John Foster Dulles

Prime Minister U Nu’s visit to the United States

Prime Minister U Nu made an official visit to the United States and spent more than three weeks there, from 24 June to 16 July 1955. The tour included Washington D.C., New York, Ann Arbor (Michigan University), Knoxville (Tennessee), San Francisco, Los Angeles, and the Grand Canyon (Arizona). He was accompanied by his wife, Daw Mya Yi, U Thant (then Secretary, Prime Minister's Office), and Colonel Lwin (later head of Military Intelligence) as well as Burma's Ambassador to the US...

The First US Secretary of State to Visit Myanmar

The first US Secretary of State to visit Myanmar was John Foster Dulles, the archetypal Cold Warrior. He came in 1955 at the height of US Cold War interest in Burma, just after the defeat of the French in Indochina. His purpose was to persuade the Burmese government to join the newly formed SEATO (South East Asian Treaty Organization). Relations with the US were not particularly close at the time. The two countries were not very familiar with one another...