In March 2026, we mark the 50th anniversary of the 1976 military coup in Argentina. To reflect on its significance within a broader regional frame, we speak with historians Sebastián Carassai and Kevin Coleman, editors of Coups d’État in Cold War Latin America, 1964–1982. Their work adopts a comparative approach across cases such as Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, and Central America, examining the forces that drove these coups, the roles of the United States and local actors, and the forms of social support that sustained them. In doing so, it challenges the idea that these coups can be treated as a single phenomenon and instead highlights the distinct national dynamics that shaped authoritarian rule and its legacies.