William Douglas Pawley (September 7, 1896—January 7, 1977) was a U.S. ambassador and noted businessman who was associated with the
Flying Tigers
The First American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Republic of China Air Force, nicknamed the Flying Tigers, was formed to help oppose the Japanese invasion of China. Operating in 1941–1942, it was composed of pilots from the United States Ar ...
American Volunteer Group (AVG) during World War II.
Early life
William Douglas Pawley was born in
Florence, South Carolina
Florence is a city in and the county seat of Florence County, South Carolina, United States. It lies at the intersection of Interstates 20 and 95 and is the eastern terminus of the former. It is the primary city within the Florence metropolit ...
on September 7, 1896. His father was a wealthy businessman based in
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
, and young Pawley attended private schools in both
Havana
Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center. and
Santiago
Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...
. He later returned to the United States, where he studied at the
Gordon Military Academy in
Georgia.
Business career
In 1927, Pawley began a connection with
Curtiss-Wright that would make him an extremely wealthy man. In 1928, he returned to Cuba to become president of Nacional Cubana de Aviación Curtiss, which was sold to Pan American Airlines in 1932. He then became president of Intercontinent Corporation in New York, evidently founded by Clement Keys, the former president of Curtiss. In 1933 he moved to China, where he became president of
China National Aviation Corporation an airline running between Hong Kong and Shanghai. Pawley finally sold out to Pan Am again. He later assembled aircraft in partnership with the Chinese Nationalist government under the corporate name of
Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company
The Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company (CAMCO; ), also known as the Loiwing Factory (雷允飛機製造廠) after they moved to Yunnan, was a Chinese aircraft manufacturer established by American entrepreneur William D. Pawley in the 1930s.
...
in
Hangzhou
Hangzhou ( or , ; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), also romanized as Hangchow, is the capital and most populous city of Zhejiang, China. It is located in the northwestern part of the province, sitting at the head of Hangzhou Bay, whi ...
,
Wuhan
Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei, Hubei Province in the China, People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the List of cities in China ...
, and finally
Loiwing
The Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company (CAMCO; ), also known as the Loiwing Factory (雷允飛機製造廠) after they moved to Yunnan, was a Chinese aircraft manufacturer established by American entrepreneur William D. Pawley in the 1930s.
...
on the China-
Burma
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
border. (CAMCO was owned in partnership with the Chinese government, with the Pawley family interest represented by Intercontinent, which now served as a Pawley family holding company.)
World War II
In 1940,
Hindustan Aircraft Limited
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is an Indian state-owned aerospace and defence company, headquartered in Bangalore, India. Established on 23 December 1940, HAL is one of the oldest and largest aerospace and defence manufacturers in the worl ...
was set up in India with Pawley providing the initial organization.
In 1941, with his brothers Edward and Eugene, he was involved with the organization and support of the 1st
American Volunteer Group
The American Volunteer Groups were volunteer air units organized by the United States government to aid the Nationalist government of China against Japan in the Second Sino-Japanese War. The only unit to actually see combat was the 1st AVG, pop ...
, popularly known as the
Flying Tigers
The First American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Republic of China Air Force, nicknamed the Flying Tigers, was formed to help oppose the Japanese invasion of China. Operating in 1941–1942, it was composed of pilots from the United States Ar ...
. The brothers established an assembly plant at
Mingaladon
Mingaladon Township ( my, မင်္ဂလာဒုံ မြို့နယ် ) is located in the northernmost part of Yangon, Myanmar. The township comprises 31 wards, and shares borders with Hmawbi Township in the north, North Okkalapa Towns ...
airport outside
Rangoon
Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...
, Burma, where the AVG's
Curtiss P-40 fighter aircraft were assembled, while an Intercontinent office in Rangoon (now Yangon) provided payroll and other housekeeping services to the group while it trained upcountry at
Toungoo. Later, when Allied forces were driven out of lower Burma by the Japanese, the CAMCO factory and airfield across the border in Loiwing, China, served as a base for the AVG. When Loiwing in turn was captured by Japan in May 1942, Pawley moved his operation to India as a partner in
Hindustan Aircraft Limited
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is an Indian state-owned aerospace and defence company, headquartered in Bangalore, India. Established on 23 December 1940, HAL is one of the oldest and largest aerospace and defence manufacturers in the worl ...
