Burma: Case of the Clasped Hands

In torpid, neutralist Burma last week, students of the University of Rangoon applied to police for permission to burn Uncle Sam in effigy in front of the U.S. embassy. Police consented, ordered protective barricades placed around the embassy building, and assigned a detail of cops to march along with the students. It was all meant to be orderly, but then a zealot kicked over a barricade. With that, the biggest anti-U.S. riot in Burmese history was on. Countless embassy windows were shattered, and the embassy walls besmeared with paint. Burmese police and troops fired into the crowd. When the smoke...

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