In October of 1968, in what appeared to be the typical and time-honored fashion of Latin American military establishments, the Peruvian Army unseated the constitutionally elected government of Fernando Belaunde Terry. To many in the United States and elsewhere who saw Belaunde as a dedicated reformer in the best tradition of the Alliance for Progress, the golpe represented yet further evidence of the Peruvian military's determination to remain the “watchdog of the oligarchy.” However, the new government, headed by General Juan Velasco Alvarado, declared from the first that, far from being an attempt to defend the oligarchy, their action represented the firm intention of the Peruvian military to carry out the basic reforms that previous civilian governments had been either too weak or too corrupt to effect. Indeed, the new government Velasco promised would be nothing short of nationalist and revolutionary.