One
book which has endured everything from denials, to blatant attacks on the
veracity of the book and the author, is Air America. On the Bookazine
shelves again is the sixth reprint of Christopher Robbins original 1979
expose of Air America, the CIA’s secret airline and published by Asia Books
in Bangkok (ISBN 9-7897-4830-3).
In the introduction Robbins freely admits that after
publication of the original book he met with quite some resistance and
opposition by some Air America personnel, but over the years, their attitude
towards him had changed and the current edition has much added to it by some
of his earlier detractors.
Robbins should also be remembered for his book “The
Ravens”, which was reviewed some years ago, and this tome is in a similar
vein. That the CIA-owned Air America was at one stage the largest airline in
the world, will probably come as a shock for some people. That the CIA
itself didn’t even know how many planes it had would also come as a surprise
to many people - but not to those who flew for Air America - the world’s
most clandestine airline!
The airline’s motto was “Anything, Anywhere, Anytime -
Professionally”, and the “anything” ranged from opium, guns, ammunition,
spies and even pet gibbons. The pilots themselves were drawn from many
sections of America, not just the armed forces, but to a man they all
appeared to share the same sense of bravado and devil take the hindermost
attitude. They were well paid, but the money was certainly not the
motivation. As Robbins writes, “For old combat fighters there is no psychic
income whatsoever sitting at the controls of a modern jet.”
The gradual involvement of the CIA in aviation was via
the “back door” through the Chinese National Relief and Rehabilitation
Administration - Air Transport (known colloquially as “CAT”) airline of
General Chennault, ostensibly to deny its assets to the Communist Chinese
and then became “legal” in 1949 when they formed the Civil Air Transport,
thus keeping the same initials.
Author Robbins additionally unearthed the amazing network
of airlines also owned in whole or in part by the CIA, with the planes able
to be loaned out to the other “wings” of the Agency. An interesting vignette
occurs when Air America began to make too much money, and in theory would
have to return the profits to the Federal Treasury, all of which could
produce some embarrassing questions in the house. The answer to this was for
the airlines to reinvest their profits back into themselves, rather than
declare it - which in turn led to the rapid enlargement of the undercover
fleet. And when we say “profit” we are talking about 30 million dollars in
the mid 60’s.
It is a weighty paperback and the review copy is B. 530,
obtained from the Royal Garden Plaza Bookazine outlet. In the center are
some black and white prints of some of the planes and pilots.
Like Robbins’ other book, this one gallops along at a great pace. I
followed it to the end with total absorption, and even the addendum
regarding the film of the same name.
