for life.

In June 1981, his government denounced another alleged coup in which thirteen members were executed behind closed doors.

Months later, [[Thomas Weh Syen]], an outspoken critic of some of Doe's policies, including the closure months before of the [[Libya]]n diplomatic mission and the forced reduction of staff from fifteen to six at the Soviet embassy, was beaten and arrested on 12 August of that same year, along with four other officers. They were promised a defense attorney, but none was given, and in three days, they were executed, which caused panic among the citizens of the capital.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Dash|first=Leon|date=15 August 1981|title=Liberia Executes 5 Members of Ruling Council|language=en-US|newspaper=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1981/08/15/liberia-executes-5-members-of-ruling-council/60611bd1-84b6-45ee-bfe3-40d1de905e1b/|access-date=12 September 2021|issn=0190-8286|archive-date=22 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191022134643/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1981/08/15/liberia-executes-5-members-of-ruling-council/60611bd1-84b6-45ee-bfe3-40d1de905e1b/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Liberian Criminal Justice System: In Retrospect and Reforms|url=https://www.theperspective.org/articles/0217200602.html|access-date=12 September 2021|website=www.theperspective.org|archive-date=12 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210912151728/https://www.theperspective.org/articles/0217200602.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Liberia's Truth Commission Holds First Public Hearings in the US {{!}} Voice of America - English|url=https://www.voanews.com/archive/liberias-truth-commission-holds-first-public-hearings-us|access-date=12 September 2021|website=www.voanews.com|language=en|archive-date=12 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210912151735/https://www.voanews.com/archive/liberias-truth-commission-holds-first-public-hearings-us|url-status=live}}</ref><!-- [[WP:NFCC]] violation: [[File:Samuel K. Doe During the 1980 Coup.png|thumbnail|Doe (center) holding a walkie-talkie, alongside the other conspirators after the 1980 coup]] -->

=== Theories on the genesis of the coup ===
In August 2008, before a [[Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Liberia)|Truth and Reconciliation Commission]] (TRC) in Monrovia, Doe's former justice minister, Councillor [[Chea Cheapoo]] — who contested the 2011 Liberia Presidential elections — alleged the American [[CIA]] had provided a map of the Executive Mansion, enabling the rebels to break into it; that it was a white American CIA agent who shot and killed Tolbert; and that the Americans "were responsible for Liberia's nightmare".<ref>''The News'' (a Liberian newspaper), 6 August 2008 (retrieved 6–8 Aug.) [http://thenews.com.lr/story.php?record_id=3722&sub=News CIA Agents Executed 1980 Coup] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081010215622/http://thenews.com.lr/story.php?record_id=3722&sub=News |date=10 October 2008 }}</ref> However, the next day, before the same TRC, another former minister of Samuel Doe, Dr. Boima Fahnbulleh, testified that "the Americans did not support the coup led by Mr. Doe".<ref>''The News'', 7 August 2008 (retr. 7–8 Aug.) [http://www.thenews.com.lr/story.php?record_id=3729&sub=News Harry Greaves, Tom Kamara, Others Linked] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081010215644/http://www.thenews.com.lr/story.php?record_id=3729&sub=News |date=10 October 2008 }}</ref>

Some facts of the 1980 coup are still clouded by reports of an "Unknown Soldier".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sherman |first1=Frank |title=Liberia The Land, Its People, History and Culture |date=2010 |publisher=New Africa Press |isbn=9789987160259 |page=61 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1lstRzSWEcUC&dq=Some+facts+of+the+1980+coup+are+still+clouded+by+reports+of+an+%22Unknown+Soldier%22&pg=PA7 |access-date=19 March 2023 |archive-date=8 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230408145224/https://books.google.com/books?id=1lstRzSWEcUC&dq=Some+facts+of+the+1980+coup+are+still+clouded+by+reports+of+an+%22Unknown+Soldier%22&pg=PA7 |url-status=live }}</ref> It is reported that an "unknown soldier" was one of the "white" mercenaries who would have staged the 1980 military takeover of the state. According to the autobiography of Tolbert's wife [[Victoria Tolbert|Victoria]], the First Lady witnessed a masked man with a "white" hand stabbing her late husband.<ref>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1886158126/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller= Victoria Tolbert, Lifted Up] Macalester Park Publishing Company |(retrieved 12 October 2010)</ref>