By the close of World War II, Helliwell and a number of fellow Army intelligence officers—E. Howard Hunt, of Watergate fame; Lucien Conein, a former member of the French Foreign Legion with strong ties to the Corsican Mafia; Tommy “the Cork” Corcoran, a lawyer serving the Strategic Service Unit; and Lt. General Claire L. Chennault, the military advisor to Chiang Kai-shek and the founder of the Flying Tigers—had created the Civil Air Transport (CAT) from surplus aircraft, including C-47 Dakotas and C-46 Commandos.5 The CAT fleet transported weapons to a contingency force of the KMT in Burma.
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