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William Pawley


John Simkin

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Talisman Sugar Corporation

CEO/President & Owner-----William Douglas Pawley

"Carlos Manuel Arteaga"

"Recruiter of Miami exiles for the Bay of Pigs Invasion."

"He did a lot of recruiting out of his own house."

"a warehouse manager for the Talisman Sugar Corp. in Palm Beach County".

http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y03/nov03/17e7.htm

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Actually!

The "Talisman" Sugar company was owned by William D. Pawley.

William Pawley thereafter managed to transfer a portion of his sugar production "quota" to the "Fanjul" family of Cuban suger producers, and, the remaining portion of his quota to "Oklaeeta" sugar which was in fact owned by Gulf & Western.

Therefore, Pawley received a payment from these sugar producers for his allocated "quota", yet he himself was not engaged in the activity of sugar production.

The great majority of the thousands of acres of land which "Talisman Sugar/AKA William D. Pawley" owned, was thereafter transferred to the "St. Joe Company", and has recently been acquired (with Federal tax dollars) through the auspices of none other than JEB Bush, Governor of Florida.

http://www.ecodirectory.com/econews.htm

It would appear that Mr. Pawley learned a good lesson from his previous employment in the real estate field when Glen Curtiss, of Curtiss Aviation, (for whom Mr. Pawley later worked in the aviation industry) began the acquisition and development of the Miami-Dade area.

In addition to having siezed the Cuban transportation companies of William D. Pawley, Castro's sugar production continued to eat into the sugar profits of those such as Pawley; the Fanjul family; and such corporations as Gulf & Western and the Haitian Sugar Company (HASCO).

Therefore, the "war" against the sugar refinaries and cane fields of Cuba.

In fact, even sugar on the high seas was not safe from the activities of those who wished to keep cuban sugar from cutting into the price of the big sugar company profits.

http://members.aol.com/bblum6/cuba.htm

However, at the same period in which foreign sugar shipments were being contaminated, Cuban sugar (in excess of any quota's) was being smuggled through Mexico into Texas and thereafter reported as "Texas Sugar" as well as Cuban sugar going into Canada as reportedly "Haitian" sugar, for later shipment into the New England states.

http://www.free-internet.co.uk/users/ambro...ual_things.html

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West Indies Sugar Company

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Loss in Cuba due to Nationalization by Castro----------$84.9 million

http://www.scripophily.net/wisugar.html

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Haitian American Sugar Company (see Plantation Dauphin/Sisal Production

Owned by the West Indies Sugar Company

http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti/mis...uphin/clark.htm

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December 9, 1958, Edward D. Pawley met with Cuban President Batista, reportedly in an attempt to get Batista to resign and take exile in Florida.

This offer was made with the understanding that a "caretaker" government would be established in Cuba after Batista's departure.

On December 26, 1958, Alan Robert Nye was arrested by Castro supporters, and charged with a planned, attempted assassination of Fidel Castro, utilizing a rifle with mounted scope, and a planned firing position from the window of a building.

The previous residence and occupation of Alan Robert Nye as compared to the residence and occupational activities of Edward Pawley, would appear to be more than coincidence.

Edward D. Pawley: Formerly involved in all aspects of the aircraft industry. Residence: Miami Beach, Fl.

Alan Robert Nye: Formerly Navy Pilot, last occupation (prior to arrest), cropduster and aircraft salesman, Residence: Coral Gables, FL

For those unaware, Miami Beach is directly across the bay from Coral Gables.

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Mr. Purdy: You sad a man by the name of DelGado called you and asked you to get somebody out of prison?

Mr. McKeown: I was working where he was working.

Mr. Purdy: You were working with him?

Mr. McKeown: Yes.

Mr. Purdy: Where did you work with him?

Mr. McKeown: I was an inspector. It was a subsidiary of Aerodex. I cannot remember the name of it.

It was in Miami. Aerodex. You have heard of Aerodex, have you not?

Mr. Purdy: No

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Well Mr. Purdy. George Smathers has most certainly heard of Aerodex.

As in Automatic Vending Company/aka "kickback".

And, the Federal Government has most certainly heard of Aerodex, since they filed suit against them under the FCA laws, for having provided inferior bearings for aircraft engine assembly in military aircraft.

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And, since Mr. George Smathers was one of the co-founders and financial sponsors who secured a million dollars in 1945 to construct the "New" La Gorce Country Club in Miami Beach, Fl, then we must assume that Mr. Smathers was well acquainted with Mr. William D. Pawley who was also one of these founding financial members.

