|
Perilous Missions Civil Air Transport and CIA Covert Operations in Asia Leary
Perilous Missions Civil Air Transport and CIA Covert Operations in Asia by William M Leary
Soft Cover
281 pages
Copyright 2002
CONTENTS
Prefacevii
Prologue1
Chapter 1: Origins of CAT3
Chapter 2: CNRRA Air Transport22
Chapter 3: CAT and Civil War38
Chapter 4: Siege of Taiyuan54
Chapter 5: The Chennault Plan67
Chapter 6: OPC and CAT84
Chapter 7: The CIA Buys and Airline100
Chapter 8: The Korean War113
Chapter 9: Covert Operations127
Chapter 10: Managerial Turmoil144
Chapter 11: French Indochina156
Chapter 12: A New Regime169
Chapter 13: Dienbienphu180
Chapter 14: End of an Era195
Conclusion225
Epilogue211
Appendix A: Operating Statistics, January 1947 to November 1949214
Appendix B: The Panzer Notes216
Appendix C: Airdrops at Dienbienphu, March 13 to May 7, 1954217
Appendix D: Equipment List, February 1954218
Notes225
Glossary260
Bibliography263
Index272
Preface
In the preface to the first edition of this volume, I wrote the following:
I first encountered CAT during the winter of 1952-53 while serving in the U.S. Air Force at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa. My duties in operations included filing flight plans, logging arrivals and departures, and arranging parking and servicing for transient aircraft. Pot-bellied CAT C-46s often came through Kadena, usually parking in front of the operation building. From time to time, however, word came down f'rom on high that an arriving CAT flight would be handled by an odd group of civilians who inhabited a far corner of the airfield. Questions about these unusual arrangements were silenced with knowing looks.
Many years later, youthful curiosity grew into historical interest about American aeronautical activity in East Asia. The Dragon's Wings (University of Georgia Press), the first volume in a proposed trilogy, appeared in 1976 and detailed the affairs of the China National Aviation Corporation, a pioneering Sino-American airline. The present study deals with CATthe Civil Air Transport. Fate and the availability of adequate documentation permitting, a final volume will tell the story of Air America.
While I am yet to complete the third volume of the trilogy, the past fifteen years has seen information come to light about the later activities of the CIA's air proprietaries in Asia. Much more is known, for example, about CAT's participation in a major CIA covert operation that was aimed at overthrowing the government of Indonesia. Concerned about President Sukarno's leftist leanings, President Dwight D. Eisenhower in November 1957 approved a special political action program to support dissident groups on Sumatra and the Celebes in a rebellion against the central government. Although CAT pilots flew arms and ammunition from the CIA's supply base on Okinawa to rebel forces on Sumatra, resistance soon collapsed on that island.
CAT played an even larger role during fighting in the Celebes in 1958. The airline's PBY flew search-and-rescue missions, while CAT pilots conducted air strikes in unmarked B-26s that had been provided by the U.S. Air Force. On May 17, 1958, Allen L. Pope was shot down during an attack on Ambon. Pope, who previously had flown 57 airdrop missions over Dienbienphu in 1954, survived. His capture and identification as a CAT pilot brought an end to the CIA's Indonesian adventure. Condemned to death, Pope was later released by Sukarno, thanks to the efforts of Attorney General Robert Kennedy.'
CAT also supported a CIA covert operation to assist Tibetan forces in their struggle against Chinese occupation. The intelligence agency had been asked by the Eisenhower administration to provide secret aid to resistance forces at "the roof of the world." The CIA, in turn, directed CAT to perform the hazardous overflight missions. CAT's participation in the project, code-named ST-BARNUM, began in 1958 when the U.S. Air Force turned over a C-118 to the airline for the long-distance flights. The operation expanded the following year, with CAT crews manning "sanitized" air force C-130s. During the monthly phases of the full moon, a small group of C-130s would launch from Takhli Royal Thai Air Force Base, north of Bangkok, for the lengthy flight over India, China, across the high Himalayas, and into Tibet. It took some six to seven hours to reach the drop zone. After delivering a cargo of men and arms to the waiting Tibetans, the C-130s would then complete the round trip to their base in Thailand.
Between November 1959 and May 1960, when the project ended, CAT flew some 35 to 40 missions and delivered some 400 tons of cargo to the resistance fighters of Tibet. Although no aircraft were lost, there were several close calls. James Glerum, former head of the CIA's Special Operations Group and familiar with the CIA's many aerial activities in the 1950s and 1960s, has called ST-BARNUM "the most professional of all Agency overflight programs." It was, he added, a complete success "in terms of the planning and effectiveness against the operational parameters, which left little or no margin for error."2
While CAT crews were conducting the challenging missions to Tibet, the CIA was making organizational changes in its Asian air proprietary. In March 1959, the CIA changed the name of CAT, Inc., to Air America. This was done primarily to avoid confusions about the air proprietary's operations in Japan. By the early 1960s, there were a plethora of company identities under the Pacific Corporation, which was the interface between the secret and open worlds. These included Air America, which operated in Southeast Asia and Japan; Air Asia, which designated the giant maintenance complex on Taiwan; Southern Air Transport, based in Japan; and Civil Air Transport, which flew commercial routes between Seoul and Bangkok. No matter what the name, however, there was a single aircrew seniority list. A pilot, for example, might wear his Civil Air Transport hat and fly a load of tourists into Bangkok, where he would put on his Air America baseball cap and make an airdrop to forces engaged in fighting in Laos.3
Civil Air Transport, the international flag carrier of the Republic of China, prospered as a commercial airline. In 1960, it acquired a Convair 880"the Mandarin Jet"to fly premier passenger service on Far Eastern routes. Individuals who flew the Mandarin Jet have fond memories of the superior quality of service aboard this lavishly appointed airlinerand of course were completely unaware of the real ownership of the company. The Convair was replaced in January 1968 by a Boeing 727, leased for Southern Air Transport. On February 16, 1968, the Boeing crashed during an instrument approach to Taipei, killing 21 of the 63 people on board. The accident became a cause celebre among the international pilot community after two CAT pilots were charged with criminal manslaughter. (Ernest K. Gann's Band of Brothers was loosely based on this episode.) In the aftermath of the accident, CAT gave up its passenger air routes to China Airlines.
