Clayton Bissell Major General Clayton Lawrence Bissell was born in Kane , Pennsylvania , in 1896 . He graduated from Valparaiso University , Indiana , in 1917 with a degree of doctor of laws . In his role as Gen . George Marshall ' s assistant chief of staff for intelligence , he is known for having ordered the suppression of evidence that the Soviets were responsible for the Katyn massacre of Polish officers . World War I service . He enlisted in the Aviation Section , Signal Reserve , August 15 , 1917 , and was commissioned a first lieutenant in the Aviation Section , Signal Reserve , January 12 , 1918 . He began his aviation training at Mohawk , Canada , in September 1917 , and was subsequently stationed at Taliaferro Field , Texas , from November 1917 to January 1918 . He sailed for England with the 22nd Aero Squadron , and received additional flying training at Salisbury Plain in England and aerial gunnery training in Scotland . He served in the Overseas Ferry Service before he was ordered to duty at the front with the 148th Aero Squadron in July 1918 . He served with that unit and with the 41st Aero Squadron until the armistice . He was credited officially with destroying five enemy planes and driving one down out of control ; these six victories qualify him as an ace . He commanded the 639th Aero Squadron with the American Forces in Germany until May 1919 , when he returned to the United States . The interwar years . His first assignment in the United States was Kelly Field , Texas , where he organized and commanded the 27th Aero Squadron . He was promoted to captain ( temporary ) March 11 , 1919 . In January 1920 , he became education and recreation officer at Kelly Field , and commanded the Air Service Group . He was ordered to Washington , D . C . , in June 1920 , for service as chief of the Tactical Operations Section in the office of Air Service . He was commissioned a first lieutenant in the Air Service , Regular Army , July 1 , 1920 . In December 1920 , he went to Langley Field , Virginia , where he graduated from the Air Service Field Officers School in June 1921 . He then remained at Langley Field as flight commander of the 14th Bomb Squadron , and later became an instructor in the Air Corps Tactical School . In November 1921 , he was ordered to Washington for duty in the office of the Chief of the Air Service , as assistant to Brigadier General William Mitchell , serving in that capacity for four years . < / ref > During this tour of duty , he was one of the pilots involved in the controversial " Ostfriesland " bombing that was the crux of Mitchell ' s courtmartial . In January 1924 , he was detailed as advanced agent for the round - the - world flight in British Columbia , Alaska , the Aleutians , Greenland , Labrador , Newfoundland and the Maritime Provinces . On return to Washington , he was transferred to Langley Field in December 1924 to serve as secretary of the Air Service Board . Between October and December 1925 , he served as assistant defense counsel for Mitchell during his court martial , under the direction of lead counsel Congressman Frank R . Reid . He was an instructor at the Air Corps Tactical School at Langley Field , from September 1926 to August 1931 , when he was assigned to the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth , Kansas , as a student . He graduated in June 1933 , and two months later was assigned to the Army War College at Washington , D . C . He graduated in June 1934 and then entered the Chemical Warfare School at Edgewood Arsenal , Maryland . In July 1934 , completing the course there a month later . In October 1934 , he was stationed at Schofield Barracks , Hawaii , as intelligence and operations officer of the 18th Pursuit Group , becoming commanding officer in October 1937 . In July 1938 , he went to the Naval War College at Newport , Rhode Island , and graduated in 1939 . In July 1939 , he became a member of the War Plans Division of the War Department General Staff at Washington , remaining on this duty until the beginning of World War II . World War II . In January 1942 , he was assigned as principal aviation officer on Major General Stilwell ' s staff in China ; in August 1942 he was made commanding general of the 10th Air Force in India and Burma . He returned to the United States in August 1943 . A month later he became assistant chief of air staff for intelligence at Air Force Headquarters in Washington . In January 1944 , he was assigned to the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence on the War Department General Staff , and served in that capacity during the last two years of World War II . He was the Army member of Joint Security Control and on the Joint Intelligence Committee and the U . S . Army member of the Combined Intelligence Committee . He also served as the Army head of psychological warfare and as head of the War Department historical program . Post World War II . In May 1946 , he became military attaché to Great Britain , and in October 1948 , returned to the United States , where he was assigned to the officers ' pool at Bolling Air Force Base , D . C . The following month he was transferred to Headquarters U . S . Air Forces in Europe , with station at Wiesbaden , Germany , where he remained until he returned to the United States in April 1950 , for an assignment to Air Force headquarters in Washington , D . C . He retired in 1950 at the rank of Major General . Controversies . Bissell taught at the Air Tactical School at the same time as did Claire Lee Chennault . The two men became personal enemies when Bissell continued to claim that fighters could not stop bombers from performing their mission . When Chennault was offered an appointment in the U . S . Army Air Corps as a Brigadier General , he asked that he be granted a date of rank one day earlier than Bissell ' s and that was promised , but in the end , Bissell got one day of rank over Chennault . To resolve the personal animosity , Stilwell agreed to have Bissell removed from the China Burma India Theater . While a prisoner of the Germans , U . S . Army Lieutenant Colonel John H . Van Vliet Jr . spent some time at the site of the Katyn Massacre , and concluded from what he saw that the Soviets were responsible for the atrocity . On May 22 , 1945 , immediately upon his arrival in Washington , D . C . , after being freed from captivity , Van Vliet filed a personal report with Bissell indicating what he had found . Bissell classified the report Top Secret in order to minimize its circulation , and later the report disappeared from archives . Although Bissell claimed he had sent the report to the State Department , State said it never received it , and the Army had no receipt to show that it did . When called to account for his actions before a Congressional Committee investigating Katyn in February 1952 , Bissell contended that he was merely carrying out the spirit of the Yalta Conference .