Editing Ne Win (section)

==Early life and struggle for independence==
Ne Win, born Shu Maung, was born into an ethnic Burman family in a small village near [[Paungdale]] about {{convert|200|miles}} north of [[Yangon|Rangoon]].<ref name="obitgu">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/dec/06/guardianobituaries|title=General Ne Win|last=Smith|first=Martin|date=6 December 2002|newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=8 April 2012|archive-date=18 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170118073618/https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/dec/06/guardianobituaries|url-status=live}}</ref> Research by renowned Burma scholar Robert Taylor finds rumors of Ne Win having full or partial Chinese ancestry unsubstantiated. His family and colleagues have repeatedly denied Ne Win had any Chinese ancestry.{{sfn|Taylor|2015}}{{pn|date=March 2025}} He spent two years at [[Rangoon University]] beginning in 1929, and took biology as his main subject with hopes of becoming a doctor. In 1931 he was expelled from the university after he failed an exam.<ref>{{cite book |last= Shaw |first= Karl |title= Power Mad! |trans-title=Šílenství mocných |year= 2005 |orig-year= 2004 |publisher=Metafora |location= Praha |language= cs |isbn=80-7359-002-6 |page= 44 }}</ref> Ne Win eventually became "[[Thakins|Thakin]] Shu Maung", or a member of the nationalist organisation [[Dobama Asiayone]] (We Burmans Association). Other members of the group included [[Aung San]] and [[U Nu]].{{Sfn|Maung|1965|pp=3–4}} In 1941 Ne Win, as a member of the Ba Sein-Tun Ok (Socialist) faction of the Dobama, was one of thirty young men chosen for military training by the Japanese operative Colonel [[Suzuki Keiji]].<ref>{{Cite news|last=Smith|first=Martin|date=6 December 2002|title=Obituary: General Ne Win|language=en-GB|page=2|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/dec/06/guardianobituaries|access-date=7 November 2020|issn=0261-3077|archive-date=18 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170118073618/https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/dec/06/guardianobituaries|url-status=live}}</ref> Their leader was Aung San and they formed the [[Burma Independence Army]] (BIA).{{cn|date=April 2022}} During military training, Shu Maung chose a ''[[nom de guerre]]'', [[Burmese honorific|Bo]] Ne Win (Commander Radiant Sun).{{Sfn|Taylor|2015|p=23}} In early 1942 the [[Imperial Japanese Army|Japanese Army]] and the BIA entered Burma in the wake of the retreating British forces. Ne Win's role in the campaign was to organize resistance behind the British lines.{{Sfn|Maung|1965|p=14}}

The experience of the [[Japanese occupation of Burma]] worked to alienate the nationalists as well as the population at large. Toward the end of the [[Second World War]], on 27 March 1945 the [[Burma National Army]] (BNA, successor to the BIA) turned against the Japanese following the [[British rule in Burma|British re-invasion]] of Burma.{{Sfn|Can-pati|1965|pp=45–49}} Ne Win, as one of the BNA Commanders, was quick to establish links with the British – attending the [[Kandy]] conference in [[Sri Lanka|Ceylon]] and taking charge of the [[Anti-communism|anti-Communist]] operations in the [[Pyinmana]] area as commander of the 4th Burma Rifles after the [[Red Flag Communist Party (Myanmar)|Red Flag Communists]] and the [[Communist Party of Burma]] went underground to fight against the government in October 1946 and on 28 March 1948 respectively.{{Sfn|Can-pati|1965|pp=56–57}} Burma obtained independence on 4 January 1948, and for the first 14 years it had a parliamentary and [[democratic government]] mainly under [[Prime Minister of Myanmar|Prime Minister]] [[U Nu]], but the country was riven with [[political division]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Razvi|first=Mujtaba|title=The Problem of the Burmese Muslims|date=1978|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41394695|journal=Pakistan Horizon|volume=31|issue=4|pages=82–93|jstor=41394695|issn=0030-980X|access-date=17 November 2020|archive-date=25 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220325134706/https://www.jstor.org/stable/41394695|url-status=live}}</ref> Even before [[Independence Day (Myanmar)|independence]], [[Aung San]] was [[assassinated]] together with six of his cabinet members on 19 July 1947; [[U Saw]], a pre-war [[List of premiers of British Burma|prime minister]] and [[Politics|political]] [[Rivalry|rival]] of [[Aung San]], was found guilty of the [[crime]] and [[executed]].{{Sfn|Yawnghwe|1990|p=130}} U Nu as leader of the [[Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma|Socialists]] took charge of the [[Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League]] (AFPFL) formed by the [[Communism|Communists]], [[Socialism|Socialists]] and the BNA in 1945 now that Aung San was dead and the Communists expelled from the AFPFL.{{Sfn|Taylor|2015|pp=34–39}}