AIR AMERICA: FLYING FOR U.S. AND PROFIT IN ASIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-01601R000900200001-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 16
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 11, 2001
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: December 13, 1972
• Content Type: NSPR

STATOTHR N'ASt:I 'C T ON STAR
Approved For Release 2001103/Q43:I I -1P P80-01
0 (T
~?
gr
By JOHN BURGESS
Special to The Star-News
BANGKOK - "The flying is
non-military; in other words,
`civilian flying. You are flying
for the U.S. governmert, that
is government agencies such
as USOM, USAID, USIS, etc.
While these agencies may be
under CIA direction, you don't
know and you don't care. The
government agencies direct
the routings and schedulings,
,,your company provides the
technical know-how and you
fly the airplane."
Thus an unnamed American
pilot describes "civilian
flying" in Southeast Asia for
Air America and the lesser
luiown Continental Air Serv-
ices - both private companies
on contract to the U.S. govern-
ment. The pilot's comments
are part of a confidential,
-16-pane brochure available at
certain Air Force personnel of-
fices. It is shown to Air Force
pilots interested in flying for
one of the companies upon
,completing their military serv-
ice.
The brochure lists no author
or publisher, but it offers an
.illuminating view, into the in-
ternal operations of Air. Amer-
.:ica, which has played a cru-
,cial role in the Indochina war
theater since the 1950s. Air
America, along with the other
c o pip a n i e s, has airlifted
itroops, refugees, CIA agents,
American politicians, war ma-
terial, food and occasionally
,prisoners all over Southeast
:Asia.
Extravagant Salaries
'The brochure, dated June 29,
-1972, boasts that Air America
:ranked as one of the most
`profitable corporation in the
United States in 1969, a year
,when most of the world's air-
i
limes lost heavily. Air Amer-
average of 100 hours monthly, it hints at the subject of con-
will take home $51,525, All sal- traband:
aries are tax free. "Although flights mainly
A newly hired pilot flying a serve U.S. official personnel
C-7 Caribou transport based in movement and native officials
Vientiane, averaging 100 hours and civilians, you sometimes
flying time monthly, would engage in the movement of
earn a minimum $29,442. The friendly troops, or of enemy
U.S. commercial, pilot average captives; or in the transport of
is 524,000. cargo much more potent than
Also available to Air Amer!- rice and beans! There's a war
ca personnel, in addition to a going on. Use your imagina-
liberal expense account, is life tion!"
and medical insurance, two- Air America works hand-
weeks leave, tickets on other in-hand with the U.S. Air
airlines at 20 percent normal Force. At Udorn air base ill.
cost, PX and government Thailand, Air Force mechan-
mailing privileges and educa- ics repair the airline's trans-
tional allowances for depend- ports and helicopters, many of
ents. Many Air America pilots them unmarked. The Air
are retired military men re- Force has reportedly leased
ceiving military pensions. giant C130 transports when the
'f:nnil' rnvPSt:nrent planes were needed for opera-
"air freight specialists", com-
monly called kickers. Their
job is to push cargo out over
tions in Laos. In the section on
Air America's benefits, the
brochure lists in addition to
normal home and sick leave:
drop zones. S a 1 a r y is "Military leave will be grant-
$1,600-$1,$00 r month. Quali- ent appropriately" an appar-
pe
fications: American' citizen- nt acknowledgement t h a t
ship, air borne training, expo. there are military people
rience with the U.S. Air Force working. directly with Air
preferred.. America.
One should not conclude,
is owned
Air AInc., however, that the salaries, ex-
by a private aviation invest- citement and tax ad ,antages
meat concern called the Pacif- mean that Air. Anicrica pilots
is Corp. Dunn' and Brad hope the war will contiinue. As
'
street
s investment (lit ectory the brochure's author notes in
places its assets in the $10-$50 a typed postscript:
million category, and rates it
"good" as all investment risk. ` "Foreign aid .situation un-
Air America itself employs al- clear pending outcome mili-
tary situation in RVN (Repub-
together about 8,000 persons, lie of Vietnam), but it looks as
ranking in size just below Na- if we'.Il finish the war (and
tional Airlines and above most peace terms favorable for our
of the smaller U.S. domestic side); if so, it is expected that
airlines. a boom among contract opera- -
Formerly called Civil Airiltors will result when irnple-
Transport (CAT), Air America lnented, due to inevitable re-
was organized after World habilitation and reconstruction
War II by General Claire 'aid in wartorn areas.... Job
Chennault, commander of the market highly competitive and
American fighter squadrons in you'll need all the help you
Burma and China known as can get.'
the Flying Tigers. CAT played According to Pacific News
government. a major role in post-war China Service, the following men sit
lIt .employs about 436 pilots, supplying Nationalist troops. on the Air America board of
-according to the pamphlet, of CAT also supplied the French directors:
which .384 are working in during their phase of the war Samuel Randolph Walker -
Southeast Asia. The center of in Indochina. chairman of the board of Wm.
