page_title: Operation Moolah
section_title: Execution
hierarchical_section_title: Operation Moolah / Execution
caption_attribution_description: Two U.S. Air Force Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers from the 29th and 30th Bomb Squadron, 19th Bomb Group, during a mission over Korea in 1950. The aircraft in front is B-29-80-BW Serial # 44-87618, nicknamed "No Sweat". The aircraft in the background is "Four-A-Breast" B-29-40-MO Serial Number 44-86323
context_page_description: Operation Moolah was a United States Air Force effort during the Korean War to obtain through defection a fully capable Soviet MiG-15 jet fighter. Communist forces introduced the MiG-15 to Korea on November 1, 1950. USAF pilots reported that the performance of the MiG-15 was superior to all United Nations aircraft, including the USAF's newest plane, the F-86 Sabre. The operation focused on influencing Communist pilots to defect to South Korea with a MiG for a financial reward. The success of the operation is disputable since no Communist pilot defected before the armistice was signed on July 27, 1953. However, on September 21, 1953, North Korean pilot Lieutenant No Kum-Sok flew his MiG-15 to the Kimpo Air Base, South Korea, unaware of Operation Moolah.
context_section_description: On March 20, 1953, the Joint Chiefs of Staff approved the plan. The approved operation was forwarded on April 1, 1953 to the Joint Psychological Committee at FEAF in Tokyo, Japan, where it was staffed, approved, and advanced to Clark. He dubbed the plan Operation Moolah. The plan offered $50,000 to any pilot who flew a fully mission capable MiG-15 to South Korea. The first pilot to defect would be awarded an additional $50,000. The plan also included complete political asylum, resettlement in a non-Communist country, and anonymity if desired.
   If such a defection occurred, the propaganda value would be significant to U.N. forces. The defection of the pilot would be articulated to the global audience that the pilot fled from the perils of Communism and a totalitarian regime for freedom in South Korea. The operation would also create North Korean and Chinese trepidation and mistrust of their pilots. A Soviet defection would provide vital intelligence and demonstrate the Soviet Union was an active participant in the war. U.N. forces would also have the opportunity to test the MiG-15s capabilities and establish procedures against the MiG-15's technical advantages over the F-86 Sabre.
  On April 26, armistice negotiations between Communist forces and the U.N. began. Clark issued the offer of Operation Moolah on the 27th to coincide with Operation Little Switch. Operation Little Switch was the exchange of sick and wounded POWs between the Communist and U.N. forces. The timing was intentional, because the U.S. and South Korean president Syngman Rhee were not able to agree upon the conditions of the armistice. The intent of Operation Moolah was to discourage captured Communist forces from returning to North Korea or China. The effect was to demonstrate that Communist POWs were treated better under the care of U.N. forces and did not wish to return to their motherland.
  General Clark announced the offer on April 27, 1953 through a shortwave radio transmission. The transmission, translated into Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Russian, was broadcast by 14 radio stations in Japan and South Korea into North Korea and China. Clark stated: "To all brave pilots who wish to free themselves from the Communist yoke and start a new, better life with proper honor ... you are guaranteed refuge, protection, humane care and attention. If pilots so desire, their names will be kept secret forever ..."
   On the night of April 26, 1953, two B-29 Superfortress bombers dropped 1.2 million leaflets over Communist bases in the Yalu River Basin. These leaflets were written in Russian, Chinese, and Korean. According to General Clark, immediately after the drop of the leaflets on April 26, U.N. aircraft did not make visual contact with any MiG aircraft for the following eight days. Though weather may have been a factor, he opines that the leaflets had a direct effect and believes that senior Communist military leaders began to screen for politically unreliable pilots. Incidentally, immediately after the leaflet drop in April, a radio-jamming transmitter whose location could not be identified began to jam all U.N. Russian-language broadcasts of Gen. Clark's MIG-15 offer, but Chinese and Korean broadcasts were unhindered.
  The night of May 10, U.S. B-29 bombers returned to drop an additional 40,000 Operation Moolah leaflets over the Sinuiju and Uiju Airfields. The U.N. broadcast the same message delivered by General Clark in April translated in Russian, Chinese, and Korean. This would be replicated on the evening of May 18, with an additional 90,000 leaflets.
  MiG-15 flights were rumored to have decreased drastically or ceased after the April leaflet drop and radio broadcasts of the offer. However, it has been reported that MiG-15 sorties were suspended for eight days, though a large formation of approximately 166 MiG-15s was sighted on April 30. Thirty MiG-15s were sighted on May 1, forty-four on May 2, and from May 3 to 7, not a single MiG-15 was sighted almost certainly due to poor weather conditions. One noticeable change was the paint pattern of the Communi
caption: B-29 Superfortress in flight over Korea
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