west poe karen: The "Four-Foot Colonel" Gen Saw Smith Dun ( 1906

The "Four-Foot Colonel" Gen. Smith Dun ( 1906 - 1979 )

In 1946, during the World War II victory parade in London, Field Marshal William Slim and Col Smith Dun were having a conversation. Slim, the commander of the British-Indian forces that had recaptured Burma from the Japanese, turned to nearby reporters and jokingly introduced his companion: “This is Colonel Dun who is o¬nly four-feet tall,” he said. Ever since, Smith Dun has been known as the “Four-foot Colonel.”

The diminutive colonel—an ethnic Karen—received his training at the Indian Military Academy, where he won the first Sword of Honor (given to the best cadet in each year’s intake), and later helmed a contingent of Karen guerrilla forces from the Irrawaddy delta during World War II.

Smith Dun played a key role in the early years of Burma’s independence. He was appointed head of Burma’s armed forces and promoted to the rank of general in a move agreed to by ethnic parties and Burmese nationalists to foster confidence in a future Burmese union that would include all ethnic minority groups.

That confidence was shaken in 1949 when the Karen began their war for independence from Burma. Smith Dun was sacked, along with his fellow Karen troops, and replaced by a man who would later have a dramatic and lingering impact o¬n the nation: Gen Ne Win.

Despite a strong sense of his Karen ethnicity, Smith Dun had always been a loyal and professional leader of the Burmese army. As its commander, he kept his Karen soldiers sharp and disciplined. Suspicion of his ethnic roots, however, lingered even after his dismissal. The government kept him under surveillance until his death in 1979.

Smith Dun spent his final years in Kalaw, Shan State, where he devoted most of his time to gardening, reading and writing. His book, “Memoirs of the Four-Foot Colonel,” was completed shortly before his death and published a year later by Cornell University’s Southeast Asia Program.