BARACK OBAMA CAME to Burma in November 2012. Ulysses Grant had visited in 1879 as part of a post-retirement round-the-world tour. Herbert Hoover worked in Burma as a mining engineer at the turn of the century. And Richard Nixon made a trip as vice president, stepping out of his motorcade to confront left-wing student protesters on the side of the road. But Obama was the first sitting US president to visit Burma.
