The Burmese military staged a coup in 1988, which overthrew the socialist government at that time and seized political power. It then suppressed democratization movements intiated by the NLD [and other political parties]. Many political prisoners were imprisoned.
During these nineteen years, the U.S. Government has engineered numerous counter-revolutionary military coups d'état in a number of countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. It has even used violence to remove puppets of its own fostering, such as Ngo Dinh Diem, once they have ceased to suit its purposes—“kill the donkey as soon as you take it from the mill-stone”, as the saying goes.