Tin Oo

Tin Oo (, ; born 11 March 1927), often referred to as U Tin Oo, is a Burmese politician, activist and retired general in the Armed Forces who was one of the founders of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in Myanmar, the country's largest pro-democracy political party. Military career Tin Oo joined the military on 26 February 1946 as a second lieutenant in Burma Rifles Battalion. He reached the ranks of lieutenant on 7 January 1947, captain on 27 September 1948 and served as executive officer at Armed Forces Training Headquarters. On 22 June 1949, he was transferred to No. 1 Burma Rifles Battalion as company commander. He was promoted to the rank of major on 25 January 1950 and became deputy battalion commander (2IC) of the No. 1 Burma Rifles Battalion and took over the position of acting battalion commander on 27 November 1952. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel on 21 January 1954 and became commander of the 4th Infantry Brigade on 30 May 1957. He was then transferred to Officers Training School, Bahtoo as commandant on 13 September 1957. Throughout 1958 and 1961, he served as the battalion commander for the No. 14 Infantry Battalion (starting 18 November 1959) and No. 2 Burma Rifle Battalion (from 16 February 1962) and after his promotion as colonel, he became acting commander for the No. 13 Infantry Brigade (from 20 February 1962). He was then given the command of South West Regional Military Command and promoted to the rank of colonel on 14 February 1964. On 19 September 1964 he became commander of Central Regional Military Command. He was then promoted to the rank of brigadier general and became deputy chief of staff of the Tatmadaw on 20 April 1972. On 8 March 1974 he was promoted to the rank of general and became commander in chief of the Tatmadaw. He was armed forces commander in chief during the bloody crackdown on student protests surrounding the funeral of former UN Secretary General U Thant.