Ne Win (Burmese: နေဝင်း IPA: [nè wín]; 24 May or 14 May, 1911 or 10 July, 1910 – 5 December, 2002; born Shu Maung) was a Burmese politician and military commander. He was Prime Minister of Burma from 1958 to 1960 and 1962 to 1974 and also head of state from 1962 to 1981. He also was the founder and from 1963 to 1988 the chairman of the Burma Socialist Programme Party, which from 1964 until 1988 was the sole political party.

Ne Win was the architect of Burmese Way to Socialism, the catastrophic program that turned Burma into one of the world's most impoverished countries. Almost everything was nationalized and the government combined Soviet-style of central planning with superstitious beliefs. In an article published in a February 1974 issue of Newsweek magazine, the Burmese Way to Socialism was described as 'an amalgam of Buddhist and Marxist illogic'. It included such ideals as the nationalisation, isolationism from world economy, mandatory socialist indoctrination courses for civil servants, repression of minorities, expulsion of foreigners, and totalitarian police state. He is known for his numerological interests. He was said to have bathed in dolphins' blood to regain his youth. He was replaced by a new military government as a consequence of 8888 Uprising.