[12] Ne Win resigned in July 1988 in response to the 8888 Uprising that overthrew the Burma Socialist Programme Party, and was replaced by the military junta of the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC).

[13] In foreign affairs, Ne Win followed a strictly neutralist policy during the Cold War, participating in the Non-Aligned Movement and keeping his distance from both the United States and the Soviet Union.

[14] On the other hand, his relations with Mao Zedong and the People's Republic of China were initially excellent, but were temporarily broken between 1967 and 1971, due to Mao's covert support for the Communist insurgency within Burma and the outbreak of anti-Chinese riots by regime supporters; however, in March 1971 relations were fully restored and Chinese economic aid continued.

[17] However, in a book written in Burmese titled The Thirty Comrades, the author Kyaw Nyein gave Ne Win's date of birth as 10 July 1910.

[18] While May 24, 1911, is widely cited as Ne Win's birthdate in many scholarly works and biographical references, the discrepancies among sources warrant acknowledgment.

These conflicting accounts highlight the challenges in determining Ne Win's exact birthdate and may stem from differences in historical documentation or cultural interpretations.

First, Kyaw Nyein had access to historical records and he interviewed many surviving members of the Thirty Comrades when he wrote the book in the mid-to late 1990s.

[20] (Ne Win was one of the Thirty Comrades who secretly went to undergo military training in the early 1940s for the purpose of fighting for independence from the British).

[21] In his book published around 1998, Kyaw Nyein lists the names of the surviving members of the Thirty Comrades whom he had interviewed, although Ne Win was not mentioned among them.

[28] Ne Win eventually became "Thakin Shu Maung", or a member of the nationalist organisation Dobama Asiayone (We Burmans Association).

[29] 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.

[citation needed] During military training, Shu Maung chose a nom de guerre, Bo Ne Win (Commander Radiant Sun).

[33] Ne Win, as one of the BNA Commanders, was quick to establish links with the British – attending the Kandy conference in Ceylon and taking charge of the anti-Communist operations in the Pyinmana area as commander of the 4th Burma Rifles after the 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.

[34] Burma obtained independence on 4 January 1948, and for the first 14 years it had a parliamentary and democratic government mainly under Prime Minister U Nu, but the country was riven with political division.

[38] Ne Win immediately adopted a policy of creating Socialist militia battalions called 'Sitwundan' under his personal command with the approval of U Nu.

[39] On 31 January 1949, Ne Win was appointed Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces (Tatmadaw) and given total control of the army, replacing General Smith Dun, an ethnic Karen.

He rebuilt and restructured the armed forces along the ruling Socialist Party's political lines, but the country was still split and the government was ineffective.

The administration instituted a system including elements of nationalism, Marxism, and Buddhism,[49] though Ne Win lacked interest in either ideology or religion – terming this the Burmese Way to Socialism.

Ne Win's government nationalized the economy and pursued a policy of autarky, which involved the economic isolation of Burma from the world.

The ubiquitous black market and rampant smuggling supplied the needs of the people, while the central government slid slowly into bankruptcy.

In 1985, he issued a decree that 25, 35, and 75 kyat notes would cease to be legal tender, alleging that they were subject to hoarding by black-marketeers and were also used to finance the various insurgencies.

[61] When his soothsayer warned him that there might be a bloodbath, he would stand in front of a mirror and trample on meat to simulate the blood, then shoot his reflection to avert the possibility of an assassination attempt.

[66] The military stormed the campus on 11 December, killing some of the students, recovered the coffin and buried U Thant at the foot of the Shwedagon pagoda, next to the tomb of Thakin Kodaw Hmaing.

[69] The government's economic nationalization program further prohibited foreigners, including the non-citizen Chinese, from owning land, sending remittances, getting business licenses and practicing medicine.

Public attention was successfully diverted by Ne Win from the uncontrollable inflation, scarcity of consumer items and rising prices of rice.

"[86] The Tatmadaw troops shot, killed and maimed hundreds if not up to 3,000 or more demonstrators in various places throughout Burma from the period of 8 to 12 August 1988 and again on 18 September 1988, proving that Ne Win's farewell speech was not an empty threat.

[89] For about ten years, Ne Win kept a low profile but remained a shadowy figure exercising at least some influence on the military junta.