Along with Hugh Purvis and the attorney George Sally.

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In violation of the 1903 Treaty between Cuba and the United States, Mr. Pawley was allowed to open a business which was located in the town of Caimanera, Cuba (not on leased Naval Property/Guantanamo).

Four years later, Mr. Pawley opened an additional branch of his business at the leased wharfs/dock area located at Key (Fort) Toro.

In addition to these business locations, Mr. Pawley came to conduct one of the largest business enterprises in Haiti.

NOPE!

Not William D. Pawley. We are referring to his father, Edward Porcher Pawley, of Florence, SC.

E. P. (Edward Porcher) Pawley, father of William D. Pawley, (& four other children) was allowed to open what was considered to be the first American business enterprise in Cuba after signing of the 1903 treaty between the US & Cuba.

In moving to Cuba (and later Haiti), EP Pawley carried with him his entire family which reportedly was 5 son's.

Even though the 1903 treaty specifically prohibited American/foreign enterprise on the Cuban land, in 1904, shortly after occupation of Guantanamo Naval Base by the US Navy & US Marines, Mr. EP Pawley was, for some reason, allowed to open a business which sold furniture and other goods and services.

This business was located in the small town/village of Caimanera which was located just outside the boundary of the Guantanamo Naval Base leased areas.

In 1908, Mr. Pawley was allowed to open a branch business at the wharf area in the vicinity of Key Toro.

Some years later, (after US Marine occupation of Hispanola), Mr. Pawley was by the year 1918, considered to have one of the largest business enterprises in Haiti.

Now, we know exactly how WD Pawley, as well as his entire family, ended up in the Cuban and Haiti/Dominican Republic area.

Tom

Perhaps an additional amount on Haiti may be of some assistance.

Most seem to forget the "French" colonial possession of Saint-Domingue which controlled some 60% of the sugar and coffee export from the Carribbean.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_coloni...of_the_Americas

Others have not found that Just as in Cuba in the 1903-1908 period, with the U.S. Marine Occupation of Haiti in 1915, came American enterprise, such as those economic factions which fully backed the "Pawley" family and created the economic climate for Mr. Edward Porcher Pawley to move his family (including William D.) to Haiti.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiti

While others have never studied the history of Haiti and the two languages which were spoken there, being "Creole" and "French"

http://countrystudies.us/haiti/30.htm.

While others have neglected to study the inter-relationship which existed between "French" Haiti, and "French" New Orleans, as well as the Southern MS coast which was once referred to as "Spainish West Florida".

"A great deal of this prejudice has been brought about because the Administration has seen fit to send southern white men to Haiti. For instance, the man at the head of the customs service is a man who was formerly a parish clerk in Louisiana. The man who is second in charge of the customs service is a man who was formerly Deputy Collector of Customs at Pascagoula, Miss. The man who is Superintendent of Public Instruction was formerly a school teacher in Louisiana. It seems like a practical joke to send a man from Louisiana where they have not good schools even for white children down to Haiti to organize schools for black children. And the mere idea of white Mississippians going down to civilize Haitians and teach them law and order would be laughable except for the fact that the attempt is actually being made to put the idea into execution. These Southerners have found Haiti to be the veritable promised land of “jobs for deserving democrats”. Many of these men, both military and civilian officials, have moved their families to Haiti. In Port-au-Prince many of them live in fine villas. Many of them who could not keep a hired girl in the United States have a half-dozen servants. All of the civilian heads of departments have automobiles furnished at the expense of the Haitian Government. These automobiles seem to be used chiefly to take the women and children out for an airing each afternoon. It is interesting to see with what disdain, as they ride around, they look down upon the people who pay for the cars. It is also interesting to note that the Haitian officials and even the cabinet officers who are officially the superiors of these various heads have no cars. For example, the Louisiana superintendent has a car, but the Haitian Minister of Public Instruction has none. What the Washington Administration should have known was that in order to do anything worth while for Haiti, it was necessary to send men there who were able and willing to treat Negroes as men, and not because of their ability to speak poor French, or their knowledge of “handling niggers"

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5018

Thus came the "Pawley's", and thus exited many of the French/Creole. Many to France. Many to New Orleans where the business of Sugar & Coffee from "Saint-Dominigue" had long been established, and where many of the French had migrated to when the French Possession of Saint-Dominigue was removed as a colonial possession.

