Iacocca Attempted Coup as Executive at Ford, Book Says

DETROIT — Lee A. Iacocca, while president of Ford Motor Co., tried to stage a coup by saying then-Ford Chairman Henry Ford II was senile and incapable of running the nation’s No. 2 auto maker, a new book says.

The book by former Ford executive Walter Hayes said Iacocca, now chairman of Chrysler Corp., made the move while Ford was traveling in China in 1978. Later that year, Iacocca was fired by Ford, grandson of the company’s founder, became Chrysler’s president and rose to chairman in 1979.

The biography of Ford, who died Sept. 29, 1987, is to be published in June. Review copies of “Henry: A Memoir of Henry Ford II” were distributed Wednesday.

Hayes, who retired as vice chairman of Ford of Europe last year, said Iacocca met with Ford directors George Bennett and Joseph Cullman and “argued that Henry, still not 60 years of age, was senile and not up to the job and indicated that there were others in the company who shared his opinion.”

A spokesman for Iacocca said the account was untrue.