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U Nu

Nu (Burmese: ; pronounced: [n]; 25 May 1907 14 February 1995), known


honorifically as U Nu (Burmese: ; pronounced: [ n]) or Thakin Nu, was
a leading Burmese statesman, Social Democratic politician, nationalist, and
political figure of the 20th century. He was the first Prime Minister of Burma
under the provisions of the 1947 Constitution of the Union of Burma, from 4
January 1948 to 12 June 1956, again from 28 February 1957 to 28 October
1958, and finally from 4 April 1960 to 2 March 1962.

Biography
Nu was born to U San Tun and Daw Saw Khin of Wakema, Myaungmya
District, British Burma. He attended Myoma High School in Yangon, and
received a B.A. from Rangoon University in 1929. In 1935 he married Mya Yi
while studying for a Bachelor of Laws.
Political life
Struggle for independence
Nu's political life started as president of the Rangoon University Students
Union (RUSU) with Mr. M. A. Rashid as Vice-President and [U Thi Han] as the
General Secretary. Aung San was Editor and Publicity Officer. Nu and Aung
San were both expelled from the university after an article, Hell Hound
Turned Loose, appeared in the union magazine, which was obviously about
the Rector. Their expulsion sparked off the second university students' strike
in February 1936. Aung San and Nu became members of the nationalist
Dobama Asiayone (We Burmans Association) which had been formed in 1930
and henceforth gained the prefix Thakin ('Master'), proclaiming they were
the true masters of their own land. For a few years after independence in
1948 Nu retained the prefix 'Thakin', but around 1952 he announced that
since Burma was already independent the prefix of 'Thakin' was no longer
needed and henceforth he would be known as U ('Mr') Nu. In 1937 he cofounded with Thakin Than Tun the Nagani (Red Dragon) Book Club which for
the first time widely circulated Burmese-language translations of the Marxist
classics. He also became a leader and co-founder of the People's
Revolutionary Party (PRP), which later became the Socialist Party, and the
umbrella organisation the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL),
which advocated Burmese independence from both Japanese and British

control during the 1940s. He was detained by the colonial government in


1940 along with Thakin Soe, Thakin Than Tun, Kyaw Nyein, U Md, and Dr. Ba
Maw. The prison holding Nu was largely abandoned by the British in the
course of the rapid Japanese advance.[1]
From August, 1943, when the Japanese declared nominal independence for
Burma under a regime led by Ba Maw, Nu was appointed foreign minister. In
1944 he was appointed minister of information until the open rebellion by
the AFPFL against the Japanese military in March, 1945. Though aware of the
resistance and in contact with its leaders, Nu did not actively participate in
the underground activities of the AFPFL up to the rebellion, and unlike its
leading figure Aung San, did not join the rebellion and move to areas under
Allied control.[2] Instead, Nu retreated with the Japanese and Ba Maw in late
April, 1945.[3] Nu was nearly killed on August 12, 1945 when Allied pilots
strafed and destroyed the house Ba Maw had been given by the retreating
Japanese, but both escaped the residence during the attack. Following
Japanese surrender, Nu retired from politics for a time, writing his memoirs of
the war years, Burma Under the Japanese and tracts on Marxism. As a
popular figure with early connections to Aung San and other nationalists from
their student days, however, Nu was drawn back into the politics of the
AFPFL where he initially struggled to keep its Communist contingent within
the party.[4]
After the assassination of its political and military leader Aung San along with
his cabinet ministers on 19 July 1947, U Nu led the AFPFL and signed an
independence agreement (the Nu-Attlee Treaty) with the British Premier
Clement Attlee in October 1947.[5]
Parliamentary era

U Nu with Moshe Dayan during his visit to Israel in 1955.

U Nu in Bandung, Indonesia for the 1955 AsianAfrican Conference.


Burma gained independence from Britain on 4 January 1948. U Nu became
the chairman of the Old Myoma Students Association in Yangon. He became
the first Prime Minister of independent Burma, and he had to deal with armed
rebellion. The rebels included various ethnic groups, White Flag and Red Flag
communist factions, and some regiments in the Army. Yet another challenge
was the exiled Kuomintang (KMT). After being chased out of China by the
victorious Communists, they had established bases in eastern Burma, and it
took several years in the early 1950s to drive them out. A democratic system
was instituted and parliamentary elections were held several times.
Throughout the 1950s, U Nu oversaw the implementation of the Pyidawtha
Plan, a national economic development plan to establish an industrial welfare
state in Burma.
He voluntarily relinquished the Prime Ministerial position in 1956. He was one
of the leaders of the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL) from 1942
to 1963. AFPFL member Ba Swe served as Prime Minister from June 1956 to
June 1957. In 1955, the University of Belgrade (Yugoslavia) awarded him an
honorary doctorate.[6]

On 26 September 1958, he asked the Army Chief of Staff General Ne Win to


take over as a "caretaker government", and Ne Win was sworn in as Prime
Minister on 27 October 1958. In the February 1960 general election, U Nu's
Clean faction of the AFPFL won in a landslide victory over the Stable faction
led by U Ba Swe and Kyaw Nyein. U Nu returned to power forming the
Pyidaungzu (Union) government on 4 April 1960. The Clean AFPFL was
subsequently renamed the Union Party
U Thant had been Secretary to the Prime Minister U Nu before he was
appointed Burmese Ambassador to the United Nations in 1957. U Thant
became the third UN Secretary-General in 1961.

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