CIA’S CLANDESTINE SERVICES 

HISTORIES OF CIVIL AIR TRANSPORT

All of our Historical Collections are available on the CIA Library Publication 

page located at https//www.cia.gov/library/publications/historical-collectionpublications/ or contact us at HistoricalCollections@UCIA.gov.

These collections, centered on a theme or 

event and with supporting analysis, essays, 

video, audio, and photographs, are showcased 

in a booklet and DVD that are available to the 

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T 

he History Staff in the CIA Center for the Study of Intelligence fosters understanding of the Agency’s 

history and its relationship to today’s intelligence challenges by communicating instructive historical 

insights to the CIA workforce, other US Government agencies, and the public. CIA historians research 

topics on all aspects of Agency activities and disseminate their knowledge through publications, courses, 

briefings and Web-based products. They also work with other Intelligence Community historians on publication 

and education projects that highlight interagency approaches to intelligence issues. Lastly, the CIA History 

Staff conducts an ambitious program of oral history interviews that are invaluable for preserving institutional 

memories that are not captured in the documentary record.

T 

he Special Collections Department is located on the third floor of the Eugene McDermott Library. The 

Library administration established the Special Collections Department in the mid-1970s to house rare 

books acquired by the library. In nearly thirty years Special Collections has grown to include the History 

of Aviation Collection, the Wineburgh Philatelic Research Library, and the Louise B. Belsterling Botanical Library.

The History of Aviation Collection is the largest section of the department, consisting of a world-class 

aeronautical archive and library. The Wineburgh Philatelic Research Library is an outstanding regional resource 

for both philatelic and postal history. The Louise B. Belsterling Library holds an extraordinary collection of rare 

botanical books, including the library’s oldest volume.

T 

he Historical Collections Division (HCD) of CIA’s Information Management Services is responsible 

for executing the Agency’s Historical Review Program. This program seeks to identify and declassify 

collections of documents that detail the Agency’s analysis and activities relating to historically significant 

topics and events. HCD’s goals include increasing the usability and accessibility of historical collections. HCD 

also develops release events and partnerships to highlight each collection and make it available to the broadest 

audience possible. The mission of HCD is to:

• Promote an accurate, objective understanding of the information that has 

helped shape major US foreign policy decisions.

• Broaden access to lessons-learned, presenting historical material that

gives greater understanding to the scope and context of past actions.

• Improve current decison-making and analysis by facilitating reflection 

on the impacts and effects arising from past foreign policy decisions.

• Showcase CIA’s contributions to national security and provide the 

American public with valuable insight into the workings of its government.

• Demonstrate the CIA’s commitment to the Open Government Initiative and 

its three core values: Transparency, Participation, and Collaboration.
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1.Introduction p 2

2. Summary of Clandestine Services Histories p 4

3. Summary of CAT Histories p 10

4. Excerpts of Documents p 14

5.CD containing the Histories back cover
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T his booklet and CD represent the public release of some of the most closely held activities 

in CIA history concerning one of the most controversial operations in American history. 

Within these pages, you will find excerpts of the CIA’s Clandestine Services Histories of Civil 

Air Transport (CAT) – the precursor to Air America. The Histories were written by Alfred T. Cox 

who was named the President of CAT when CIA acquired it, and guided both the covert operations 

side and the public commercial side of the airline for a number of years. As the name suggests, these 

histories are normally not released in any form to the public. In this case, time and circumstances 

allow us to release these particular products in concert with the 2011 CAT Association Reunion. 

You also will find pictures of the men and women who dedicated their lives to keeping the airline 

afloat through good times and bad. These people became a family in the early days and, although 

many of the founding members have passed on, the CAT community remains committed to the 

memory of the enormous accomplishments they and their families achieved with this airline.

Now-Declassified Secret Histories of 

Secret Operations
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T he four-volume history Civil 

Air Transport: A Proprietary 

Airline by Alfred T. Cox is 

representative of a larger collection of 

such works created during a decadelong period of intense historical study 

within the Clandestine Services of 

CIA. While there had been a small 

historical effort in the Agency since 

its founding in September 1947, such 

efforts focused on the Office of the 

DCI. No significant action had been 

taken to formally record and analyze 

the plans, programs, and activities of 

the lower echelon directorates that 

included the Deputy Director/ Plans 

[today’s National Clandestine Service, 

long known as the Directorate of 

Operations or DO], the Directorate 

of Intelligence, the Directorate of 

Support, or the Directorate of Science 

and Technology.

