Home Page : News: Last Updated May 15, 2005 A war in Vietnam when many Americans didn't even know about Vietnam or even where it was. A half-century ago, a group of Americans flying secretly for the CIA risked their lives to help French soldiers in their doomed battle in a place called Dien Bien Phu. Now the survivors among those American pilots are being honored. Our national security correspondent David Ensor reports. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My friends, we will never praise enough the CAT pilots. DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They're in their 70s and 80s now, these secret soldiers of the Cold War. A grateful French ambassador pinned on the seven survivors his nation's highest civilian honor, the Legion d'Honneur. JEAN-DAVID LEVITTE, FRENCH AMBASSADOR TO UNITED STATES: So, from the bottom of my heart, in the name of the French Republic, thank you. (APPLAUSE) ENSOR: Fifty-one years ago, pilots for an air service secretly owned by the CIA braved heavy anti-aircraft fire for weeks to supply beleaguered French troops in Vietnam in the Valley of Dien Bien Phu. ALLEN POPE, FORMER CAT PILOT: Remember those valiant members of our organization who could not be with us today. May they rest well in the true knowledge that their efforts in the final analysis of history was never in vain. ENSOR: Pilot James McGovern, a legendary character, and his co- pilot, Wallace Buford, were shot down. With ammunition and food, much of it flown in by the Americans, the doomed French forces held out for nearly two months before being taken to prison camps, where many more died. POPE: When Dien Bien Phu fell, they were just about out of ammunition. They were physically pounded for 55 days, and even not wounded were dying at their guns from fatigue. ENSOR: Pilots Al Pope and Doug Price remember well the courage of the French. They tend to downplay their own. (on camera): So, how dangerous was this -- this assignment you had? DOUGLAS PRICE, FORMER CAT PILOT: Well, every day, it got a little bit more dangerous, because they got more guns in action and they got a little bit more accurate. ENSOR (voice-over): They flew CIA-owned planes with French markings and French cargo handlers known as kickers. Doug Price's plane was hit by .50-caliber antiaircraft fire. PRICE: And it went right through aft of the flight deck and in the forward cargo compartment and hit one of the French kickers we had. ENSOR: Killed him? PRICE: No. He eventually lost a leg. WILLIAM LEARY, HISTORIAN: Al Pope and Doug Price were two of the best. They were the kind of person that you could count upon to do the most difficult, the most dangerous flying and then to keep their mouths shut about it after they did so. POPE: Don't need any publicity about anything. In fact, I'm amazed that I am sitting here today. Chased you guys away for more than 50 years. ENSOR (voice-over): The CIA got exactly what it wanted from Al Pope, total discretion. Yet, the agency takes the view that, since the men worked for a front company, not the CIA, they are not entitled to any compensation or honors from the government. (on camera): How do you feel about the fact that the French government is honoring these men for their courage, but their own government has not done so? LEARY: I think their own government is a bit behind the curve in honoring what these people did. These individuals were true heroes for the United States during the Cold War. And they deserve far more than they've ever gotten from the United States government. ENSOR (voice-over): The awards ceremony took place, as the ambassador noted, under a portrait of the Marquis de Lafayette, who fought under George Washington, the beribboned old pilots a reminder that two nations who disagree so strongly about Iraq have helped each other mightily in the past and may do so again. David Ensor, Washington. (END VIDEOTAPE) |
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