One could assume that:

A. Since Pawley was a close associate to President Eisenhower, and that he frequently visited the President---

B. That Jack Porter (Homa Jackson Porter), Republican Campaign Manager for the State of Texas, who was also a close associate of President Eisenhower, and that he also frequently visited the President--

C. And, that on at least one occassion, William Pawley visited President Eisenhower directly ahead of Jack Porter,----

D. That in all probability, William Douglas Pawley, knew Jack Porter of Texas, who, in addition to being the Republican Campaign Manager for the State of Texas, was also President of the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association

(TIPRO).

As well as the fact that: (to be continued)

Western Union

Date: October 17, 1952

From: Jack Porter

To: Joseph McCarthy

Contents: Thanks McCarthy for coming to Texas

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From records released by the FBI:

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"Mr. Pawley is reported to have had considerable bauxite holdings in the Dominican Republic, and may still have them.

Mr. Pawley's brother, Ed, is a big sugar man there, who "praises Trujullo.

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"Pawley expressed belief that Betancourt, President of Venezuela, is one of the most dangerous men in this hemisphere and predicted that what is happening in Cuba today is going to happen in Venezuela in three years unless something very drastic is done in the United States (apparently referring to change in State Department policy).

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From records released by the FBI:

________________________________________________________________________________

________

"Mr. Pawley is reported to have had considerable bauxite holdings in the Dominican Republic, and may still have them.

Mr. Pawley's brother, Ed, is a big sugar man there, who "praises Trujullo.

________________________________________________________________________________

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"Pawley expressed belief that Betancourt, President of Venezuela, is one of the most dangerous men in this hemisphere and predicted that what is happening in Cuba today is going to happen in Venezuela in three years unless something very drastic is done in the United States (apparently referring to change in State Department policy).

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Mr. Donovan: Yes. I would say that he was particularly interested in Latin America. He, for instance, was relatively familar with the Betancourt family, which is a prominent North, South American and Central American family, and their regime as a family.

WC Testimony of Cpt. Donovan, former MC Detachment Commander of LHO.

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Mr. Pawley was of course quite adept at "brown-nosing" when it served his purpose.

From the early days as an Ambassador, Pawley wrote Hoover and complimented him on his leading the FBI.

This of course also included the FBI underlings who at that time were assigned to all Embassy locations.

In fact, Pawley wrote directly to Hoover informing him of how much Pawley objected to having the Hoover FBI personnel removed from his Embassy Staff, what a great asset they were to him, and that he had advised the State Dept against such actions.

In addition, Pawley went out of his way to "drop a hint" at the greatness of Hoover and the FBI, at any time he was in the presences of someone whom he knew would ultimately transmit such praise back to Hoover.

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Mr. Purdy: You sad a man by the name of DelGado called you and asked you to get somebody out of prison?

Mr. McKeown: I was working where he was working.

Mr. Purdy: You were working with him?

Mr. McKeown: Yes.

Mr. Purdy: Where did you work with him?

Mr. McKeown: I was an inspector. It was a subsidiary of Aerodex. I cannot remember the name of it.

It was in Miami. Aerodex. You have heard of Aerodex, have you not?

Mr. Purdy: No

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Well Mr. Purdy. George Smathers has most certainly heard of Aerodex.

As in Automatic Vending Company/aka "kickback".

And, the Federal Government has most certainly heard of Aerodex, since they filed suit against them under the FCA laws, for having provided inferior bearings for aircraft engine assembly in military aircraft.

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And, since Mr. George Smathers was one of the co-founders and financial sponsors who secured a million dollars in 1945 to construct the "New" La Gorce Country Club in Miami Beach, Fl, then we must assume that Mr. Smathers was well acquainted with Mr. William D. Pawley who was also one of these founding financial members.

Along with Hugh Purvis and the attorney George Sally.

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"Mr. Pawley said that he has been a personal friend of Generalisimo RAFEAL TRUJILLO for many years,"

"He explained that he has done this because he and Senator George Smathers of Florida, have been working out a plan with TRUJILLO to democratize the Dominican Republic by an orderly procedure."

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"The above observations by Mr. PAWLEY have not been included in a letterhead memorandum for dissemination for reasons of discretion; however, Mr. PAWLEY has offered his cooperation in any way possible. He has expresssed great confidence in the FBI and it is felt that if the Bureau desires more detailed information concerning he plan that Mr. PAWLEY and Senator SMATHERS are atttempting to work out with TRUJILLO, that such information can be obtained from Mr. PAWLEY."

