On this date in 1966 Elected leader and first president of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah and his government were ousted in military coup while he was away on a peace mission to Vietnam. The Ghanaian army staged the coup which was supported by the CIA. The two parties had maintained intimate contact with each other for over a year. The CIA felt that Nkrumah's Pan-Africanist government was a treat to a strong Western presence in the continent. At that time Nkrumah was doing more to undermine America's interests than any other African leader. The new military regime they help put in place would be pro-West and be in favor of any ideas America had for Ghana and Africa. The codename for the operation to remove the President was "Operation Cold Chop".

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