William Tolbert person
also: President Tolbert, Tolbert, Tolbert III, commander-in-chief, president, uncle
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Related entities (most co-mentioned)
United Statescountry · 81980 Liberian coup d'étatevent · 7Richard Tolbertperson · 7Liberiacountry · 5Soviet Unioncountry · 3CIAintelligence service · 3Libyacountry · 3True Whig Partyorganization · 2Operation Gladiooperation · 2Maserato Grouporganization · 2Stephen Tolbertperson · 2Liberian Civil Warevent · 2Truth and Reconciliation Commissionorganization · 1Israelcountry · 1Victoria Tolbertperson · 1Ellen Johnson Sirleafperson · 1Beneath the Cold War: The Death of a Nationbook · 1Sadie and Lennard Deschildperson · 1April 22 Memorial Grouporganization · 1James Dennisperson · 1Firestoneorganization · 1Progressive Alliance of Liberiaorganization · 1G. Bacchus Matthewsperson · 1Elwood Dunnperson · 1
Claims (7)
Progressive Party attempted_coup_against
William Tolbert documented
“demonstration at the executive mansion, the government swiftly retaliated. Tolbert accused Matthews and his associates of masterminding a coup in a legislative address. Intelligence reports revealed that the Progressive People's Party had d…”
▶ Operation Gladio - Liberia @ 39:19
William Tolbert removed_from_power
Israel book_quoted
“and they turned him down, only to give the guy that kills them all of the money. In 1973, he severed relations with Israel. Where's Liza? Richard believes that this was the gravest foreign policy mistake that he made that led to his uncle's…”
▶ Operation Gladio - Liberia @ 30:49
Samuel Doe overthrew
William Tolbert documented
“Elwood Dunn, a member of Toll's cabinet, embarked on a noted career in academia in the U.S. following the coup. He has been trying to determine if the U.S. played a role in Tolbert's ouster. He has not found a paper trail, but he says the U…”
▶ Operation Gladio - Liberia @ 42:05
Liberia overthrew
William Tolbert book_quoted
“And it does a very good job of it doesn't have an author, though, listed. Oh, there it is. Brooks Marmon. It was written in 2017. And I'm just going to read you kind of the highlights here. The U.S. was deeply involved in the overthrow and …”
▶ Operation Gladio - Liberia @ 15:34
William Tolbert targeted_for_regime_change
Soviet Union book_quoted
“and they turned him down, only to give the guy that kills them all of the money. In 1973, he severed relations with Israel. Where's Liza? Richard believes that this was the gravest foreign policy mistake that he made that led to his uncle's…”
▶ Operation Gladio - Liberia @ 30:49
William Tolbert targeted_for_regime_change
Libya book_quoted
“and they turned him down, only to give the guy that kills them all of the money. In 1973, he severed relations with Israel. Where's Liza? Richard believes that this was the gravest foreign policy mistake that he made that led to his uncle's…”
▶ Operation Gladio - Liberia @ 30:49
Samuel Doe assassinated
William Tolbert host_asserted
“They say that the Doe guy is the one that actually went up with the group and killed him. Tipite claims that an American was in the mansion yard as the coup was unfolding, providing one possible theory. Emmanuel Bollier, Doe's Minister of I…”
▶ Operation Gladio - Liberia @ 41:35
Mentions (27)
▶ 15:34
And it does a very good job of it doesn't have an author, though, listed. Oh, there it is. Brooks Marmon. It was written in 2017. And I'm just going to read you kind of the highlights here. The U.S. was deeply involved in the overthrow and …
▶ 16:29
vividly recalls the words that were barked at him after armed soldiers raided his office at the Maserato group, which was his company. And Richard is the brother of William, who was the president.…
▶ 16:57
They are very well wealthy and owned a large corporation there. Liberia's largest and most successful private enterprise was this company that was owned by the brother of the president. International syndicate going on. Richard had just com…
▶ 17:28
William, oh, sorry, Richard is the son of the brother. Sorry, it's his nephew. William Tolbert had been murdered in a bloody coup that ended 150 years of political domination by the nation's American descendant settler elites. And I want to…
▶ 23:32
everything that was ever written about Liberia and the nuances on how this whole thing unfolded. So we're going to carry on a little bit more about this. All right. So in the early morning of April 1980, as the president prepared to go to s…
▶ 24:03
of the executive mansion and executed the commander-in-chief, the president. At least six of the attackers had been trained by the U.S. military. What's that tell you? Operation Gladio. But I want you to take, because I obviously have been …
▶ 26:09
Liberian elite continue to grapple with these events. Indicative of the complex historical relationship between U.S. and Liberia, their surviving family members entertain the possibility that the coup was enabled by basically the CIA. In he…
▶ 26:38