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FBI Documents related to William D. Pawley

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Mr. Pawley: "I was selected to go to Cuba to talk to Batista to see if I could convince him to capitulate, which I did. I spent 3 hours with him on the night of December 9."

Mr. Sourwine: Did you know that 6 days after you saw Batista on the 9th of December the American Ambassador saw him and told him that the U.S. Government had lost confidence in his ability to keep peace and that to avoid bloodshed the best thing that could happen would be for him to leave the country?"

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Testimony of William D. Pawley before U.S. Senate Subcommittee on The Communist Threat to the United States Through the Caribbean.

Thursday, September 8, 1960

Edited by Thomas H. Purvis
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  • 2 months later...

Thomas, you seem to know a great deal about William Pawley. Could you tell me more about what he was doing between 1945 and 1963. I am especially interested in his business activities in Latin America. Have you seen this (note how he brings Tommy Corcoran into the discission):

Jake Esterline was interviewed by Jack Pfeiffer about the Bay of Pigs operation (10th November, 1975)

Jack Pfeiffer: I have a question, and it is what was Pawley's relation to this whole operation... and your relation with Pawley seems to have been quite close, too.

Jake Esterline: I think it was a hangover relationship from the things that Bill Pawley had done as quite a wheel with a number of very senior people during the Guatemalan operation ... that they felt that Bill, who had been very closely tied into Cuba ... that he was a very prominent man in Florida... that there were a lot of things that he might be able to do, in the sense of getting things lined up in Florida for us... and also his ties with Nixon and with other republican politicos. I used to deal with him quite a bit before.... From my point of view, we never let Bill Pawley know any of the intimacies about our operations, or what we were doing. He never knew where our bases were, or things of that sort. He never knew anything specific about our operations, but he was doing an awful lot of things on his own with the exiles. Some of the people that he had known in Cuba, in the sugar business, etc. I guess he actually was instrumental in running boats and things in and out of Cuba, getting people out and what not, and a variety of things that were not connected with us in any way. He was a political factor from the standpoint from J.C.'s standpoint. I don't know whether Tommy Corcoran entered in at this point... I think Tommy Corcoran was strictly in Guatemala. I guess Corcoran didn't come into this thing, at least not very much.

Jack Pfeiffer: His name turns up once or twice.

Jake Esterline: Yes, I met him once, in connection with Cuba, but I don't remember who... for J.C King, but I don't remember why, at this point. It wasn't anything of any significance. My feeling with Pawley... he was such a hawk, and he was every second week... he wanted to kill somebody inside... . It was from my standpoint - we were trying to keep him from doing things to cause problems for us. This was almost a standing operation.

Jack Pfeiffer: This is what I was wondering, because Tracy Barnes, I know on a number of occasions, seemed to make it quite clear that what the Agency had to be careful of was getting hung with a reactionary label, and then at the same time that was going on, here is all of this conversation back and forth with Pawley and his visits...

Jake Esterline: Really to keep him from doing something to upset the applecart from our standpoint. In that sense, I did fill that role in part for a long time; and the net result of the thing is that Bill thinks I am a dangerous leftist today. If I hadn't been a foot dragger, or hadn't taken all these dissenting opinions of this, things in Cuba would have been a lot better.

Jack Pfeiffer: Was Pawley actually involved in the covert operation in Guatemala?

Jake Esterline: Yes, he, well I am sure he was, in a...

Jack Pfeiffer: I mean, with you as far as you...

Jake Esterline: Not I personally, but he was involved with State Department. I said Rubottom a couple of times, I didn't mean Rubottom, I meant Rusk. He was involved - especially in Guatemala with Rubottom or whoever Secretary of State was, and Seville Sacassaa and Somoza and whoever Secretary of Defense was in getting the planes from the Defense Dept., having them painted over, the decals painted over and flown to Nicaragua where they became the Defense force for that operation.

Jack Pfeiffer: I ran across some comment that he had made to Livingston Merchant.

Jake Esterline: They were good friends, and knew each other. But to my knowledge, he never had any involvement like that during the Bay of Pigs days, although you'd have to ask Ted Shackley about what they did later, because I think he ran some things into Cuba for Ted Shackley.

