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Civil Air Transport Begins to Support the French Military

May 1, 1953

Civil Air Transport Begins to Support the French Military
Civil Air Transport Begins to Support the French Military
Civil Air Transport Begins to Support the French Military

The CIA-run Civil Air Transport (CAT) airline arrives in Vietnam and starts to support French Union Forces fighting the Viet Minh in Indochina. CAT transports supplies and troops for French operations for the remainder of the First Indochina War.1

1Alfred T. Cox, Clandestine Services History: Civil Air Transport, A Proprietary Airline, 1946–1955 (declassified and published, 1963, Vol. 3, Tab K, pp. 1–10. The CAT pilots arrived at Clark Field, Philippines, on May 2 , in Saigon on May 3 and 4 ; William M. Leary, Perilous Missions: Civil Air Transport and CIA Covert Operations in Asia, (Tuscaloosa, AL, University of Alabama Press, 2005).