opening, break-ins, surveillance, harassment of political dissidents,
assassinationplots against foreign leaders, and campaigns to smear
civil rights activists. See alsoCHURCH COMMITTEE.CIVIL AIR TRANSPORT (CAT).Aproprietaryof the Central In-
telligence Agency (CIA) that secretly transported weapons and other
materials in support of the agency’s clandestine and covert actions
during the 1940s and 1950s. In 1947, American generals Claire
Chennault, the wartime commander of the Flying Tigers, and
Whitey Willaumer inaugurated a small airline, NCRRAAir Trans-
port, in postwar China. After a year of hauling United Nations (UN)
cargo, they received a commercial contract and changed the name of
the airline to Civil Air Transport (CAT), operating throughout China
on a commercial basis. CATwas deeply involved in the Chinese civil
war, evacuating more than 100,000 people from the city of Mukden
in Manchuria and supplying the wounded during the battle of Hshu-
chow. When the communists came to power in 1949, CATwithdrew
to Taiwan and shortly after was acquired by the CIA.
Subsequently CATbegan operating in conjunction with Air Amer-
ica. CAT carried CIA cargo during the Korean War, delivered
weapons to anticommunist elements in Burma, and supported guer-
rilla operations on the Chinese mainland and Manchuria. CAT flew
supply missions to the French at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, supported
Operation Successin Guatemala in 1954, assisted a CIAcovert op-
eration in Indonesia in 1958, and was involved in supporting the
abortive Bay of Pigs invasionin 1961.CIVIL WAR.The American Civil War began long before the first shots
were fired on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, on 12 April 1981. The in-
dustrial North and the agricultural South had been drifting apart over
economic issues and the slavery question for quite a while. On 20 De-
cember 1860, the North-South split came to a head when South Car-
olina seceded from the Union, followed by Mississippi, Florida, Al-
abama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas within two months. The
secessionist states established the Confederate States of America on
9 February 1861. Abraham Lincolnwas sworn in as the 16th presi-
dent of the United States on 4 March 1981, presiding over the con-
duct of the four-and-a-half-year war. The war ended with the Con-
federate surrender on 9 April 1985.28 • CIVIL AIR TRANSPORT05-398 (2) Dictionary.qxd 10/20/05 6:27 AM Page 28