23: Presidents Come and Go; CIA Remains

In Pawley’s autobiography, he blames two individuals in the State Department for the success of Fidel Castro’s revolution. He put the primary blame on William A. Wieland (left photo) “for engineering the betrayal of Cuba into the Communist orbit.” 

Wieland’s “immediate superior, Assistant Secretary of State Roy Rubottom” (right photo) also was to blame. Pawley saw their complicity as being deeply rooted in ignoring the significance of witnessing “the Red-inspired holocaust in Bogotá featuring Fidel Castro.” Perhaps, intentionally.

During Castro’s rise in Cuba, Pawley noted “Wieland was in charge of Mexican, Central American and Caribbean affairs under Rubottom” and “did all that was humanly possible to brush aside, ignore, short-circuit or refute warnings by experienced American diplomats that Castro was a Communist and that his movement was infested with Soviet agents.”

Read more »

30:Bayo, Pawley & CIA TILT Against JFK

Shortly after Groundhog Day of 1963, E. Howard Hunt wrote a memorandum about his conversation over lunch with his close friend, Manuel Artime, the Bay of Pigs invasion Brigade 2506 leader. Artime arrived “with a heavy cold and an appearance of dejection." Artime "and others (presumably San Roman and Oliva) had been guests at a luncheon tendered them the day before by the Robert Kennedys at Hickory Hill." While appreciating the Attorney General’s attention, "Artime was upset by the suggestion that Brigade members should consider "joining the U.S. Army" and "continuing their academic careers" which Artime felt "had little to do with overthrowing Fidel Castro. Artime opined that Mr. Hurwitch of State was profoundly hostile to him, for reasons he could not fathom.”1

Two months later, Hunt and Artime would meet again along with “Manolin Hernandez, his one-time deputy in the MRR,” to celebrate Dorothy Hunt’s birthday at Hunt’s home. Artime, who “was wearing the shoes that he had put into the barracks bag when he last packed it in my operational quarters in Coconut Grove” was going to deliver “a message from Luis Somoza for Attorney General Robert Kennedy” and was scheduled to appear on NBC’s Today Show. He then planned to visit Generalissimo Franco in Spain to request support in getting his parents out of Cuba and into Spain which Hunt thought would be a fruitless because Franco was too busy negotiating the renewal of U.S. air bases in Spain which Pawley had originally negotiated with the country’s fascist leader, Franco.

The discussion then turned to the “capture of 17 raiders at Norman Cay ... the exiles restricted to the Dade County area” and “Pedro Diaz Lanz whom we agreed had for some time been so uncontrollable as to raise serious doubts as to his mental stability.” Diaz Lanz, in a speech on November 3, 1963 accused President Kennedy “of being a commie.”2

Hunt then “asked about Jose Perez San Roman and learned from Artime that Pepe had suffered a mental breakdown, that the Robert Kennedys had rented a home for Pepe, his wife and two children in the McLean area and that Artime had been with them during the day when Mrs. Kennedy had come to the San Roman home and seen Artime. Artime learned that the San Roman children were driven to and from school by the Kennedys. (It turns out that the Kennedy children, my three children, and Pepe's two all attend the same parochial school on MacArthur Blvd., so it is not unlikely that Pepe's children will seek mine out as the only other Spanish-speaking children in the school.)”

Pepe’s breakdown was the result of conflicts in his marriage, the U.S. government’s pressure on him “to persuade the Brigade to enlist in the U.S. Army” and his guilt over allowing the Brigade to be captured. San Roman also resented “that his psychiatric bill was being paid by Miro Cardona, regarding it a way of making him indebted to Miro ... I judged Pepe viewed Miro as a symbol of the CRC.”

Manolin Hernandez let Howard Hunt know that Jose Miro Cardona and Jose Ignacio Rasco (MDC) had queried “as to whether I (“Eduardo”) was still in the U.S.” and that Hernandez had not revealed anything to them. By “2 o’clock in the morning,” Hunt, Artime and Hernandez “had downed a fifth of Scotch and we regrouped in the kitchen where I prepared breakfast for all. Before leaving Artime said he would call me after he had seen the Attorney General.”

During the night, Hernandez had asked Hunt about “‘Colonel Earl Brennan’ ... who was moving through the Cuban exile community looking for dark-skinned Cubans to be used in Haiti against Duvalier” which he claimed was supported by Ambassador David Bruce and the White House. A successful coup would make Haiti a great base for activity against Castro, Brennan claimed. Hunt denied knowledge of Brennan’s role in the OSS but acknowledged “that Dave Bruce had been Chief of our operations in the ETO” (European Theater of Operations in World War II).3

Col. Brennan, in fact, was recruited into the OSS by David Bruce and Allen Dulles and served as Chief/SI (Secret Intelligence) in Italy and Albania4 long before becoming “the registered representative of a Haitian political party, the Parti Nationals” which had met multiple times with the CIA to discuss a coup against “Papa Doc” Duvalier—arriving at a target date in May 1963. Individuals in multiple countries supported the move, and Trujillo’s assassination “resulted in the development of an effectively placed action center in Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic)” supported by Juan Bosch.5 Brennan’s coup fizzled out and “Papa Doc” remained in power for eight more years when heart disease and diabetes took his life.