With CIA’s growing involvement in 

the Vietnam War in the early 1960s, 

senior CIA officers began to realize 

that a concerted effort should be 

made to record the Agency’s actions 

in Southeast Asia, and the numerous 

considerations and policy decisions 

that specifically required the DD/P to 

undertake operations in the region. 

This recognition resulted in the 

assignment, in December 1963, of 

Dr. Kenneth K. Addicott, a senior 

DD/P officer, to collect historical 

documents he felt the directorate needed 

to inform operations officers in Vietnam 

or those scheduled to go there. His 

efforts, continued through another year, 

so impressed DD/P seniors that they 

decided to extend this initial Southeast 

Asia focus to include the whole of 

Clandestine Services activities since the 

Agency’s inception.

In January 1964, DD/P officer John E. 

Baker studied the concept of an extended 

series under the supervision of Philip 

K. Edwards, Chief, CIA Historical 

Staff. In May 1964, Baker produced two 

memoranda on his findings. First, he 

emphasized the necessity of forming 

a specialized team of researchers to 

examine the vast collection of DD/P 

records with a view to selecting and 

retaining, in a separate archive, those 

documents deemed of historic value. As 

to the objective given him by Edwards: 

“To consolidate a record of problems and 

solutions, failures and accomplishments, 

which will put the past into historical 

perspective as background for the 

current direction of Central Intelligence 

and provide a reservoir from which 

particular requirements for historical 

material can be satisfied,” Baker 

responded with a second memorandum. 

He recommended that selected officers 

of the several Clandestine Services 

components, working under the 

guidance and direction of the CIA 

The CSHP – Clandestine Services History Program

A Brief History
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continues...

History Staff, write studies on topics of 

extraordinary and immediate relevance 

suggested by a small Clandestine 

Services Historical Board that would 

meet quarterly. Baker concluded “...this 

proposal will work only if it has the clear 

and unequivocal endorsement of the DD/P.” 

Creation of the CSHP and Its Relation to 

the History Staff.

By that fall, through the efforts of Baker 

and Addicott, and with the active interest 

of DD/P Richard Helms, the outlines 

of a program had taken shape, and on 

30 November, the Clandestine Services 

Historical Program was firmly established 

with Addicott designated its first manager. 

The program’s overall objective was to 

record the history of the first twenty years 

of the Clandestine Services, and then 

update that history in five-year intervals. 

The proposed historical series would 

consist of an eventual 500 individual 

papers and monographs. Four categories, 

deemed of most use, were chronological 

histories of overseas stations, the 

chronological and organizational histories 

of the headquarters components, and 

certain operational monographs that 

would detail programs and operations that 

the directorate determined were worthy 

of fuller treatment than could be given 

in chronological histories. In addition, 

the founders of the program decided 

that as certain previously prepared 

studies, operational reviews, and related 

documentary materials were located, 

and if they met the criteria as history, 

they would be incorporated “as is” into 

the program with the addition of a 

historian’s editorial note. 

Deciding what papers and topics 

needed written coverage devolved to 

the individual Clandestine Services 

components acting under the guidance 

of the Clandestine Services Historical 

Board. While the Clandestine Services 

History Program remained focused 

on DD/P activities, the writers 

coordinated their histories with other 

Agency Directorates when those 

operations involved cross-directorate 

cooperation. This was especially true 

with the Directorate of Support which 

often worked closely with the DD/P.

When the Clandestine Services 

History Program began, the Agency 

already had a small History Staff 

attached to the office of the Director 

of Central Intelligence. Five members 

of the Clandestine Services Research 

Group, in charge of the Clandestine 

Services Historical Program, were 

added to that existing History Staff. 

The officers to manage the component 

programs, and the writers to produce 

the histories, were to come from the 

ranks of Clandestine Services officers 

who were either between assignments 

or could be detailed for a short 

period of time to write on a particular 

subject, usually one with which they 

had operational experience. Soon 

after the program began, however, 

it became apparent that employing 

writers on a part-time, rotating basis 

would produce little meaningful 

history. Instead, the program would 

need officers able to serve full time for 
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considerable periods. Thus, it was decided 

that certain qualified officers about to 

retire, or who had already retired, would 

be selected as full-time writers.

The founders of the Clandestine Services 

History Program realized that a carefully 

researched and articulated story of the 

personnel and activities of most stations 

and headquarters units was a most 

sensitive product and devised strict 

controls for the protection of information. 

As a result, only two copies were made 

of each Clandestine Services history. 

