He became a full general in 1973, and Army chief of staff a year later. Also in 1974, he secretly brokered a prisoner exchange with the Burmese government, in which the opium warlord Khun Sa was ransomed for the freedom of two Soviet doctors whom Khun Sa's followers had kidnapped.*Lintner, Bertil. "Death of a Drug Lord". Asia Times Online. 1 November 2007. Retrieved 14 January 2018. p.2
