A Chronological Summary of Some of CAT ’s
Historical Milestones
August, 1945 – WWII ends
September 1945 – Whiting Willauer represents Corcoran
brothers’ interest in establishing an airline
in China , Rio
Cathay-S.A. He merges the interest with Chennault who was working with Governor
Kung Yun to establish a commercial airline to rebuild war torn China .
January 1947 – General George C. Marshall mission ends. He
reports failure to reconcile Nationalists and Communists and recommends limited
aid to Chiang Kai-Shek. The Truman Administration was divided as to whom to
support in China .
January 27, 1947 – First C-47 lands in Shanghai from Clark
Field, Manila, piloted by Lew Burridge and Var Green, followed by three more
C-47s piloted by Stu Dew, Paul Holden, Weldon Bigony, Bill Hobbs, Harry
Cockrell and Frank Hughes.
March 1947 – First C-46’s arrive in Shanghai
with Dick Rossi, Joe Rosbert and Bob Conrath as Captains.
April 1947 – CAT contract
amended to allow airlifts of other Chinese government and relief agency cargoes
beyond United Nations contract. This amendment probably saved CAT
financially and drew CAT more directly into
the Chinese Civil War.
May and June 1947 – With contracts with Chinese Post Office
and other governmental agencies, only 40% of CAT ’s
cargo are now UNNRA.
July 1947 – CIA
established under the National Security Act.
July 1947 – CAT air
operations credited with saving millions of flood refugees in Kwangtung
Province .
July to December 1947 – CAT
grows as a commercial cargo airline hauling
raw materials from the interior of China to the coast and needed medical
supplies in the opposite direction under increasing hostile conditions in the
communist held countryside.
1948 marks the change from a relief cargo airline into a
contract airline with the Chinese Nationalists government. Still flying medical
supplies, cows, sheep, silkworm eggs and other exotic cargo, CAT
begins transporting soldiers and refugees out of besieged Nationalist
controlled cities.
January 1948 – CAT
carries supplies into Communist surrounded city of Mukden .
Over a period of five months flies out 4500 wounded soldiers and 22,000
refugees.
March 1948 – CAT flies to
the rescue of CAT employees out of Communist
surrounded Linfen. Communist reports describe a CAT
bomber flew low level runs scattering their troops.
April 1948 – Weishien surrounded by communist forces
trapping CAT employees. CAT
aircraft, with no military weaponry dropped flares and whistling empty beer
bottles scattering the communist forces and allowing the rescue of besieged
employees.
1948 – As each Nationalist city falls to the Communists,
debate rages in the United States
as to what to do in China .
November 1948 – Manchuria , the
industrial heart of China
falls to the Communists. Chiang Kai Shek chooses Hsuchow near Nanking ,
to fight a set piece battle to defeat Mao’s forces. CAT
flies in supplies and ammunition and evacuates wounded soldiers.
April 1949 – As the Berlin Airlift is at its height, CAT
wages an equally heroic defense of Taiyuan ,
but is unable to save the city.
May 1949 – Chennault testifies before Senate Committee that
the U.S. should
help save China
from communist takeover. Chennault has first meetings with CIA
officials about utilizing CAT to help save China .
January 1950 – After extensive losses in the Chinese Civil
war and the loss of the mainland, CAT faces
bankruptcy.
Truman orders the Seventh Fleet into the Straits of Formosa,
protecting Taiwan
from PRC invasion.
Winter of 1950/51 – Chinese military victories in Korea
causes the Truman Administration to become obsessed over where China might
strike next – Hong Kong, Taiwan or French Indochina. The CIA
turnsTaiwaninto a base for launching clandestine anti-Communist operations
throughout Asia . CAT
planes air drop men and supplies to guerrilla teams inside China ,
which forces Mao Tse-tung to keep combat troops in China
that would otherwise have been fighting Americans in Korea .
Korean War establishes CIA ’s
jurisdiction in the Far East and creates the basic
paramilitary capability that the Agency employs for twenty years. CAT
was an essential component of this paramilitary capability.
July 1950 – Al Cox arranges a contract through intelligence
sources for CAT aircraft to operate between Japan
and Korea .
January 1951 – CAT role
in Korea
diminishes as U.S. Air Force takes over.
February 1951 – CAT
pilots fly missions to support the invasion of China
by Nationalist Army units from their sanctuary in Burma .
CAT pilots secretly airlift weapons,
supplies, and American advisors to the Nationalist troops. The invading
Nationalist army is easily defeated and quickly retreats to Burma ,
creating unforeseen problems for U.S.
foreign policy for the next twenty years.
June 1953 – Korean War ends.
November 1953 – Operation Repeat begins, CAT
evacuates Nationalist Army from Burma
to great public fanfare. Receive hero’s welcome upon arrival inTaiwan.
“Soldiers” turned out to be local tribesman with antiquated weapons, old men,
women and children. The bulk of the Army remained in Burma
to lay the foundation for the infamous “Golden Triangle” drug cartel.
September 1955 – CAT
pilot Bob Buol released by Communists after Geneva Conference on IndoChina .
1956-1958 – CAT conducts
air drops in support of the Tibetan resistance against the Communist Chinese
conquest of Tibet .
The Tibetan resistance reaches its height when CAT
successfully airlifts the Dalai Lama to safety in India
in March of 1959.
1959 – Air America
becomes an “arm” of CAT . CIA
relegates CAT to a cover role during the
1960’s serving as an international flag carrier for the Republic of China.
1961 – Pilots from CAT /
Air America
help train the ill-fated pilots in the Bay of Pigs
fiasco in Cuba .
1968 – Mandarin Jet has fatal accident ending CAT
as an airline and the era of Air America
continues until the fateful evacuation of the Saigon
embassy in 1975.
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