U Thant
According to Thant Myint-U, the press conference was arranged entirely by U Nu and without permission from U Thant who was on a mission in Africa at the time. It was the first time that a call for the overthrow of a UN member state government had been made inside the UN. U Thant was aghast and told U Nu that his action was inappropriate. Ne Win was furious and convinced that U Thant had been plotting with U Nu. The general told his men to consider U Thant an "enemy of the state." U Thant flew to Yangon to explain but Ne Win refused to see him. The rancor was such that U Thant, still officially the country's top diplomat, had difficulty renewing his passport.