Break with Neutrality

Ne Win, the ascetic Burmese ruler, never was a man for glad-handing foreign visitors or rubbing elbows with his people. In recent months, the onetime army commander has become even more of a recluse than before. Since midsummer, he has not been seen in public, has met with no members of the press and has limited his contacts among Burmese political leaders to a small handful of inside advisers. Ne Win has good reason to be withdrawn and moody. Right now, Burma has as many troubles as any country in Southeast Asia.

Peking Troublemaking. Ne Win's "Socialist Way," which called for the nationalization of just about everything, continues to lead straight to economic chaos. When Ne Win took over five years ago, Burma was the world's biggest rice exporter; now it produces barely enough to feed itself. The government is trying to persuade Burmese to switch their diet to wheat, which can be imported cheaply. The state-run distribution system has become so chaotic that it has almost choked off the flow of food and goods within the country. Burma's standard of living, never very high, is steadily sinking.

The outlook on the political front is even more grave. Since the rupture in friendly relations with China last June, Peking has openly called for a people's revolt. Radio Peking last week urged the Burmese to fight "until the Burmese Chiang Kai-shek is dead." Toward that end, Peking is funneling money and supplies to an army of 5,000 guerrillas who are known as the "White Flags," the local name for the Peking-lining Communist Party of Burma. During the past four months, they have attacked and held for as long as two days no fewer than nine important towns in the rice-growing crescent north of Rangoon. In one week in October, the White Flags blew up three trains on the government-owned railroad, killing or wounding at least 30 people.

The Communists are also attempting to win control over the back-country tribesmen, who have been in rebellion against the Rangoon government ever since Burma won independence 20 years ago. The main targets of the Communists are the warlike Karen tribes men on the Eastern border with Thai land and the Shan and Kachin tribes, who live along the 1,200-mile border with China. So far, the Communists have had only limited success; the tribesmen distrust the Chinese just as much as they distrust Ne Win. Even so, the Communists claim that Ne Win's regime controls only about two-thirds of the country by day, less than half by night. That is not far from right.

U.S. Caution. Faced with the insurgency threat, Ne Win has gradually backed off from his old aloof position as a 200% neutral. He now seeks aid wherever he can find it. A Russian mission went to Burma a few months ago and discussed the possibility of a sizable Soviet aid commitment. When Premier Eisaku Sato visited Rangoon earlier this month, Ne Win made a pitch for stepped-up payments of Japanese reparations. German Chancellor Kurt Kiesinger goes to Burma later this month, and Ne Win is expected to ask him for increased German aid. There are also reports in Rangoon about big shipments of U.S. counterinsurgency weaponry and of the presence of a U.S. training mission to teach Burmese pilots to fly newly delivered F-86 jet fighters. Washington officials stress that the U.S. intends to avoid any deep commitment in Burma--and with good reason. The country's rapid rate of deterioration makes South Viet Nam seem almost a model of stability.

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