Lyman was due to take part in an alert on the day the coup was set to take place. Gen. Scott had ensured that Lyman would effectively be alone, with no press and no congressmen. Casey even says that Lyman will be in an underground bunker completely alone at that point. And he'd very probably be kept there at least while the bulk of the coup was taking place. The military would be ordered to seize control of the communication network (TV, phone, and radio) and if they weren't told the real reason why, it would probably be under the guise of a suspected infiltration by Communist agents - Broderick was in charge of the troops who would be used for this and he was in on the conspiracy and directly under Gen. Scott, so either the soldiers would go along with it or be dismissed. Lyman's approval rating sat at 29% at the start of the film and Gen. Scott had clearly been presenting himself for quite some time as the ideal alternative to the other 71% - even at the protest that begins the film there are several signs calling for Scott to be President; so he'd likely naturally have popular support to take over, especially if the coup is presented as being in response to a supposed Communist infiltration (since I don't think the fact that it was due to take place during an alert is coincidence). It would be a relatively easy thing for the VP to be "disposed of" on his return to the country after the coup (probably by shooting down the plane and again masking it as being a Communist attack) and it's implied that Lyman doesn't have many friends in congress who would remain loyal to him in such a scenario. Lyman himself would likely be kept alive and in good condition - since, were the coup to fail at any point after it started, Scott could still gain brownie points in the public eye by "rescuing" Lyman - until the coup had gone too far to fail at which point he would either be killed or left to rot somewhere. Once the coup had succeeded, Lyman would have been a liability.
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