Ne Win
Ne Win took Burma in a coup in 1962, closed it to the world for twenty-six years, and ran one of the richest countries in Asia into the United Nations' list of the least developed. He was born Shu Maung near Prome around 1910 and dropped out of Rangoon University. In 1941 he was one of the Thirty Comrades, the young nationalists Japan trained on Hainan to lead an army against the British; the name he took, Ne Win, means brilliant sun. He fought with the Japanese, turned against them with Aung San in 1945, and after Aung San's murder in 1947 became the army's commander, which in a country fighting communist and Karen insurgencies from the day of independence was the strongest position there was. He was handed the government once already, as caretaker in 1958, gave it back after an election, and took it for good on 2 March 1962, arresting the prime minister and the Shan princes and blowing up the students' union building at the university when it protested. The Burmese Way to Socialism nationalised everything down to the shops, expelled the Indian and Chinese traders who had run the economy, banned foreign visitors beyond a day, and left the country to the black market and the army. He governed through numerology and astrology - the currency was demonetised in 1987 into notes of 45 and 90 kyat because nine was his lucky number, wiping out savings and starting the protests of 1988 - and stepped down in July 1988 with a speech warning that when the army shoots it shoots to hit. It shot thousands that August. The generals who took over were his, and he remained the power behind them for another decade, until in 2002 his son-in-law and grandsons were arrested for plotting a coup and he was put under house arrest at eighty-one. He died there in December, and there was no state funeral.
- Lived: 1910 CE – 2002 CE
- Nationality: Burmese
- Roles: dictator, head_of_state, military
