Democracy triumphs

SIR – Norman Gerald asks (Letters, November 23) if there is any record of a military coup deposing a tyrant which resulted in a country becoming a full democracy afterwards.

We only have to look at our oldest ally, where a military coup overthrew the Caetano dictatorship in 1974. After a few wobbles, Portugal emerged as the democratic country we now know and was welcomed by the international community as such.

Let us hope the same applies to Zimbabwe. Stephen Kirby

Charing, Kent