.
Later years
Pawley was appointed as
U.S. Ambassador
Ambassadors of the United States are persons nominated by the President of the United States, president to serve as the country's diplomat, diplomatic representatives to foreign nations, international organizations, and as Ambassador-at-large, ...
by
Harry Truman to Peru in 1945. He was named U.S. Ambassador to Brazil in 1948.
Postwar, Pawley was an active member of the
Republican Party
Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party.
Republican Party may also refer to:
Africa
*Republican Party (Liberia)
* Republican Part ...
. A close friend of both President
Dwight Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
and
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
director
Allen W. Dulles
Allen Welsh Dulles (, ; April 7, 1893 – January 29, 1969) was the first civilian Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), and its longest-serving director to date. As head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during the early Cold War, he ov ...
, he took part in a policy that later become known as
Executive Action
Executive actions of the CIA are directives issued to the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States.
History
The CIA was created under the National Security Act of 1947, which Harry S. Truman signed on July 26, 1947. Richard Bissell was ...
, a plan to remove unfriendly foreign leaders from power. Pawley played a role in
Operation PBSuccess, a CIA plot to overthrow the
Guatemala
Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...
n government of
Jacobo Arbenz
Jacobo is both a surname and a given name of Spanish origin. Based on the name Jacob. Notable people with the name include:
Surname:
* Alfredo Jacobo (born 1982), Olympic breaststroke swimmer from Mexico
* Cesar Chavez Jacobo, Dominican profession ...
in 1954 after Arbenz introduced reforms affecting the
United Fruit Company. Pawley is thought to have served in Peru, Brazil, Panama, Guatemala, Cuba and Nicaragua between 1945 and 1960.
Personal life
On July 25, 1919, Pawley married Annie Hahr Dobbs of Marietta, Georgia. In 1925, the couple moved to Miami and then to Havana, Cuba, in 1928. They returned with their three children to Miami, where their youngest child was born. The Pawleys then moved to Shanghai, China, with the baby, leaving their other children in Miami Beach with family. Mrs. Pawley lived in China until 1938 with periodic trips back to Miami. They were divorced in 1941.
[Carrozza, Anthony R. ''William D. Pawley: The Extraordinary Life of the Adventurer, Entrepreneur, and Diplomat Who Cofounded the Flying Tigers.'' Dulles, Virginia: Potomac Books, Inc., 2012. .]
His final residence was in
Miami Beach, Florida
Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. It was incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on natural and artificial island, man-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the ...
, where he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, in January 1977,
because he suffered from a severe case of the very painful disease -
shingles
Shingles, also known as zoster or herpes zoster, is a viral disease characterized by a painful skin rash with blisters in a localized area. Typically the rash occurs in a single, wide mark either on the left or right side of the body or face. ...
.
References
;Notes
;Bibliography
* Cannon, David Price
Ruthless Than The Enemy: The Dark Diplomacy of Ambassador William Douglas Pawley'' (Online manuscript).''williampawley.blogspot.com.'' Retrieved: June 4, 2011.
* Ford, Daniel. ''Flying Tigers: Claire Chennault and His American Volunteers, 1941-1942''. Washington, DC: HarperCollins, Smithsonian Books, 2007. .
* Holland, Max. "Private Sources of U.S. Foreign Policy: William Pawley and the 1954 Coup d'État in Guatemala." ''Journal of Cold War Studies'', Vol. 7, no. 4, Fall 2005, pp. 36–73.
* Pawley, William. ''Wings Over Asia''. New York: self-published, 1941.
* "William D. Pawley." ''Life'', 22 March 1943.
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pawley, William D.
1896 births
1977 deaths
20th-century American businesspeople
Flying Tigers
People from Florence, South Carolina
Republican Party (United States) politicians
Ambassadors of the United States to Brazil
Ambassadors of the United States to Peru
Florida Republicans
1977 suicides
Suicides by firearm in Florida
American expatriates in Cuba