Ne Win: Biography from Answers.com Mobile

U Ne Win

(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.

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