The owning DD/P component held 

the original work, while one copy was 

stored in the DD/P vault. The only copy 

readily available for the cleared “needto-know” reader was the original with 

access requiring supervisory approval. 

To obtain a document one had to fill 

out a circulation log with the name and 

location of each reader recorded, showing 

at any given moment if he possessed, or 

had read, each study. 

Alfred T. Cox, Civil Air Transport, 

and the CSHP

In keeping with the intent of the initiators 

of the CSHP, that authors have familiarity 

– if not actual experience – with the 

operations described, Alfred T. Cox fit 

this criteria. Cox had served in the World 

War II Office of Strategic Services in 

Europe and the China Theater. In East 

Asia, he had met Maj. Gen. Claire L. 

Chennault, the commander of the 14th 

United States Army Air Force based in 

China for operation against Imperial 

Japan. In addition to strategic and tactical 

air campaigns against Japan, the 14th 

USAAF supported the training, logistical 

needs, and overall operations of Cox and 

his OSS colleagues in China and elsewhere 

in Southeast Asia through the end of World 

War II. 

After the war, Cox maintained contact with 

Chennault who had formed, in 1946, a nonscheduled domestic airline in the Republic 

of China known as Civil Air Transport. Cox 

returned to government service in 1949 

with the Office of Policy Coordination just 

as Chennault was urging US Government 

leaders to provide increased military and 

economic assistance to the Nationalist 

Republic of China under Chiang Kai-Shek 

in the struggle against Chinese Communist 

forces led by Mao Tse-Tung. When US 

policymakers agreed to provide increased 

support, and urged that OPC investigate 

lending assistance, Cox went to China 

undercover as Chennault’s special assistant 

to explore possibilities. 

Civil Air Transport proved crucial to US 

efforts to assist the Chinese Nationalists, 

and Cox quickly became involved in dayto-day airline management and operations. 

When Chennault’s original CAT partner, 

Whiting Willauer, resigned in 1952, Cox 

was designated president of the airline, 

a position he held until 1 January 1955. 

The four-volume history he wrote in 1967 

is a first person perspective very much in 

keeping with the goals of those working in 

the Clandestine Services History Program. 

 Alfred Cox, and the other writers 

assigned to the CSHP, fully accomplished 

the objectives begun in 1964, and the 

Clandestine Services History Program 

successfully completed its mission in 1974.
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Historians hate gaps in 

documentary evidence because 

gaps in the record mean 

missing information that could make a 

difference in their work: the smoking 

gun or missing piece of the puzzle; the 

one piece of evidence that could make 

or break the author’s thesis. Archivists 

hate gaps as well, because it is our 

mission to supply historians with as 

much information as possible for their 

research. This four volume history of 

CAT, along with documents previously 

released by CIA, help fill in those gaps 

so that a more complete and accurate 

picture of the relationship between CAT, 

Air America, and CIA can be painted.

The history of Civil Air Transport is 

important because of CAT’s involvement 

in the Cold War, and to uncover many 

accounts of heroic efforts by the men 

and women associated with this airline, 

as it performed its mission to fight 

communism. These people risked 

their lives and, in some cases, lost their 

lives carrying out missions that were 

classified and only now are beginning 

to surface. Their story needs to be told. 

The release of these histories sheds light 

on the official CIA point of view, and 

fills in some of those remaining gaps. 

Filling in the Gaps The Declassification 

of the Four Volume History

Civil Air Transport (CAT): A Proprietary Airline, 1945-1955

To understand the role CAT played in the 

Cold War, it is important to understand 

what was taking place in China during 

the time CAT operated there. The 

Chinese Communist forces were steadily 

overrunning the country while the Chinese 

Nationalists were struggling to hold them 

back. While much of this history is readily 

available, what has not been available 

- until now - is how CAT was used to 

support the Chinese Nationalist generals 

who were trying to hold the line against 

the Communist forces. Also unavailable 

have been details of how CIA purchased 

CAT and how they managed it from across 

the world; details of how CAT was used 

as an instrument of national policy and 

details concerning the key players in CAT’s 

leadership. 

These histories, although heavily redacted 

in areas, tell most of the story and fill in 

many of the gaps in our public knowledge. 

There are still voids in the record even with 

the declassification of this four-volume 

historical work. More than likely there will 

always be blanks because some information 

remains too sensitive to declassify. Still, 

this work presents new information which 

goes a long way in closing the information 

gaps, and thus, helps present a more 

complete picture of Civil Air Transport.

Paul A. Oelkrug, CA

Coordinator of Special Collections

History of Aviation Collection

The University of Texas at Dallas
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