Samuel Kenyon Doe

Liberia 's 21st president and dictator .

He staged a coup on April 12, 1980, executed former President William Tolbert, and became the first African-Liberian to become president. Until Samuel Doe, all Liberian presidents were American-Liberians.

He is the culprit of the Liberian civil war, in which countless Liberians were killed and turned into refugees , and is also a figure who is always mentioned as one of the dictators who met the cruelest end in history .

He had a lot of conflict with William Tolbert, causing a coup. At the time of the coup, the class was an army boss , and his age was only 28 years old . Non -military leaders who have been powered by younger age are North Korea 's Kim Jong -un and Libya 's Muamar Gaddafi (27 years old), and Haiti 's Jean Claod Du Balier ( 19 years old ).[1] Except for Gaddafi, they have been inherited by their father ( Kim Jong -il / François Duvalier ), and among the non -military leaders who took power, they are the youngest head of the country except Gaddafi.[2]

The province that launched the coup attacked the presidential palace and executed President Tolbert and 26 of his supporters. Ten days later, on April 22, 1980, Frank E. Tolbert, the older brother of the already executed former President William Tolbert and the Speaker of the Senate, Richard Abrom Henries, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Charles Cecil, the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Thirteen cabinet members of the Tolbert administration, including Charles Cecil Dennis, were publicly executed. It is said that the executed Tolbert administration ministers were marched through the capital, Monrovia, naked and humiliated, without a proper trial, and were publicly shot on the beach after the march.

In addition, Samuel Do established a military ruling body called the 'People's Redemption Council' and suspended the constitution. In order to stabilize the country, he decided to hand over power to the civilian population in 1985 after only five years of military rule. With the announcement, he ascended to the position of leader of Liberia. Because Liberia's constitution was suspended, he did not assume the leadership position as president, but as the 'Chairman of the People's Redemption Council.'

Afterwards, he showed pro-American tendencies and implemented anti-communist policies, gained support from the US and received aid, and based on this, he managed to lead the country, but Samuel Doe's domestic power base in Liberia was weak. There were a total of seven coup attempts over four years from 1981 to 1985, but all were suppressed. However, as suspicions grew, he implemented repressive rule, and along with this, the domestic economy deteriorated and public support was lost.

Then, the decisive moment for the loss of public support was the presidential election held on October 15, 1985. It was an election that Samuel had promised, but he had no intention of relinquishing power and committed large-scale election fraud . However, even though the election was rigged, he barely received more than half of the votes, 50.9%, and was narrowly elected to the presidency. Although he somehow succeeded in maintaining power through rigged elections, Samuel Do's power base was still unstable. On November 12, 1985, Thomas Quiwonkpa, a member of the Gio tribe who had participated in Do's coup in 1980, was elected. Soldiers from the Gio and Mano tribes, led by a general, rebelled against the provincial government and staged a military coup. However, this coup failed, and members of the Gio and Mano tribes who rebelled against the Kiong faction and the Samuel Do government were executed on November 15. General Thomas Kiongpa was only 30 years old at the time of his execution.

Samuel Do, who now had no one to trust, pursued an even stronger coercive policy after taking office as president on January 6, 1986. He brutally attacked and oppressed tribes that did not support or opposed him, and only appointed people from his own tribe to important positions. As he was placed in office, he lost overall public support both internally and externally. For example, immediately after taking office as president, the province dispatched the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL), which consists of only the Krahn tribe, the province's own tribe, to areas where the Gio and Mano people lived, to retaliate against the Gio tribe in retaliation for the coup. They massacred the Mano people, and the number of victims is estimated to be around 3,000.

Meanwhile, the post-Cold War trend expanded in the late 1980s . At the same time, the United States no longer needed to support Samuel Doe, who was pursuing a dictatorship while advocating pro-Americanism and anti-communism, so it withdrew its support and began to reduce aid to Liberia, which weakened Samuel Doe's political foundation externally. .

When a civil war broke out on December 24, 1989, by rebel forces rallying around Charles Taylor , Samuel Doe's regime, which had already lost popular support, began to be increasingly put on the defensive, and government forces responded with the ' Invasion ' that occurred on July 29, 1990. They resisted fiercely, including the 'Monrovia Church massacre', but later lost the strength to hold out any longer. To make matters worse, the United States virtually gave up on Samuel Doe, and Samuel Doe staged a sit-in protest at the president's residence against the rebels who had surrounded the capital, Monrovia, but received no response.

In despair, he asks for help from the U.S. Embassy in Liberia. Since 'Operation Sharp Edge' was being implemented by the United States Marine Corps since August 5, 1990, U.S. forces were already in Liberia. ‘Operation Sharp Edge’ was an operation conducted to protect and evacuate American citizens caught up in the Liberian civil war. Samuel Do proposed to the U.S. Embassy that he would immediately resign as president if the U.S. military guaranteed his security. However, the U.S. government had already abandoned Samuel Doe's regime and was not interested in ensuring his security, much less willing to take on the political burden to protect him, so his request was rejected.

Meanwhile, the situation was getting closer and closer to a dead end. Accordingly, in August 1990, ECOWAS[3] ECOMOG is an international joint force in Liberia.[4] decided to send troops. It is said that the Monrovia church massacre was decisive in this decision to send troops. The purpose was to restore domestic order in Liberia that had collapsed due to the civil war, mediate a truce between rebels and government forces, and urge Samuel Doe to resign.

And on the fateful day of September 9, 1990, Samuel Do visited the base established by ECOMOG in the capital, Monrovia. It is not clear why Samuel Doe visited ECOMOG's base that day. ECOMOG was a kind of international peacekeeping force, so the armies of several countries gathered together, and military duties were carried out alternately by the armies of each country. INPEL was founded by Prince Johnson, one of his subordinates, taking advantage of the congestion during the guard shift.[5] They invaded and overpowered Samuel Do's bodyguards and ECOMOG, arrested Samuel Do, and transported him to INPEL's camp. During this suppression process, about 80 of Samuel Doe's bodyguards were killed, but it is said that ECOMOG personnel followed INPEL's instructions well, so no one was injured.

Samuel, who was attended by Prince Johnson's waiting, is seriously tortured and assaulted. Doo begged Johnson to desperately want to talk, but Johnson ordered his subordinates without listening to him and gave him a harsh torture to cut his ears, toes and fingers for 12 hours and later shot . And this process was recorded and disclosed to the world. The remaining body (adult authentication) was shaved and exhibited naked on the street of Monrobia with a shaved head and burned with a cigarette .[6] See the Liberian documentation for more information .

On June 27, 2025, the Liberian government served as president of President and his wife in 35 years. This was also made in the name of clearing the history of civil war and violence after the death of the president. A memorial service was held in Zedru, near President Doo's hometown, and President Joseph Boakay was attended. The funeral was held with an empty coffin, and the mourning period was proclaimed for 1-4 days of July. #