Jack Pfeiffer: That is beyond my period of interest. He was involved in a great amount of fund raising activity, in the New York area apparently - pushing or raising funds in the New York area - wasn't Droller involved in this too? What was your relation with Droller... were you directing Droller's activities, or was Dave Phillips running Droller...

Jake Esterline: Oh, I sort of ran Droller, except I never knew what Tracy Barnes was going to do next, when I turned my back. Droller was such an ambitious fellow trying to run in... trying to run circles around everybody for his own aggrandizement that you never knew... but Droller would never have had any continuing contact with Pawley, because they had met only once, and I recall Pawley saying that he never wanted to talk to that "you know what" again. He was very unhappy that somebody like Gerry... he just didn't like Gerry's looks, he didn't like his accent. He was very unfair about Gerry, and I don't mean to be unfair about Gerry - the only thing is that Gerry was insanely ambitious. He was his own worst enemy, that was all.

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3. Colonel King was then asked to describe Agency activities on the Cuban problem prior to the establishment of the Task Force, i.e., Branch 4 of the Western Hemisphere Division on 18 January 1960. In his remarks Colonel King stated that in late 1958 CIA made two attempts (each approved by the Department of State) to block Castro's ascension to power. The first attempt was made in November 1958 when contact was established with Justo Carrillo and the Montecristi Group. The second attempt was made on or about the 9th of December 1958 when former Ambassador William D. Pawley, supported by the CIA Chief of Station in Havana, [less than 1 line of source text not declassified] and Colonel King, approached Batista and proposed the establishment of a Junta to whom Batista would turn over the reins of government.

From here, one can move either forward or backward!

From records released by the FBI:

________________________________________________________________________________

________

"Mr. Pawley is reported to have had considerable bauxite holdings in the Dominican Republic, and may still have them.

Mr. Pawley's brother, Ed, is a big sugar man there, who "praises Trujullo.

________________________________________________________________________________

________

"Pawley expressed belief that Betancourt, President of Venezuela, is one of the most dangerous men in this hemisphere and predicted that what is happening in Cuba today is going to happen in Venezuela in three years unless something very drastic is done in the United States (apparently referring to change in State Department policy).

________________________________________________________________________________

_________

Mr. Donovan: Yes. I would say that he was particularly interested in Latin America. He, for instance, was relatively familar with the Betancourt family, which is a prominent North, South American and Central American family, and their regime as a family.

WC Testimony of Cpt. Donovan, former MC Detachment Commander of LHO.

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Oswald Emily Constance William Margaret Bethancourt F W 03/18/1884 84 116 Oswald Sidney Augustine William Margaret Bethancourt M W 04/28/1886 84 117 Oswald Aline Amelia William Margaret Bethancourt F W 01/24/1888 101 908 Oswald James Alvin William Margaret Bethancourt M W 07/12/1891 101 908 Oswald Irma Eulalie William Margaret Bethancourt F W 01/12/1894 101 909 Oswald William Sprague William Margaret Payekeu M W 01/14/1889 87 392 Oswald Charles William Margareth Beth M - 09/10/1873 60.5 1397 Oswald William Peter William Margaretha Betencourt M - 11/06/1871 60.5 541 Oswald Azelia Magdalain William Margaretta Bethancourt F - 10/05/1875 67 833 Oswald Lee William Mary Harvey M W 03/04/1896 127 260 Oswald Clara Elba William Rita Bethancourt F W 01/02/1880 75 236 Oswald Mary Edna William Rita Bethancourt F W 12/24/1878 73 876 Oswald Emma Valentine William Rita Bethancourt

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have spent the last two days reading the FBI files on William Douglas Pawley. Much of the information in the documents are still blacked out. This is especially true of his activities in the early 1960s concerning the overthrow of Castro. It seems that he worked very closely with Manuel Artime during this period.

The FBI carried out its own investigation into Pawley in 1953. This provides a fairly detailed account of his activities up until this time. For example, he was born in Florence, South Carolina, on 7th September, 1896. His father was a wealthy businessman based in Cuba and Pawley attended private schools in both Havana and Santiago. He later returned to the United States where he studied at the Gordon Military Academy in Georgia.

In 1925 Pawley began work as an estate agent in Miami. Two years later he began working for the Curtiss-Wright Corporation. In 1928 Pawley returned to Cuba to become president of the Nacional Cubana de Aviacion Curtiss. He held this post until the company was sold to Pan American Airways in 1932.

Pawley now became president of the Intercontinent Corporation based in New York. The following year he moved to China where he became president of the China National Aviation Corporation. Over the next five years he built three aircraft factories for the Chinese government of Chiang Kai-shek.

