1961 Lebanese coup attempt

The 1961 Lebanese coup d'état attempt was a suppressed coup attempt in Lebanon by the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP-L) on New Year's Eve. On the last day of 1961, two SSNP-L members, company commanders in the Lebanese army, led an unsuccessful attempted lightning coup against President Fouad Chehab, supported by some 200 civilian SSNP members. In the scholarly literature, the coup has been explained as stemming from the party's ideological preference for violence ("bullets over ballots"), its frustration at exclusion from the Lebanese state, and both political and military criticism of the rule of Fouad Chehab.

This resulted in a renewed proscription and the imprisonment of many of its leaders. Most of the party's known activists remained in prison or exile until a general amnesty in 1969. In 1969, the party re-aligned towards Arab nationalism.