The period from 1958 to 1960 is often viewed more or less correctly as a dress rehearsal for the military takeover in 1962. In actuality, there were two. Nu had plans to take Burma in a new direction in the 1960s, including relinquishing his leadership. Preparations for this new Burma were built around Buddhist nationalism, and were less elitist, and economically more socialist than anything seen in the 1950s. Just as the military took Burma along a “revolutionary” course, Nu’s vision of the future promised nothing less. There is another reason for considering the period from 1958 to 1962 as one entity. Although the military surrendered its direct involvement in the civil administration, it did not surrender its physical control of territory under the republic’s control, probably to avoid the kind of tense situation with regard to the militias that had existed in 1958. The military waited until 1962 to put an end to the Nu regime, but it had the capacity to do this at any time it wished. In the meantime, Burmese watched to see if Nu’s Burma between 1960 and 1962 could live up to the heightened economic prosperity and efficiency of the military caretaker government from 1958 to 1960.