Around 4 am on March 2, 1962, General Ne Win, chief of staff of the Burma Defense Forces, seized power in a tightly coordinated coup that ended Burma's parliamentary democracy. Troops secured Rangoon and arrested Prime Minister U Nu, five cabinet members, the chief justice, and around thirty politicians and leaders from the Shan and Kayah states, among them former president and Shan federalist leader Sao Shwe Thaik. The army acted amid fears that the National Seminar on Federalism then meeting in Rangoon would lead to concessions to ethnic minorities or Shan secession.
Ne Win became head of state as chairman of the Union Revolutionary Council of senior officers, abolished parliament the next day, and in April proclaimed the Burmese Way to Socialism. The world's media called the coup bloodless; the one reported death was Sao Shwe Thaik's seventeen year old son Sao Mye Thaik, shot during the arrests, and Sao Shwe Thaik himself died in prison that November. The coup began 26 years of military socialist rule and a military political dominance that persists in Myanmar's politics.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Target identified in Coup Atlas research: Prime Minister U Nu, arrested and detained without physical harm; he was released in October 1966 and later went into exile. Former president Sao Shwe Thaik, arrested alongside him, died in prison in November 1962.
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Ne Win (general, coup leader, chairman of the Union Revolutionary Council)
U Nu (deposed prime minister, imprisoned until 1966)
Sao Shwe Thaik (former president and Shan federalist leader, died in prison November 1962)
Aung Gyi (brigadier, Ne Win's deputy in the Revolutionary Council)
Sao Mye Thaik (seventeen year old son of Sao Shwe Thaik, the coup's one reported death)
Sources
On 2 March 1962 Ne Win seized power in a military staged coup, became head of state as chairman of the Union Revolutionary Council and prime minister, arrested U Nu, Sao Shwe Thaik, and several others, and declared a socialist state-run by a Revolutionary Council of senior military officers; Sao Shwe Thaik's son Sao Mye Thaik was shot dead in what world media generally described as a bloodless coup.
A US Defense Department analysis recorded that on 2 March 1962 General Ne Win, chief of staff of the Burma Defense Forces, overthrew the government of Premier U Nu in a swift bloodless coup; the coup began at 7 am with police and army securing Rangoon, Ne Win announced at 8:50 am that the army had taken control, and the army feared the National Seminar on Federalism could lead U Nu to concessions to the minorities or Shan secession.
SOURCE REVIEWEDForeign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963, Volume XXIII, Document 49open source ↗
The coup was executed with the arrest of Prime Minister U Nu, five other cabinet members, the Chief Justice, and around thirty politicians and former leaders from the Shan and Kayah states; declaring parliamentary democracy unsuitable for Burma, the new regime suspended the constitution and dissolved the legislature, ruling under martial law for the next twelve years.
SOURCE REVIEWEDWikipedia, 1962 Burmese coup d'etat and Wikipedia, Ne Winopen source ↗
Sao Shwe Thaik, the first president of the Union of Burma and last Saopha of Yawnghwe, was arrested in the March 1962 coup by the Union Revolutionary Council headed by General Ne Win and died in prison in November 1962; one of his sons, seventeen at the time, was killed in the coup, apparently its only casualty that day.
Timing discrepancy: the FRUS analysis has the operation securing Rangoon by 7 am with the takeover announced at 8:50 am, while other accounts have troops moving from about 4 am; all agree on March 2, 1962. Sao Shwe Thaik was the former first president, not the sitting head of state in 1962; the sitting prime minister and deposed executive was U Nu. U Nu was released in October 1966 and left Burma in 1969. Handled per checklist caution on deaths: the killing of Sao Mye Thaik and Sao Shwe Thaik's death in prison are cited, not editorialized.
Cross-Reference
Datasets agree. At least two of the three reference datasets we check against carry this event, and none of them disagrees about its date or its result.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Prime Minister U Nu, arrested and detained without physical harm; he was released in October 1966 and later went into exile. Former president Sao Shwe Thaik, arrested alongside him, died in prison in November 1962..
Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset, v2.2.2
Peyton, Buddy, Joseph Bajjalieh, Michael Martin, and Andrea Gerald. 2026. Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset. Cline Center for Advanced Social Research. V.2.2.2. February 17. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. doi: 10.13012/B2IDB-9651987_V10
“Junta of 17 is Governing Burma; Gen. Ne Win Defends Army Coup,” March 3, 1962
“BURMA COUP LAID TO FEAR OF A ’LAOS’ Ne Win’s Deputy Says Army Felt Nation Faced Split,” March 8, 1962
“Burma’s Leader of 26 years Quits, Citing Riots Against Government,” July 24, 1988
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →