Allen Lawrence Pope
Encyclopedia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
n port of Amboina.
Some other twenty aircraft supporting the Indonesian rebels were reported seen with Nationalist Chinese markings covered over with hasty coats of paint, their pilots were Chinese and Americans from Claire Chennault's Formosa
Formosa
Formosa or Ilha Formosa is a Portuguese historical name for Taiwan , literally meaning, "Beautiful Island". The term may also refer to:-Places:* Formosa Strait, another name for the Taiwan Strait...
-based Civil Air Transport
Civil Air Transport
Civil Air Transport was a Chinese airline, later owned by the CIA, that supported United States covert operations throughout East and Southeast Asia...
. Pope claimed he was paid $200 for each completed flight by the rebels, but the operation is widely believed to have been bankrolled by the CIA as Operation Haik to overthrow the Sukarno
Sukarno
Sukarno, born Kusno Sosrodihardjo was the first President of Indonesia.Sukarno was the leader of his country's struggle for independence from the Netherlands and was Indonesia's first President from 1945 to 1967...
government which was feared to have communist sympathies. Pope's capture along with a number of incriminating documents led to great embarrassment to the US government. US Ambassador Howard Jones characterized Pope as an American "paid soldier of fortune
Mercenary
A mercenary, is a person who takes part in an armed conflict based on the promise of material compensation rather than having a direct interest in, or a legal obligation to, the conflict itself. A non-conscript professional member of a regular army is not considered to be a mercenary although he...
", and expressed his regret at the involvement of an American.
Pope's targets consisted primarily of Indonesian military targets whose destruction would benefit the rebels. It is not known how many missions he completed, but the Indonesian military trial accused him of killing 17 Indonesian soldiers and six civilians over the course of six combat missions. He admitted only to flying one mission.
After suffering a broken thigh during his bailout, Pope worked himself back into shape in prison, and read enough law books to help conduct his own defense (he felt he was fighting international Communism, he said). An Indonesian four-man military court rejected Pope's plea that he be considered a prisoner of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
and found him guilty of killing 17 members of Indonesia's armed forces, and sentenced him to death.
The death sentence was never carried out and Pope was released in July 1962 at the behest of the Kennedy Administration after the President's brother, Robert Kennedy, met with President Sukarno earlier in the year and appealed for Pope's release.
According to Tim Weinstein, Pope expressed no regret for having killed Indonesian civilians and soldiers.
In a 2004 ceremony at the official residence of French Ambassador Jean-David Levitte, the then 76 year old Pope was awarded the Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur, or Legion of Honor, along with six other CAT pilots for their service in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu
Battle of Dien Bien Phu
The Battle of Dien Bien Phu was the climactic confrontation of the First Indochina War between the French Union's French Far East Expeditionary Corps and Viet Minh communist revolutionaries. The battle occurred between March and May 1954 and culminated in a comprehensive French defeat that...
delivering supplies under fire.