Air America became a vital component of the CIA's expanding war in Laos during the 1960s. In the largest paramilitary operation ever undertaken by the agency, a handful of case officers directed native forces in a decade-long battle against major North Vietnamese units. Air America provided the essential transportation infrastructure for this growing "secret war." By 1970, the airline had some two dozen twin-engine transports, another two dozen short-takeoff-and-landing (STOL) aircraft, and some 30 helicopters dedicated to operations in Laos. There were more than 300 pilots, copilots, flight mechanics, and air-freight specialists flying out of Laos and Thailand. During the year, Air America air-dropped or landed 46 million pounds of foodstuffsmainly ricein Laos. Helicopter flight time reached more than 4,000 hours a month in 1970. Air America crews transported tens of thousands of troops and refugees, flew emergency medevac missions, and rescued downed airmen throughout Laos, inserted and extracted road-watch teams, flew nighttime airdrop missions over the Ho Chi Minh Trail, monitored sensors along infiltration routes, conducted a highly successful photoreconnaissance program, and engaged in numerous clandestine missions using night-vision glasses and state-of-the-art electronic equipment. The airline's civilian crew members paid a high cost for operations in this combat environment. In all, 100 Air America personnel died in Laos between 1960 and 1974.4
Air America also provided transport for the CIA's extensive activities in South Vietnam. Most of the airline's flying consisted of routine operations, but even a "milk run" could suddenly turn deadly. On 14 January 1966, for example, an Air America C-47 left Saigon to pick up passengers in Vi Thanh. Although no opposition was expected, Vietcong gunners shot down the aircraft as it approached the field. Pilot William R. Prunner and copilot Johnny Yong Hoe Chang survived the crash only to be executed by the Vietcong. Air-freight specialist Ngyuen Van Thai was led away from the wreckage with a rope around his neck and was not seen again.
The agency's airline took part in the numerous, often chaotic, evacuations that marked the collapse of the South Vietnamese regime in 1975. Indeed, one of the most enduring images of the war's final days was a photograph of an Air America helicopter perched atop the Pittman Apartments in Saigon as CIA officer 0. B. Harnage reached down to help evacuees onboard.
Even before the end of the war in Southeast Asia, the CIA had decided to end the relationship with its air proprietary. On 21 April 1972, Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) Richard Helms concluded that the CIA no longer needed a large covert airlift capability in Asia and ordered the agency to divest itself of ownership and control of Air America and related companies. The air proprietary went out of business on 30 June 1976, returning more than $20 million to the U.S. Treasury.
Air America's public image fared poorly in the post-Vietnam era. In the 1990 movie, Air America, the war in Laos is portrayed as a struggle for the area's opium fields. The CIA and its native allies, the movie alleges, were centrally involved in the drug trade. Air America pilots in the film are portrayed as skilled in landing damaged airplanes, but basically as a wildly unprofessional menagerie of party animals, including a few borderline psychotics.
The CIA, which had remained silent through the years about the role of its air proprietary, finally recognized the contributions of CAT and Air America with a unit citation in June 2001. Signed by DCI George Tenet, it read:
During the hottest days of the Cold War, the aircrews and ground personnel of Civil Air Transport and Air America gave unwavering service to the United States of America in the worldwide battle against communist oppression. Over the course of fbur decades, the courage, dedication to duty, superior airmanship, and sacrifice of these individuals set standards against which all future covert air operations must he judged. From the mist-shrouded peaks of Tibet, to the black skies of China, to the steaming jungles of Southeast Asia, the legendary men and women of Civil Air Transport and Air America always gave full measure of themselves in the defense of freedom. They did so despite often outdated equipment, hazardous terrain, dangerous weather, enemy fire, and their own government bureaucracy. Their actions speak eloquently of their skill, bravery, loyalty, and faith in themselves, each other, and the United States of America.'
William M. Leary Athens, Georgia
All pictures are of the actual item. There may be reflection from the lights in some photos. We try to take photos of any damage. If this is a railroad item, this material is obsolete and no longer in use by the railroad. Please email with questions. Publishers of Train Shed Cyclopedias and Stephans Railroad Directories. Large inventory of railroad books and magazines. Thank you for buying from us.
Shipping charges
US Shipments: When you add multiple items to your cart, the reduced shipping charges will automatically be calculated. For direct postage rates to other countries, send me an email. Shipping varies by weight.
Terms and conditions
All sales are final. Returns accepted if item is not as described. Contact us before making a return. No warranty is stated or implied. Please e-mail us with any questions before bidding or buying.
Thanks for looking at our items.
| 