On June 28,1963 the CIA Chief of the Western Hemisphere Division revealed to the “Chiefs, Certain Stations and Bases” that Manuel Artime had moved to Nicaragua as leader of operation AMWORLD—the U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy initiative that launched commando raids on Cuba despite President Kennedy’s American University commencement speech.6

Between William Douglas Pawley’s pro-Goldwater speech about the troubling times and John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s speech of hope for the world, Pawley embarked on his second effort to discredit JFK as the President prepared to run for a second term. 

It would take more than a decade before the American public learned about the Bayo-Pawley Affair (aka Operation Red Cross). Documents declassified decades later showed that the project--as it was happening--was known within the CIA as Operation TILT.

In 1976 the Kingsport Times reported that Francis Ford Coppola's City of San Francisco magazine had published an article in which Pawley in Miami “confirmed that in 1963 he navigated his personal yacht to the Cuban coast with a raiding party bent on spiriting two Soviet missile technicians off the Communist island.” Article authors,Warren Hinckle and William Turner, had begun interviewing people about the operation in 1973, including Pawley, Gerry Patrick Hemming and Robert K. Brown whose Soldier of Fortune magazine provided more details complete with many photos of some of those involved in 1976.  

On board Pawley’s Flying Tiger II was a motley crew of CIA agents, armed Cuban exiles, an organized crime associate, John Martino (left in photo), Eddie Bayo (far right) and a Life magazine Miami reporter, Richard Billings who claimed such raids were commonplace and denied Life was financing the project as Pawley asserted. Loren Hall, after reading Hinckle's article called the author and claimed Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana put up money as well as Tampa Mafia head Santos Trafficante who had spent time in Cuban prison with John Martino. Their release was expedited by Rauol (aka Raul) Villamia, a Cuban-born minor league baseball player whose brother Mario had founded Accion Civica Cuban to support Castro by obtaining weapons along with Howard Davis as Castro was mounting his revolution against Batista. Mario convinced Rauol in 1955 to start fundraising in Tampa for Castro's 26th of July Movement which he did until Castro declared himself a communist.7

Although Pawley denied involvement of CIA agents in the actual TILT raid, members of the CIA hierarchy were not only aware of Pawley’s Flying Tiger II mission, but internal documents showed the CIA financed it along with other “angels” and tracked it from the launch through its mysterious failure—and there is no hint that they attempted to prevent him from causing an international incident or from attempting to discredit the sitting president prior to his upcoming re-election campaign. 

Read more »

47: Timeline

1864 ~ Edward Porcher Pawley born.

1890 ~ Edward marries Mary Irene Wallace.

1893 ~ George Plummer Pawley born. 

1896/9/7 ~ William Douglas Pawley born in Florence, South Carolina.

1899 ~ After the Spanish American War when Teddy Roosevelts “Rough Riders” help liberate Cuba from Spain, Pawley spends his early childhood at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station where his father had a store, earning him the nickname “Cuba” from classmates at Gordon Military Academy in Georgia.

1925/5/20 ~ Gerardo Machado becomes the 5th President of Cuba. He is overthrown in 1933.

1928 ~ William Douglas Pawley creates Cubana National Airlines which is sold to Pan American Airlines in 1932.

1929 ~ China Airways financed by Curtiss-Wright and controlled by Clement M. Keys begins flying mail from Shanghai to Hankow, Peiping and Canton. With pressure from the government, it evolves into China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC).

1932 ~ William Pawley establishes Intercontinent Corporation run by him and his brothers Edward and Eugene.

1933 ~ Pawley becomes President of China National Aviation Corporation.

1936 ~ William's oldest brother, George Plummer Pawley, dies.

1940/12/23 ~ Pawley partners with India in establishing Hindustan Aircraft Limited near Calcutta (Bangalore).

1941 ~ Pawley begins China Aircraft Manufacturing Company CAMCO to manufacture planes for the American Volunteer Group (The Flying Tigers headed by General Clair Chennault) to defend Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists against Japanese planes. CAMCO airplane assembly plants moved from Hangzhou to Wuhan to Lowing (on the China-Burma border) to India. 

