I actually think it would be disrespectful of Whitlam s memory not to mention that he thought his dismissal was a coup I know enough about how the word is used in Wikipedia never for a government the USG suupports from the Ukrainian articles which call the February coup in Kiev a revolution and a democratic one at that I just looked up the word coup in the Concise OED and HiLo48 is right the OED says violent My recollection was that it said especially a violent one It is unfortunate that that article from The Australian doesn t give a direct quote of a full sentence in which Whitlam says that his dismissal was a coup So I guess his is going nowhere unless I can find a source that does that