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The government kept him under surveillance until his death in 1979.

Smith Dun spent his final years in Kalaw, Shan State, where he devoted most of his time to gardening, reading and writing. His book, “Memoirs of the Four-Foot Colonel,” was completed shortly before his death and published a year later by Cornell University’s Southeast Asia Program.

—Yeni

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A Model Soldier
Col Ba Htoo (unknown-1945)

Col Ba Htoo was widely praised for his lifelong devotion to his nation and the military forces that defended it. In 1941, when the Japanese-supported Burma Independence Army took control of Tavoy in southern Burma, Ba Htoo’s hometown, he left behind a wife and three children to join the fight against British colonial rule.

In 1943, Ba Htoo was promoted to major and led a battalion assigned to secure land supply routes in northern Burma. When the BIA was reformed and renamed under Japanese rule, Ba Htoo became a commander of the Northwest Command headquartered in Mandalay. He joined Gen Aung San and other army leaders in January 1945 at a secret meeting in Rangoon to plan a national uprising against Japanese forces scheduled for March 27.

Ba Htoo then returned to Mandalay and launched his own military campaign almost three weeks before the agreed date, declaring war against Japanese forces o­n March 8. Ba Htoo’s motives, however, were strategic; knowing that the Japanese were suspicious of Aung San and his comrades, Ba Htoo distanced himself from Aung San to draw attention away from the resistance movement. When he announced that he and his troops would no longer follow orders from Aung San, the Japanese concentrated their attention o­n Ba Htoo. With the spotlight focused elsewhere, Aung San and his colleagues were able to launch the campaign against Japanese troops as planned o­n March 27, a date that would later become known in Burma as Armed Forces Day.

Ba Htoo’s actions brought additional benefits. Thanks to his initiative, Allied forces arriving in Burma from India were able to enter Mandalay and upper Burma. Ba Htoo took up positions behind the Japanese and simultaneously attacked supply routes. His troops later supported the Allies in recapturing Maymyo.

Aung San praised Ba Htoo’s bravery and initiative, and elevated him to the rank of colonel. The devoted soldier never lived to accept the promotion, nor did he return to the family he left behind in Tavoy. He died of malaria in a small village in southern Shan State in June 1945.

Aung San later wrote that Ba Htoo was an “upright, intelligent, brave and industrious” military leader. In November 1953, the Tatmadaw built an army town in Yaksauk, southern Shan State, to honor Ba Htoo. Named “Ba Htoo Tatmyo” (Fort Ba Htoo), the town was designed to house military families and provide training for army officers.

—Yeni

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‘A Veteran Jailbird’
Col Kyi Maung (1919-2004)

“The army must be professional and apolitical,” said Col Kyi Maung in 1990, articulating a key principle of his military and public life. Kyi Maung was head of the Southwest Command and a member of Gen Ne Win’s Revolutionary Council, which seized control of the government in a 1962 military coup. At that time, Kyi Maung was the o­nly member of the council to strongly oppose the coup. Imprisoned four times for a total of 11 years for his political beliefs, he later referred to himself as “a veteran jailbird.”

Kyi Maung entered politics as a young student at Rangoon University when he took part in the third Rangoon University student boycott against the British government o­n December 20, 1938. While hoisting the student union flag in the frontline of the demonstration, he sustained head wounds when severely beaten by the British police. 

In a clear and public gesture of his political sympathies, Kyi Maung refused to attend a mass rally organized by Ne Win after the 1962 coup. He was retired a year later from the helm of Southwest Command.

In 1988, Kyi Maung joined the democratic movement and became o­ne of the founding leaders of the National League for Democracy. Following the arrest of NLD colleagues Tin Oo and Aung San Suu Kyi in July 1989, Kyi Maung guided the party to a landslide victory in the 1990 general elections.