Ne Win, U

Ne Win, U ( nā wĭn), 1911–2002, Burmese soldier and political leader. He abandoned his original name, Shu Maung, in 1941 when he joined a Japanese-supported nationalist military group. Becoming commander of the Burmese Independence Army in 1943, he later turned against the Japanese. After Burma's independence from Great Britain in 1948, he became Home and Defense minister. In 1958 he deposed prime minister U Nu. U Nu returned (1960–62), but Ne Win removed him again in a 1962 coup. By 1971, he had transformed Burma (now Myanmar) into a one-party police state led by the Myanmar Socialist Program party. He nationalized trade and industry, expelled Chinese and Indian entrepeneurs, and adopted isolationism as his country's basic foreign policy. President (1974–81) under a constitution adopted in 1974, Ne Win remained party head until 1988, when he resigned, admitting to economic mismanagement. Agitation for free elections led to a military takeover that year, and Ne Win remained the country's apparent behind-the-scenes power for several years. By the time he ceased to control the country, Ne Win had done much to turn his homeland, once one of the British Empire's most prosperous outposts, into one of the world's poorest countries.

---

Ne Win, U

 or Shu Maung

(born May 24, 1911, Paungdale, Burma—died Dec. 5, 2002, Yangôn, Myanmar) Leader of Burma (Myanmar) from 1962 to 1988. He became involved in the Burmese independence movement in the mid-1930s. During World War II he initially served in the Japanese-sponsored army but later helped organize underground resistance to the Japanese. In 1962 he ousted the elected prime minister U Nu; his subsequent regime combined military dictatorship with a socialist economic program. Burma became isolated and impoverished under Ne Win, and he resigned in 1988. He continued to exercise power behind the scenes, however, until shortly before his death.