General Ne Win (1911-2002), politician, military commander, Prime Minister, President and dictator Artwork

Myanmar Oral History Project - life stories

Oral histories of Myanmar - life stories; some starting as far back as the late 1920’s.From my years of involvement in Myanmar I have become aware of the increasing scarcity of the generation of Myanma citizens who were born during the colonial period and have lived through the tumultuous years since that time. For me, these men and women are "national treasures" whose experience, perseverance and wisdom gained during their long lives will be lost unless we capture their stories in some way. To this end I have decided to interview a number of these elderly citizens. My hope is that these interviews will be of interest to historians, sociologists and other researchers in the future as well as for the family and friends of those interviewed.

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Myanmar Oral History Project - life stories

General Ne Win (1911-2002), politician, military commander, Prime Minister, President and dictator

December 07, 2023 • Season 1 • Episode 73

General Ne Win (1910 -2002) was a Burmese politician and military commander who served as Prime Minister of Burma from 1958 to 1960 and 1962 to 1974, and also as President of Burma from 1962 to 1981. He was the country's military dictator during the Socialist period from 1962 to 1988.

I wonder how many of those listening to this podcast know that the name "Ne Win" was a nom de guerre used by Ne Win during WW2 to protect his identity. His birth name was Shu Maung.

In this episode I have only dealt with his early life up to the start of WW2 in Burma. I will shortly re-publish two interviews with my friend, U Kenneth Ba Thaung who sadly passed away last year at the age of 91. Kenneth had a close involvement with General Ne Win and provides some fascinating insights into Ne Win's personality.

I am again indebted to the leading Asian scholar, Professor Robert Taylor for giving me permission to read some extracts from his biography on the life of General Ne Win entitled General Ne Win: A political biography published in 2015 by the Institute of South East Asian Studies and which can be purchased as an ebook or as a soft cover book - https://bookshop.iseas.edu.sg/publication/2076

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Please feel free to contact me with suggested interviewees at church.peter@gmail.com.

Thank you for listening .

Peter Church