The Captains' Coup

The first English edition of legendary journalist Wilfred Burchett’s eye-witness reporting on the bloodless Portuguese military coup and “Carnation Revolution” of 1974-1975

Legendary journalist Wilfred Burchett’s eyewitness account of the military coup d’étatthat ended authoritarian dictatorship and established democracy in Portugal. 

The Captains’ Coup offers an insightful, poignant narrative of events during the first year following the near-bloodless left-wing “Carnation Revolution” of April 25, 1974 that overthrew a nearly five-decade-long fascistic dictatorship led by António Salazar, and established democracy in Portugal.

This first-ever English edition marks the 50th anniversary of the Portuguese Revolution.Wilfred Burchett (1911-1983) was a well-known but controversial Australian journalist. Described as “one of the most important journalists of the twentieth century,” Burchett was the first Western civilian reporter to enter Hiroshima after the United States’ nuclear attack (June 1945). His accounts of the “atomic plague” (radiation poisoning illness) precipitated vehement US military denials and propelled him to international notoriety. An avowed socialist who presented stories from a non-Western perspective, his reporting from Russia, Vietnam, Korea, Portugal, and Angola reflects a keen understanding of modern revolutionary processes, placing him among the most impactful figures of Cold War generation political journalism.