.Air America's operation is Air America is commonly ?C. Walker's Son, New York;
;Laos, where the presence of considered an arm of the CIA. `director of Equitable Life As-
military or military-related In Laos, the CIA for the pasts surance Society; member of
personnel is prohibited by the 10 years or more has main- Federal City, Council, Wash-
'much-abused Geneva Confer- tamed an army of hill tribe- - ingtcn, D.C.; member of Ac-
enceof 1962. men, mainly Thai and Lao tion Council for Better Cities,
Air America's profits are mercenaries. Most of the air 'Urban America, Inc., and life
High r despite the somewhat ex- supply and transport needs for trustee, Columbia University.
Aravagant salaries it pays for this army have been handled William A. Reed - chair-
flying personnel. According to by Air America. elan of the ,board of Simpson
'I'' Y, Co ' chairman of the
Seattle First -National 'Bank;
director of General Insurance
Co.; director of Boeing Co.;
director of Pacific Car Found-
ry Cd.; director of Northern
Pacific Railroad; director of
Stanford Research Institute.
Arthur Berry Richards an -
foreign service officer in Rus-
sia, China and England from
11914 to 1.936; chairman of the
'h o a r d of Cliee.seborough
Ponds, Inc. from 1955 to 1961;
director of United Iospital
Fund, New York; trustee of.
Lenox Hill Hospital.
James Barr Ames - law
partner in. Ropes & Gray, Bos-
ton; director of Air Asia Co.,
Ltd., director of International
Student Association; member,
Cambridge Civic Association
and trustee of Mt. Auburn
Hospital.
STATOTHR
v arre PAM Yey 9reRele,s~
cl e e4 Cpl ' P OP? 00200001-3
q Hugh e ro cfioe Co. ? hector o ,roe
UPI-341) air base tcr aasc a not mention opium explicitly, son Timber Co.; director of
Udorn ai.r base in Thailand an
 STATOTHR WASHTNGTGN ?Qyya~
Appro\ Q1F ease 2001/O4k41FQOG iDP80-01
STATOTHR
PARADE,
r
-A L.
0", 07 1C
A profile of Ma'. Gen. Edv ntortsdale ,
By Stanley Karnow
As he walks his poodle along
the shaded street near his split-
level Alexandria home, Maj. Gen.
Edward Geary Lansdale resembles
any number of retired officers
pasturing in the Washington sub-
urbs. He is still lean and erect de-
spite his 64 years, and, like so
many military.- pensioners, he
finds life somewhat tame after his
adventurous career.
But in contrast to the superan-
nuated colonels who reconstruct:
battles at the dinner table, Lans-
dale's experiences were of a high
order. For he was in times past a
dynamic, ..influential and often
controversial figure who single-
handedly managed foreign gov-
ernments and whosc behind-
the-scenes counsel helped to
shape U.S: policy and practice at
critical junctures .-in recent his-
tory. the Philippines during the
early 1950s, for example, Lansdale
virtually directed the campaign
against the Communist-led I-luks
in his capacity as special adviser
to Ramon Magsaysay, then that
country's defense secretary. In
Saigon not long after, he effec-
tively kept South Vietnamese
President Ngo Dinh Diem in of-
fice by conspiring to crush his do-
mestic foes while . persuading
Washington to support him..
Later, as the Vietnam war esca-
lated,Lansdale was instrumental in
convincing President Eisenhower
and Kennedy that the United
States and its Vietnamese clients
could defeat the Vietcong by rely-
ing on counterinsurgency techn?-`
ques. Some of these techniques,
as disclosed in the secret Penta-
on Papers, have revealed him to
be considerably less savory than
the public image of him as anide-
.'alist.