Pawley also formed a business relationship with Tommy Corcoran. In 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had asked Corcoran to establish a private corporation to provide assistance to the nationalist government in China. Roosevelt even supplied the name of the proposed company, China Defense Supplies. He also suggested that his uncle, Frederick Delano, should be co-chairman of the company. Chiang nominated his former finance minister, Tse-ven Soong, as the other co-chairman.

For reasons of secrecy, Corcoran took no title other than outside counsel for China Defense Supplies. William S. Youngman was his frontman in China. Corcoran's friend, Whitey Willauer, was moved to the Foreign Economic Administration, where he supervised the sending of supplies to China. In this way Corcoran was able to create an Asian Lend-Lease program.

Pawley also worked closely with Claire Lee Chennault, who was military adviser to Chiang Kai-shek since 1937. Chennault told Tommy Corcoran that if he was given the resources, he could maintain an air force within China that could carry out raids against the Japanese. Corcoran returned to the United States and managed to persuade Franklin D. Roosevelt to approve the creation of the American Volunteer Group.

William Pawley became involved and he arranged for one hundred P-40 fighters, built by the Curtiss-Wright Corporation, that had been intended for Britain, to be redirected to Chennault in China. Pawley also arranged for the P-40 to be assembled in Rangoon. It was Tommy Corcoran's son David who suggested that the American Volunteer Group should be called the Flying Tigers. Chennault liked the idea and asked his friend, Walt Disney, to design a tiger emblem for the planes.

On 13th April, 1941, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a secret executive order authorizing the American Volunteer Group to recruit reserve officers from the army, navy and marines. Pawley suggested that the men should be recruited as "flying instructors".

In July, 1941, ten pilots and 150 mechanics were supplied with fake passports and sailed from San Francisco for Rangoon. When they arrived they were told that they were really involved in a secret war against Japan. To compensate for the risks involved, the pilots were to be paid $600 a month ($675 for a patrol leader). In addition, they were to receive $500 for every enemy plane they shot down.

The Flying Tigers were extremely effective in their raids on Japanese positions and helped to slow down attempts to close the Burma Road, a key supply route to China. In seven months of fighting, the Flying Tigers destroyed 296 planes at a loss of 24 men (14 while flying and 10 on the ground).

In 1944 Pawley became president of the Industan Aircraft Manufacturing Company in Bangalore, India. Pawley was responsible for building India's first ammonium-sulfate plant in Trannvancore.

After the war Pawley became a diplomat. In 1945 Harry S. Truman appointed Pawley as U.S. Ambassador to Peru. Soon afterwards left-wing newspapers in Lima began to claim that Pawley was making "lucrative deals" for himself in Peru. This involved transporting unspecified goods in and out of Peru.

In 1948 Pawley became Ambassador to Brazil. During this time he became a FBI informant. He passed information to J. Edgar Hoover claiming that Spruille Braden, the Ambassador to Argentina was under the control of communist advisers such as Gustavo Duran and George Michanowsky. In a document dated the 7th September, 1948, Pawley suggested that Braden was attempting to expose "non-existant and imagery Nazis in Latin America" as a cover for his communist sympathies. Pawley also claimed that William A. Wieland, who worked as a press officer for the embassy in Brazil, held "anti-capitalist" views.

Pawley continued to be involved in various business projects. He was a close friend of President Rafael Trujillo and together with George Smathers, had invested in the bauxite industry in the Dominican Republic. He was also extremely friendly with Fulgencio Batista and in 1948 he established Autobuses Modernos in Cuba.

On 7th November, 1949, Pawley sent a memorandum to the State Department suggesting that a small group of Americans should be sent to Formosa in order to help protect the government of Chiang Kai-shek. Pawley claimed that Dean Acheson rejected the idea after consulting with advisers such as Owen Lattimore, John C. Vincent and John Davis. In February, 1951 Pawley became special assistant to Acheson. Later that year he held a similar post under Robert A. Lovett. However, he discovered that the State Department considered him to be a reactionary and he was denied access to secret documents concerning Latin America. It seems that he was considered a security risk. Both the CIA and FBI were concerned about his attacks on Braden. He was in fact a right-wing supporter of the John Birch Society. Is it possible that Pawley was involved in Operation Bloodstone and was trying to protect Nazi agents in South America.

