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In politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state or political entity in exchange for allegiance to another. The term is usually used as a synonym for traitor, in documents that support the act of defection/treason (see below).
This act is usually in a manner which violates the laws of the nation or political entity from which the person is seeking to depart, as opposed to a change of citizenship, which does not typically defy the law of any nation.
During the Cold War, the many people escaping from the Soviet Union or Eastern Bloc to the West were called defectors. During the Vietnam War, many Army of the Republic of Vietnam forces defected to the National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam.
The term has been widely used by the media in the United States to denote immigrants from Fidel Castro's Cuba; however, some conservatives object to this characterization, pointing out that the American press never referred to those who left Germany during the Third Reich era as "defectors."
In some cases, defectors remain in the country or with the political entity they are against, functioning as an agent or a double agent.
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Pilots defection
Pilots often had slightly greater chance to defect because they would be able to use the aircraft they flew as a meaning of defection, a luxury most could not have. Furthermore, once airborne, due to the speed of the aircraft, it would be very difficult to stop the defecting pilots in comparison to the other means of defection, such as land vehicles or on foot.
Cuban defections:
On March 20, 1991, Major Orestes Lorenzo Perez defected in his MiG-23BN to a Naval Air Station in Key West, Florida on a training mission. On December 19, 1992 he returned to Cuba in a borrowed small, twin-engined 1961 Cessna 310, landing on a well known bridge along the coastal hightway east of Havana in Northern Matanzas Province at the agreed time. His wife Victoria, and their two sons, Reyneil, 11, and Alejandro, 6 were already in waiting on his order delivered through a messenger earlier. Orestes Lorenzo Perez picked up his family and managed a successful safe return to Miami.
Polish defections:
Soviet Defections:
Poland was not the only Soviet-bloc country to have suffered from defection, nor were they the last such to defect from the Iron Curtain. Soviet pilots also defected and the most famous involved defecting with the most advanced jet fighters at the time, including:
In 1961, a disappointed Soviet pilot flew his Sukhoi Su-9 interceptor to Abadan, Iran. Only very sketchy details about this incident are known even today, but the plane and the pilot were picked up by officers of the – Foreign Technology Division (FTD) of the DoD. After being disassembled within 24 hours the Su-9 was transported to the USA, while the pilot followed shortly after.
North Korean Defections
Chinese Defections:
Polish defections were not the only defections from the Iron Curtain, and in comparison, defections occurred much more frequent in the People's Republic of China, with most of its pilots defecting to Taiwan. These include:
Li Xianbin (李显斌) made headlines in Taiwan years later when he demanded to have all of the rewards because his unfair treatment by Taiwan. Li Xianbin (李显斌) claimed that he was the sole defector, and the other two were actually captured due to his defection, a fact that was later agreed by both Taiwan and Li Caiwang (李才旺), the surviving navigator himself. Li Xianbin (李显斌) claimed that for the political propaganda purpose, all crew onboard were honored as defectors, which was far from the truth, but he was not successful in getting all of the gold reward. After honorably discharged as colonel from the Republic of China Air Force, Li Xianbin (李显斌) obtained Canadian residency. Li Xianbin (李显斌) made headlines again in 1992 when he returned to China via Canada after he learned that his mother was about to die. After his return to Qingdao in October 1992, he was eventually arrested by the local Public Security Bureau when he was on his way to the airport for his return trip to Canada. Li Xianbin (李显斌) was first sentenced to 15 years but later reduced to 10, and the sentence was further reduced drastically because it was discovered that he had stomach cancer that was in its terminal stage. Li Xianbin (李显斌) was released early and died shortly after his release. Many elements of the Chinese democracy movement first accused the Chinese government was inhumane for not allowing Li Xianbin (李显斌) to go back to China to visit his dying mother, and then accused the Chinese government was trying to repatriate Li Xianbin (李显斌) to either Taiwan or Canada because the regime did not want to foot the bill for his treatment, since Li Xianbin (李显斌) did not have his assets transferred to China. The Chinese government countered that knowing he would die soon, Li Xianbin (李显斌) did not want to leave China because he wanted to be buried with his mother.
Li Caiwang (李才旺), the navigator of the Il-28 was seriously wounded by Li Xianbin (李显斌) during the latter's defection and was forced to accept his fate after his suicide attempt failed. During his stay in the hospital for the gun shot he received in the shoulder, the nurse who took care of him fell in love with him and told him that she was also responsible to perform surveillance on him, under the order of the Republic of China government. The two eventually married and moved into the nurse's home, but were still under constant surveillance: A major general of the Republic of China military had a son that was going to a school near the couple's home, so he rented a room at their residence for years to keep Li Caiwang (李才旺) under surveillance. Although the major general and his son finally moved out, Li Caiwang (李才旺) had no intention to stay in Taiwan, and since the wife's sister was married to an American, Li Caiwang (李才旺) and his wife immigrated to the United States in 1972 after his honorable discharge from the Republic of China Air Force as a colonel. The couple became naturalized citizens of the United States in 1979. In 1982, Chinese diplomats contacted Li Caiwang (李才旺) in the United States and got his side of the story, and after a prolonged investigation, the Chinese government rehabilitated Li Caiwang (李才旺) in 1984. After several visit to China in the 1990's, Li Caiwang (李才旺) eventually resettled in China in 1998.