Little of.
character
the original "ugry American
is a Cray, unassurning elan whose
subdued style borers on self-
effacement. Some of his friends
suggest that he has lost. much of
his verve since his wife's death
last spring, and he himself con-
cedes that her passing has left
him lonely and dispirited. Except
for occasional evenings with old
.cronies, many of them Asia veter-
ans like himself, he leads a rather
secluded existence.
Other friends point out that he
is weary after years of battling
bureaucrats who oppose his un-
conventional ideas, and Lansdale
himself substantiates that view
with bitter humor when he says
that "the knives going in don't
seem to hurt anymore." Yet, as he
speaks, it is clear that he still
burns with a hard flame that is
nearly religious in fervor. His reli-
gion, he explains, is not formal. It
is his faith that the United States
could have successfully played
world policeman by propagating
its political philosophy.
At the core. of Lansdale's doc-
trine is the conviction that Com-
munist guerrillas can be defeated
in brushfire wars by "winning the
hearts and minds" of people. In
Vietnam, according to this thesis,
the United States should have
exported American democratic
principles along with uns, mon-
ey, machinery and food. "We
couldn't afford to be just against
the Communists," Lansdale has
written. "We had to be for some-
thing."
Lansdale's proposals often pro-
voked the fury of Establishment
strategists, some powerful
enough to block his advance-
ment. He has also been derided
as a dreamer whose perception of
reality was, at best, blurred. At
the same time, though, he in-
spired a coterie of disciples who
rded him
ne
rl
re
l
b
as
ta
a
io ~ra
li
le
.
R Mr ?Tr 0 a9IMe2 103 4_01A R80-0
apparent inhispresent manner.He braceci " novels that. that ...
brat, whatever the
validity of their arguments, at
least endowed him with a meas-
ure of literary immortality. Wil-
liam J. Lederer and Eugene Bur-
dick portrayed him in The Ugly
American as Col. Edwin Barnum
Hi{lendale, whose sweet harmon-
ica purportedly stimulated rural
Filipinos to oppose Communism.
Graham Greene, on the other
hand, depicted him in The Quiet
American aSAlden Pyle, the naive
U.S. official who believed that he
could mobilize Vietnamese peas-
ants to resist the Communists by
instilling them with the precepts
of Town Hall democracy.
Although the old soldier has
faded away, the debate lingers
on. just as Lederer and Burdick
approvingly quote their hero as
saying that "if you use the right
key, you can maneuver any per-
son or nation any way you want,"
so Lansdale's disciples still con-
tend that the United States could
have attained its objectives in Vi-
etnam by developing, psychologi-
cal warfare methods more effica-
cious than those employed by the
Communists. This view, which
became popular during the Ken-
nedy Administration, is best artic-
ulated in the articles of Lansdale's
close friend, Robert Shaplen, the
New Yorker correspondent in Sai-
gon, who has long asserted that
the United States and its South Vi-
etnamese proteges could have
beat the Communists by
preemptin the revolution. And
lust as Graham Greene indirectly
reproved Lansdale by declaring
that Vietnamese "don't want our
white skins around telling there
what they want," so his present-
day critics claim that he never ac-
-Stanley Karnow is the former
Washington Post Asian corre-
spondent and the author of Mao
and China: From Revolution to
1601 R000 O OOO01-3
n T1
u
conVxijU?
 STATOTHR
Approved For Release 2% /(;k3/04.g A-RDP80-0160.1 R
September 1972
4
knots, its Arnbrican pilot gripped the landed back at their base. They clit-ribod
the strain of searching the darkness muttered for the thousandth time, "There's gotta
FF
.e
y
k3ut he managed to drop down vino
1`1A E: OLD WORLD WAR TVVO C-46 bounced
and-yawed in the violent turbulence as contour fly the valley floors, below the
rts'twin engines strained to maintain 16.0 Red radar, and just aster dawn they
zl.controls with every Ounce of strength he from the plane, their gray uniforms
could muster, and his eyes ached from soaker; -through with sweat, and the pilot
I\ '.3 E a ~. t L 4 1, i I '" i
mountains on each side. The C-46 was ancient, but its skin had been polished
T Thcy'd taken off from a .secret base over to shine like a mirror. Back toward the tail wore
three hours ago and were threading small blue letters that spelled out "Air America The
their way east of the Tibetan capital of
guerrilias:who were still fighting::
the' Communists.
.-,
1.!?r6 copilot, sweating overthe air chart
An his lap, tried to guide them to the
drop zone that a mysterious American
to avoid the towering Himalayan be an easier way to make a k+ucl