Pawley played a role Operation Success, a CIA plot to overthrow the Guatemalan government of Jacobo Arbenz in 1954 after he introduced land reforms and nationalized the United Fruit Company.

John Foster Dulles decided that he “needed a civilian adviser to the State Department team to help expediate Operation Success". Dulles selected William Pawley. In his book Peddling Influence, David McKean argues that Pawley's most important qualification for the job was his “long association with right-wing Latin America dictators.”

Pawley continued to work closely with Fulgencio Batista. In March 1958, Eisenhower, disillusioned with Batista's government, insisted he held elections. This he did, but the people showed their unhappiness with his government by refusing to vote. Over 75 per cent of the voters in the capital Havana boycotted the polls. In some areas, such as Santiago, it was as high as 98 per cent.

Some members of the State Department came to the conclusion that it would be in America's best long-term interest in Cuba to be seen as opposing Batista. William A. Wieland, Director of the Caribbean and Central American Affairs, was against America providing support for the Cuban dictator. As the U.S. Ambassador of Cuba, Earl E. T. Smith was later to tell a Senate Committee: "He (Wieland) believed that it would be in the best interest of Cuba and the best interest of the world in general when Batista was removed from office."

Wieland was not the only one who took that view. According to Pawley and Smith, Roy R. Rubottom, Assistant Secretary of State for Latin American Affairs, John L. Topping, Chief of the Political Section and the Chief of the CIA Section, held similar opinions. Pawley and Smith also identified Herbert L. Matthews of the New York Times as being an important figure in providing support for the idea of regime change in Cuba. Smith pointed out that "Matthews wrote three articles on Fidel Castro, which appeared on the front page of the New York Times, in which he eulogized Fidel Castro and portrayed him as a political Robin Hood."

On 9th December, 1958, Pawley had a meeting with Batista. Pawley told Batista that he was losing the support of the American government. Pawley suggested that the Cuban dictator should resign and allow an anti-Castro and anti-Batista caretaker junta to take over. Batista rejected the idea and on 14th December, William A. Wieland, speaking for the State Department instructed Earl E. T. Smith, to inform Batista that he no longer had the support of the US government and that he should leave Cuba at once. On 1st January, 1959, Batista fled to the Dominican Republic.

Pawley later told a Senate Committee on Latin American Affairs: "I believe that the deliberate overthrow of Batista by Wieland and Matthews, assisted by Rubottom, is almost as great a tragedy as the surrendering of China to the Communists by a similar group of Department of State officials fifteen or sixteen years ago and we will not see the end in cost of American lives and American recourses for these tragic errors."

After Batista was overthrown by Fidel Castro, Pawley pressurized President Dwight Eisenhower to provide military and financial help to anti-Castro Cubans based in the United States. Recently released FBI files suggest he worked closely with Manuel Artime in efforts to overthrow Castro.

In the winter of 1962 Eddie Bayo claimed that two officers in the Red Army based in Cuba wanted to defect to the United States. Bayo added that these men wanted to pass on details about atomic warheads and missiles that were still in Cuba despite the agreement that followed the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Bayo had originally fought with Fidel Castro against Fulgencio Batista. He disagreed with Castro's policies after he gained power and moved to Miami and helped establish Alpha 66. His story was eventually taken up by several members of the anti-Castro community including Gerry P. Hemming, John Martino, Felipe Vidal Santiago and Frank Sturgis. Pawley became convinced that it was vitally important to help get these Soviet officers out of Cuba. To help this happen he communicated with James Eastland, the chairman of the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, about this story.

Pawley also contacted Ted Shackley, head of the CIA's JM WAVE station in Miami. Shackley decided to help Pawley organize what became known as Operation Tilt. He also assigned William (Rip) Robertson, a fellow member of the CIA in Miami, to help with the operation. David Sanchez Morales, another CIA agent, also became involved in this attempt to bring out these two Soviet officers.

In June, 1963, a small group, including Pawley, Eddie Bayo, William (Rip) Robertson, John Martino, and Richard Billings, a journalist working for Life Magazine, secretly arrived in Cuba. They were unsuccessful in their attempts to find these Soviet officers and they were forced to return to Miami. Bayo remained behind and it was rumored that he had been captured and executed. However, his death was never reported in the Cuban press.

William Pawley died of gunshot wounds in January, 1977. Officially it was suicide but some researchers believe it was connected to the investigations being carried out by the House Select Committee on Assassinations.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKpawley.htm

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