Secrets Declassified with David Duchovny

Tonight on "Secrets Declassified,"

the ingenious disguises and elaborate ruses

used by governments everywhere to deceive the enemy,

from the decoy army created by some unlikely tricksters...

Army chiefs turned to an industry

where the nation leads the world...

show business.

To the luxury dive resort

that's really a secret spy base.

The scuba diving tourists

wake one morning to find that the entire senior staff

have deserted them.

And the Allied agent who takes on the Nazis

by baking the perfect camouflage.

He's carrying a bomb disguised as lunch.

These are some of the strange and terrible schemes

created throughout history by governments

and the people who work for them.

It's time to bring them to light.

The bigger the mission, the bigger the disguise.

In the 1950s, when the CIA needs to hide

its covert operations across all Southeast Asia,

it secretly purchases one of the world's

biggest airline companies.

In the early 1950s, the French military

is fighting Communist rebels for control

of their greatest Southeast Asian colony, Indochina.

But it's a battle that they're losing.

By 1954, much of the French army,

just over 10,000 troops, are holed up

in this mountainous valley named Dien Bien Phu,

surrounded by enemy troops.

The French don't have the air power

to actually resupply their troops.

Outnumbered, outgunned and out of options,

the French make a desperate appeal for aid

to the Americans.

President Eisenhower sees the French

as a major ally in fighting Communist expansion

across the globe.

The president realizes, though,

that the American public has no appetite

for another ground war.

We recently had World War II and the Korean War,

and he doesn't wanna write the French a blank check.

So Eisenhower is more interested

in covert assistance to the French

than in sending the Marines.

To keep the U.S. support under wraps,

he's gonna need a major smoke screen.

The answer could be an extraordinary air service

with a very inconspicuous name...

Civil Air Transport, or CAT for short.

CAT was formed in 1946 by combat veteran pilots

flying supplies to anti-Communist forces

fighting in the Chinese Civil War.

Weapons, people, livestock,

no cargo was too wild

and no route is too hazardous for CAT's pilots.

Their gung ho reputation

catches the attention of the CIA,

who start using CAT to help supply

their overseas operations.

Soon, CAT is flying

hundreds of covert missions for the U.S.,

and by 1950, the CIA have bought

the entire airline using a shell company

called the Airdale Corporation.

And CAT has the perfect disguise.

They become an actual legitimate business,

flying regular passengers all around Asia.

In fact, their work ends up making them

the second largest air transport company in the world.

CAT is a ready made solution to secretly funnel supplies

to French troops.

But there is a problem.

This mission is so politically sensitive

that the CIA worries CAT's cover might not be enough.

So they add a whole new level of subterfuge.

The U.S. government wants to be 100% sure

that these airdrops are never traced back to them.

So they begin working with the CAT pilots

to make sure that this entire operation

looks like a French enterprise.

Overnight, a fleet of CAT's finest planes

and pilots get a French makeover.

All the planes are repainted in French colors

to make them appear to be

regular French military flights.

Some of their aircrews

even use French language commands over the radio.

In March 1954, the supply drops begin.

Disguised as French airmen, CAT pilots risk it all,

flying ammo and equipment through hostile skies.

These are incredibly dangerous missions.

Two pilots die.

Among those who survive,

they say that the anti- aircraft fire they receive

is as intense as the worst they faced during World War II.

For two months, CAT pilots run a deadly gauntlet,

flying almost 700 missions to supply besieged French troops.

Despite Eisenhower's top secret aid mission,

the French forces are defeated in May 1954.

Even so, CAT's adventures in the region are far from over.

In the late 1950s, CAT is rebranded as Air America.

And as the Vietnam War heats up,

it flies thousands of covert missions in Southeast Asia,

until 1975, when the conflict ends

and its doors are closed for good.

In 1979, journalist Christopher Robbins

publishes a best-selling book called "Air America."

And the truth about this amazing airline...

Is finally revealed.

The CIA goes to extreme lengths to protect CAT's cover story.

This next spy does, too, but his disguise

doesn't hinge on what's in his papers

but what's in his pants.

In the late 1950s, Egypt's President Nasser

is determined to turn his nation

into an unshakeable power in the Middle East.

One of the ways he wants to do this

is to launch an Egyptian ballistic missile program.

The problem is that he doesn't have

the expertise inside the country

to be able to launch this program.

So he turns to German rocket engineers

who were actually part of the missile program

during World War II.

For Egypt's neighbor, the state of Israel,

the rocket program is a major red flag.

Israel is alarmed by the idea of the dictator

of an unfriendly country having long-range missiles.

If Egypt perfects these missiles,

it could strike Israel with no warning.

Israeli intelligence decides to send in a spy.

That means finding a Jewish agent

who can operate amongst Nazi engineers undetected.

One man fits the bill.

Wolfgang Lotz is an Israeli spy who was born

in Germany to a Jewish mother.

He's blond haired, blue eyed, and speaks fluent German,

which makes him the perfect fit to go into Cairo

to cozy up to some German rocket engineers.

In December 1960, Mossad deploys Lotz to Egypt,

armed with an extravagant cover.

Lotz's cover story is that he's a fabulously wealthy

ex-Nazi officer who has an unquenchable thirst

for champagne.

To find his marks, Lotz begins wining and dining.

Egypt's high society.

Lotz is a fun guy.

He's really good at parties.

He's great at cocktail conversations.

He quickly becomes the drinking buddy

of a lot of high-ranking Egyptian officers,

including in particular General Osman.

This is the very general who oversees security

for the rocket bases that he's here to spy on.

But Lotz's party is cut short

when Mossad sends an urgent report.

Israeli reconnaissance identifies what it believes

to be a rocket base in the desert east of Cairo

in a place called Shallufa.

They want to send Wolfgang Lotz in

to basically see whether or not this is an active base.

If it turns out to be the real deal,

Mossad will probably recommend that

the Israeli Air Force bomb the site.

Lotz heads into the desert to investigate.

He brings his wife along so they can pose as tourists

visiting a nearby lake.

At a crossroads, they identify

a lone track and a sentry box.

No barriers and a single guard, and that one guard

steps away for a bathroom break.

So the two of them jump on the accelerator and charge down

the track past the barrier.

This is a terrible idea.

They haven't thought through the ramifications

of what they're doing.

Lotz and his wife are intercepted by a Jeep load

of heavily armed Egyptian military troops.

Inside the base, the commanding officer

interrogates them.

Lotz makes up a tale about how they were

trying to find a place to picnic, and they just got lost.

So he tells the base commander to call his friend,

General Osman, to prove his identity.

A few minutes later, Lotz is chatting with Osman,

who even unknowingly teases him about his spy mission.

Osman has no idea how close to the truth he really is,

and the pair is set free.

But just as Lotz's operation is gaining momentum,

his plan falls apart.

Lotz has been secretly communicating

with the Israelis using a covert radio transmitter,

and the Egyptians pick up on his transmissions.

In February of 1965, Lotz and his wife

return home, and it's filled with Egyptian agents.

They find the radio transmitter.