Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam

by Fredrik Logevall

Late in the month the Smith committee recommended, and Eisenhower approved, the dispatch of two hundred uniformed U.S. Air Force mechanics to Indochina to service American-supplied aircraft, including the new B-26s, on the understanding that “they would be used at bases where they would be secure from capture and would not be exposed to combat.” The president also agreed to send U.S. civilian pilots hired by the CIA, using planes from the agency’s proprietary airline, the Civilian Air Transport (CAT), to assist the French with air transport. Within a few weeks, a squadron of C-119 transports based in Formosa, painted gray and manned by two dozen CAT pilots, began flying supplies into Dien Bien Phu. Their contribution would be crucial, for these “Flying Boxcars” had a six-ton capacity, as compared to the two-and-a-half-ton capacity of the French-piloted Dakotas. The supply of Dien Bien Phu would have been impossible without them.6 “Don’t think I like to send them there,” Eisenhower said in front of Press Secretary James Hagerty, with reference to the technicians. “But we can’t get anywhere in Asia by just sitting here in Washington doing nothing. My God, we must not lose Asia. We’ve got to look this thing in the face.”7

January 1954