Her youngest son, William Tolbert III, said that this successor government formed by his father's killers received more aid in just five years than the country had received in its entire history, which at that point was like, I mean, they s…
▶ 26:38
Her youngest son, William Tolbert III, said that this successor government formed by his father's killers received more aid in just five years than the country had received in its entire history, which at that point was like, I mean, they s…
▶ 27:34
And they said that they were haunted by the idea that the U.S. actions led to the demise of Tolbert and gave way to a 14-year civil war where over 250,000 Liberians died. And that's just in that 14-year period because they had a couple othe…
▶ 28:08
The closest that Liberia has come to closure was in 2009, a release of a final report on the nation's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Most international media centered around the commission's recommendation that the sitting president, …
▶ 28:36
prospecting for leadership change in Liberia was largely overlooked. Operation Gladio. Likewise, in a book called Beneath the Cold War, The Death of a Nation, a highly critical book on U.S. policy towards Liberia by the husband and wife tea…
▶ 29:50
resulted in what nominally was called the First African Republic in 1847, after a quarter of a century of the ACS being in charge of it. Richard praises the efforts of his uncle to help Liberia emerge from its historical burden. William gen…
▶ 30:20
Throughout the 1970s, Tolbert struggled to balance a reform agenda and international leadership aspirations against pressure from the governing true Whig party and emboldened opposition and the U.S. Tolbert assumed office in 1971 after 19 y…
▶ 30:49
and they turned him down, only to give the guy that kills them all of the money. In 1973, he severed relations with Israel. Where's Liza? Richard believes that this was the gravest foreign policy mistake that he made that led to his uncle's…
▶ 31:20
and the USSR. Not because he was communist, because he definitely was not. But he did want, because the U.S. had basically began cutting him off, because he was trying to merge the gray line or the black and white line of the caste system. …
▶ 31:50
When the U.S. basically, same story, began reducing aid, he started looking for help elsewhere. And, of course, you're not allowed to talk to Libya or the Soviet Union, so he got whacked for that, too. As Tolbert consolidated his authority,…
▶ 32:11
He not only engaged in dialogue that displeased the U.S., but he pursued policies that undermined the ability of American companies, the international syndicate, to exploit Liberian resources. Stephen Tolbert was the president's University …
▶ 32:36
He maintained a vacation home in D.C. and initiated the Americans considerable and irritated the Americans considerably more than his brother, who was the president. He went after a number of U.S. companies operating in Liberia, most notabl…
▶ 33:35
tinkered with the plane. And weirdly enough, no one was able to find the engine that had malfunctioned. Ever. It simply disappeared. So they were never able to find out that the CIA messed with the engine that made the plane crash. Weird. B…
▶ 34:34
in 1974 by the Liberians studying in the U.S. It was led by a man by the name of G. Bacchus Matthews. He had close ties to the Tolbert family. However, he bore a grudge against the president due to his dismissal from the Liberian consulate …
▶ 37:58
CIA assets, setting up organizations to go to Liberia, create havoc, and coup the government. Nothing to see here. In the late 1970s, President Tolbert again angered the U.S. by refusing around-the-clock access to bunkering facilities at Li…
▶ 39:19
demonstration at the executive mansion, the government swiftly retaliated. Tolbert accused Matthews and his associates of masterminding a coup in a legislative address. Intelligence reports revealed that the Progressive People's Party had d…
▶ 39:48
We're going to go walk up all of these steps or take elevators up to the top floor and assassinate the president. Yeah, that didn't happen like that. Tolbert says, I can't say for sure. I would love to know. I hope that one day it will be r…
▶ 40:10
who could overpower forces all the way up from the ground floor to the eighth floor. There is no question the CIA supported the opposition to Tolbert. As to, let's see, James Dennis echoes this assessment. Ask if the 17 soldiers were capabl…
▶ 41:08
was in close contact with the assault. Tolbert III notes that Samuel Doe, the figurehead of the coup, was sleeping on the grounds of the executive mansion while the assault unfolded. If President Doe did not kill Tolbert, who did? Because a…
▶ 42:05
Elwood Dunn, a member of Toll's cabinet, embarked on a noted career in academia in the U.S. following the coup. He has been trying to determine if the U.S. played a role in Tolbert's ouster. He has not found a paper trail, but he says the U…