When the military seized power in Burma on March 2nd 1962, it was the beginning of one of the longest lasting military dictatorship of modern history. The driving force behind the coup d ́état was General Ne Win, in whose hands all the power was centralized.The present study is in the first place a compendium of the mo- dern political period of Burma and its interaction with Ne Win, but also an attempt of a military and political biography. It further functions as a foundation to explore Burmese traditions of political succession using the example of Ne Win.