President U Ba U

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...

Dag Hammarskjold’s Visit to Rangoon

On 6 February 1956 Dag Hammarskjold, the second Secretary-General of the United Nations, visited Rangoon. Dag Hammarskjold was arguably the UN's best chief ever, providing tremendous intellectual leadership, courage, and managerial talent. His top aides were the greatest international civil servants in history - Dr. Ralph Bunche and Sir Brian Urquhart. Hammarskjold was on a round-the-world tour and later wrote that he came home with two unexpected "favourite countries" - Burma and New Zealand. He also wrote: "I remember the...