1941/9 ~ David Harold Byrd, wealthy oil man and owner of the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas, co-founds the Civil Air Patrol to watch for enemy submarines and border crossings as well as enemy aircraft over the U.S. and provide other civilian support for the U.S. Army Air Force. Byrd is a cousin of Antarctic explorer Richard Byrd and West Virginia politician Harry F. Byrd. 

1942 ~ CNAC operates out of Calcutta until 1945.

1943 - E. Howard Hunt, Jr. serves as a wartime intelligence officer in China.

1945/7/20 ~ Pawley becomes U.S. Ambassador to Peru.

1945/10/13 ~ Carlos Prio Socrarrás becomes 5th Prime Minister of Cuba. 

1946/6/13 ~ Pawley becomes U.S. Ambassador to Brazil.

1947 ~ Antonio de Varona appointed leader of the parliamentary committee of his party under Prio. Previously, de Varona was involved in the overthrow of Gerardo Machado and was elected to the Cuban congress and the senate.

1948 ~ E. Howard Hunt, Jr. becomes spokesperson in Paris for the Marshall Plan's Economic Cooperation Administration. George C. Marshall and his wife are close friends of the Pawleys.

1948/10/10 ~ Carlos Prio becomes President of Cuba, succeeding Ramon Grau.

1949/9 ~ Pawley negotiates taking over the Havana trolley system.

1950/1 ~ Pawley runs Havana Autobuses Modernos, removing trolley car tracks. He also becomes a partner with John J. McCloy and others in Commerce International China.  

1950 ~ E. Howard Hunt becomes Chief of Station of the Office of Policy Coordination in Mexico City. 

1951/2/4 ~ Pawley's daughter, Annie Hahr, weds.

1951/2/19 ~ Pawley enters State Department as special assistant to Dean Acheson.

1951/6 ~ Pawley visits India re wheat and monazite.

1951/9 ~ Son, Clifton Pawley, dies in Mexico; William flies from Washington to Mexico City and Miami. 

1951/11/20 ~ Pawley resigns from State Department effective the 30th. 

1951/12/3 ~ Pawley enters Defense Department as special assistant to Lovett.

1952/1/17 ~ Pawley sails with Edna and Anita Pawley and his assistant Ed Harris to Europe; stays until May, but returns to Washington to settle a strike in Miami then flies to Lisbon Conference with Lovett and takes a two week trip for consultation with Defense Department.

1952/5 ~ Pawley resigns as assistant to Lovett.

1952/6 ~ At Belvoir House farm in Virginia.

1952/9 ~ Pawley in Europe and Middle East with Edna.   

1952/3/10 ~ Fulgencio Batista overthrows Prio; de Varona begins fight against Batista.

1953 ~ Pawley in Miami serving as owner president and general manager of the Miami Beach Railway Co. since 1941 and of Miami Transit Co. since 1948. Also owner of South Miami Coach Line and Tropical Coach Line Inc. and Grayline Sightseeing Co. of Miami.

1953 ~ William, Edward and Eugene Pawley develop oil and mining companies in Mexico.

1953/4/4 ~ CIA coup against Mossadegh in Iran (Operation AJAX) is hatched by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, CIA Director Allen Dulles, Frank Wisner and Kermit Roosevelt, Jr.  Mossadegh is replaced by the Shah of Iran Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, coincidentally a former classmate of future CIA Director Richard Helms.

1954/6 ~ Pawley works with the CIA on PBSUCCESS, the overthrow of the Arbenz government in Guatemala. So does E. Howard Hunt, Jr.

1954/6 ~ William Pawley, William Franke, Morris Hadley and General Jimmy Doolittle appointed by President Eisenhower to review the Central Intelligence Agency. They recommend that the CIA become “more ruthless than the enemy.”

1955/7/27 ~ Lee Harvey Oswald joins the Civil Air Patrol in New Orleans which also includes Captain David Ferrie.

1956/10/24 ~ Oswald drops out of high school in Texas and joins the U.S. Marine Corps where he is trained as a sharpshooter.

1958/10/5 ~ Oswald is stationed at the Air Force base in Atsugi, Japan where the U.S. dispatches U-2 planes to spy on Russia. Oswald learns Russian.

1959/Spring ~ Oswald, back in the U.S., becomes friend of Kerry Thornley. 

1959/9/4 ~ Oswald applies for a passport a week before he is discharged from active duty in the Marine Corps.

1959/9/20 ~ Oswald departs the U.S. 

1959/10/2 ~ Pawley is given the CIA cryptonym QDDALE.

1959/10/15 ~ Pawley installs a tape recorder to tape discussions with Cuban exiles.

1959/10/31 ~ Oswald defects to the Soviet Union offers U-2 secrets.

1959/11/16 ~ Oswald interviewed by Priscilla Johnson.   

1959/12 ~ Pawley tries to convince Batista to step aside so an interim government could be put in place as a buffer against Castro.

Read more »