Military Overthrow of the Government

A friend of mine was concerned about a possible military coup d'etat to take over the US Government. She was genuinely concerned and quoted a conspiracy theory where all the changes in DOD leadership could lead to an overthrow of the government.

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My response

Good conspiracy theory. Would make a good movie.

But all military men swear an oath to uphold the Constitution. We have a very long history of apolitical military - Most military men keep their political opinions to themselves, especially before they retire. And after a 10 to 40 year career staying out of politics, it is extremely unlikely that anyone would reverse that. And all their subordinates took the same oath and are trained to not follow an unlawful order.

Suppose some screwball General or Colonel or Master Sergeant decided he wanted to mount a coup to take over.  This has happened in numerous countries. He has to rely on his subordinates to follow his unlawful orders. They are trained to not obey unlawful orders and many of them would alert the command of the conspiracy.  

And what about all the other military officers not in on the overthrow?  Are they going to sit around and let it happen or are they going to bring in a much larger military unit to deal with the bad guys?  I am confident that they would intervene.

And our military is composed of people from the US - with both Republicans and Democrats, generally in sync with the larger society.

And what about the Secret Service, FBI, Homeland Security, Capitol Police, who also took an oath to the Constitution - are they going to be in on a coup?

We are of course talking about treason for anyone involved. A capital offense.  They would have to be crazy to take that risk.

So a military coup in this country is extremely unlikely - close to impossible. And it would not succeed.

But still makes good movies.