Burma was the first country in Southeast Asia to have air-conditioning installed in cars. Twenty years ago, I came into contact with a Dallas resident who served with OSS-101 in Burma. He told me he met the Burmese Prime Minister at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas. I told him he may have the countries confused. He sent me a Xerox copy of Prime Minster U Nu attending a week long inter-faith conference at SMU in the 1950s. I learned a lot about WW2 from him. While historians credit Gandhi with major role in securing Indias independence, this American intelligence officer said the British were terrified that Chandra Bose and his Indian National Army based in Rangoon would incite mutiny in British Indian Army and end British colonial rule. This is why Britain promised independence to India after WW2. The British tried to keep secret that 6,000 Indian troops abandoned at Dunkirk had already joined Chandra Boses Indian National Army. I became friends with Pete who graduated from Harvard Business School and became head of the insurance companies owned by the Murchison Brothers who were the original owners of the Dallas Cowboys. One day, I received a phone call from a friend of Pete who also served in OSS-101. He was an American Intelligence Major attached to General Slims 14th British Army, who became a successful businessman in California and a member of President Reagans Kitchen cabinet. He was the American Intelligence Officer who provided the safe conduct pass to General Aung San for his meeting with General Slim. He and his American military escort had to warn British Officers with their Tommy guns that Aung San was under the protection of US Army. The British Officers wanted to arrest Aung San as a War Criminal. They also told me Edward Law Yone and Harry Hengshoon were officers in the US Army with the rank of Major. I did not know Burmese served as officers in the US Army during WW2. Also several Kachin nurses were awarded the Bronze Star by the US Army. I told them I attended MEHS with the children of Harry Hengshoon. They remember him as Skittles. Major air-conditioning companies for cars were based in Dallas in the 1950s. Skittles stayed two weeks in Dallas at Petes residence and became the representative of one of these firms. Skittles became the sole representative for Southeast Asia, and Burma became the first country in Southeast Asia to have air-conditioned cars in the 1950s. _____
Posted on: Wed, 29 Oct 2014 13:51:29 +0000
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