William D. Pawley (1896–1977) was a noted American businessman, diplomat and intelligence operative.

Pawley was born in Florence, South Carolina on 7 September 1896. His father was a wealthy businessman based in Cuba, and young Pawley attended private schools in both Havana and Santiago. He later returned to the United States where he studied at the Gordon Military Academy in Georgia.

During the 1930s, Pawley worked in China as a sales representative for Curtiss-Wright, and assembled aircraft in partnership with the Chinese Nationalist government under the corporate name of Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company in various locations. In 1941, he played a part in the organization and support of the 1st American Volunteer Group, popularly known as the Flying Tigers. When the final CAMCO factory was captured by the Japanese in May 1942, Pawley moved his operation to India as a partner in Hindustan Aircraft Limited.

Postwar, Pawley was an active member of the Republican Party. A close friend of both President Dwight Eisenhower and Central Intelligence Agency director Allen W. Dulles, he took part in a policy that later become known as Executive Action (a plan to remove unfriendly foreign leaders from power). Pawley played a role Operation Success, a CIA plot to overthrow the Guatemalan government of Jacobo Arbenz in 1954 after he introduced land reforms and nationalized the United Fruit Company. Pawley appears to have served in Peru, Brazil, Panama, Guatemala, Cuba, and Nicaragua between 1945 and 1960.

His final residence was in Miami, where he died in January 1977.

External links

• Pawley at Spartacus Educational
• NameBase link
• Roster of CAMCO personnel

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