The bloodless coup d'état saw Algeria's first President, Ahmed Ben Bella, arrested and his closest supporters imprisoned by Boumédiène and his allies, principally in the Algerian Land Forces.

[1] Final impetuses for the coup include: By mid June, there was a feeling of emergency within the army, leading many commanders to agree to execute a plan that they had no real knowledge of.

[11] At 1:00am, Boumédiène ordered tanks to be deployed throughout the capital at strategic positions such as Grande Poste d'Alger, Radio-Télévision Algérienne, and Place de l'Émir-Abdelkader [fr] (the seat of the party at the time).

[12] The film The Battle of Algiers was being shot in the capital at the time, and many onlookers thought the military movement was connected to shooting the movie.

[15] However, the Pan-African Cultural Festival (PANAF) with attendees from all over the world, including the Black Panthers, would be organized by the Boumédiène administration in 1969 and held in Algiers.

[16] Another radio announcement by Kaïd Ahmed on the same day stated that the "instability, demagogy, anarchy, lies, and improvisation" of Ben Bella's government were over.

On the anniversary of the coup, he addressed the Algerian people again and reemphasized his goals to end regionalism, move progressively toward socialism, keep Algeria 'Algerian', resist foreign influence, support former freedom fighters, and remove remaining French bases from the Sahara.

[20] One year after the coup, Boumédiène pursued these goals by visiting the Eastern, Western, Tiaret, and Oasis wilayahs and progressively nationalizing industries such as mining to guard against foreign interference.

[3] In 1965, there were 2 million unemployed workers and Boumédiène pursued a realist-based policy approach to stabilize the Algerian economy, state, and society while building "a socialism which conforms to the realities of the country.