Burmese general and socialist statesman, Prime Minister (1958–60), head of state (1962–74), and President (1974–81). An active nationalist in the 1930s, Ne Win was appointed Chief of Staff in Aung San’s Burma National Army in 1943. He led a military coup in 1962, after which he established a military dictatorship and formed a one-party state, governed by the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP). He stepped down from the presidency in 1981 and retired as leader of the BSPP after riots in Rangoon in 1988.