U Thaung

[1] U Thaung was born "Aung Bala" in Nyaung Oo township, Mandalay Division, to Thar Phan and Daw Oak.

[2] He began his literary career with humor writing and plays,[3] entering journalism in 1947 with the Yangon-based newspaper The Burma Times.

[1] The following year, following a split in Prime Minister U Nu's Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League, General Ne Win was given control of a two-year caretaker government.

While in the US, he continued to criticize Burmese military rule, most notably in a Reader's Digest article describing his three years of imprisonment.

[2] He also became a consultant for Radio Free Asia and served as editor in chief of the New Era Journal, an independent Burmese news publication printed in Thailand and illegally smuggled into Burma.