1955
The First US Secretary of State to Visit Myanmar
room Myanmar
people John Foster Dulles President U Ba U Sao Hkun Hkio
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 and the Americans worried that the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL) would soon turn further to the left or that the country would come under communist rule. The Burmese were extremely upset with US support for the Kuomintang army of General Li Mi, who had invaded the Shan states and seized considerable territory east of the Salween; by 1955, the US had reduced its support but Burmese suspicion of American intentions remained. The February 1955 Dulles visit would soon be followed by U Nu's visit to the United States that summer. US-Burma ties improved over the late 1950s and until the 1962 coup.
The first photograph shows John Foster Dulles with President Dr Ba U at Government House, Rangoon. The second shows Dulles seated with Foreign Minister Sao Hkun Hkio who hosted a garden party at Government house of Dulles; Cambridge-educated Sao Hkun Hkio was the Saopha of Mongmit and served as Burma's foreign minister most years from independence until 1962.