Bad Times in Burma, Past and Present

Editor's Note: The Burmese government's refusal to permit an effective relief effort for cyclone victims reflects the fundamental nature of a regime that has misgoverned the country for nearly half a century. Current news accounts prompt American Diplomacy's editor to recall his service as an American diplomat there in the 1970s. Burma, now officially called Myanmar by its military regime, is much in the news because of the massive disaster produced by a cyclone that devastated its Irawaddy Delta region on May 3. This disaster is being compounded to the scale of an epic catastrophe and made truly tragic by the regime's refusal to cooperate with the international community in bringing relief to the victims.