On April 15, 1979, Yan Wenchang (阎稳昌), a distinguished PLAAF pilot who earned numerous awards for his excellent performance in support of the Sino-Vietnamese War, was extremely bitter after learning that the promotion for the deputy squadron commissar was given to somebody else instead of him. Yan felt he was the better candidate and should get the promotion and he was under appreciated, and as a result, he decided to defect to Vietnam after learning that the opportunity would be gone because his unit would soon be redeployed to Hunan, and the only thing he left was a note to his wife that read:I'll be gone, good-bye forever!. However, Vietnam did not react at all to his attempts for contacts after his Shenyang J-6 entered Vietnam from Guangxi, and as result, Yan was killed after directly crashing into a 1000 metre high mountains cliff approximately 80 km south of Haiphong. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Vietnam the next day that the incident was a navigational error and asked for the return of the remains of the pilot and the jet, but Vietnam refused, and instead, asked Soviet to inspect the wreckage. KGB aviation experts discovered that the avionics of Yan's J-6 was extremely rudimentary even by Soviet standard, and was indeed lacking any effective navigational avionics. Furthermore, the communication on the J-6 was not encrypted, and it could be intercepted by the top-notch civilian radios on the market. Since Yan was a regular pilot that patrolded the airspace within the 10 km of the Sino-Vietnamese border (sometimes as frequent as 4 times a day), his defection was not detected until his crash.
On November 14, 1983, Wang Xuecheng (王学成), a 25-year old PLANAF squadron commander of the 2nd wing of the 18th regiment of the 6th division flew a Shenyang J-5 numbered 83065 from Daishan (岱山), Zhejiang to Taiwan, and under the escort of two F-5E's, successfully landed at Chiang Kai-shek International Airport. Wang was rewarded a rank of major in Republic of China Air Force and 3,000 taels (approximately 150 kg) of gold. After a divorce, Wang married a local Taiwanese woman and father 2 daughters and a son, and Wang still talks to his family members in Henan via telephone, and refuses to immigrate abroad like most other Chinese defectors did.
On August 25, 1985, a PLAAF deputy wing commander Xiao Tianrun (萧天润), flew an Ilyushin Il-28 from Jiao county (胶县), Shandong to Iri (Current Iksan), and during emergency landing in the field, the navigator Sun Wuchun (孙武春) was killed, along with a South Korean peasant on the ground. The radio operator / tail gunner Liu Shuyi (刘书义) refused to defect and South Korean returned him to China along with the ashes of Sun Wuchun (孙武春). On September 20, 1985, Xiao reached Taiwan and was awarded 3,000 taels (approximately 150 kg) of gold and a rank of colonel in the Republic of China Air Force. Xiao Tianrun (萧天润) left two copies of his declaration against communism in China and requested one of the copies to be sent to Deng Xiaoping. Xiao was personally interviewed by Chiang Ching-kuo and appeared on the Republic of China national day celebration parade in October of the same year. Xiao later married Taiwanese TV reporter Zhang Defeng (张德芬), who helped Xiao greatly in his investment in Taiwanese stock market, but the pair was eventually divorced.
On October 24, 1986, PLAAF pilot Zheng Caitian (郑菜田) fly his Shenyang J-6 from Yantai to K-16 military air base in Seoul and when he reached Taiwan, he was awarded 5,000 taels (approximately 250 kg) of gold. Among the Chinese defectoring pilots, Zheng has the harshest life of all, because he invested in an electronic factory that went backruput, and lost all of his money in his subsequent investments.
On September 6, 1989, Jiang Wenhao (蒋文浩), a 23-year old PLAAF lieutenant of the 2nd wing of the 145th regiment of the 49th division flew a Shenyang J-6 numbered 40307 from Longxi (龙溪) airport, Zhangzhou, Fujian to Shangyi (尚义) airport in Kinmen. Jiang was interviewed by the then chief-of-general-staff of Taiwanese armed forces, Hau Pei-tsun and awarded a rank of lieutenant in the Republic of China Air Force. Jiang's financial reward, however, was reduced to 2,000 taels (approximately 100 kg) of gold from the original 5,000 taels (approximately 250 kg), because due to the reduction of tensions with China during the 1980's, Taiwan had greatly reduced the amount on September 15, 1988 in response to similar Chinese action four days earlier. (China had completely abolished any financial rewards to any Taiwanese defectors). Jiang was soon honorably discharged from the Republic of China Air Force after being promoted to captain. Jiang became a famed underwater photographer and won several awards, and he also worked as a diving instructor.
Arab Defections:
Although the Arab states are technically not considered belonging to the Iron Curtain and the Bamboo Curtain, they were certainly viewed by the west as the client states of the former-Soviet Union, and the defections within their ranks are listed here with a defection from Angola, another client state of the former-USSR.
Algerian defection:
After the defection of the Iraqi Captain Munir Redfa, 3 MiG-21F-13 and at least 6 MiG-17F Algerian pilots were captured by Israel after landing their aircraft at Israeli el-Arish Air Base by mistake, one of the captured Algerian pilot asked and was granted political asylum in the west, while the rest were repatriated.
Egyptian defection:
Iraqi defections:
Following Captain Munir Redfa's defection, there were at least two Iraqi pilots defected to Jordan with their MiG-21F-13 jets. Jordan granted them political asylum but returned the aircraft to Iraq.
Syrian defections:
Angolan defection:
In 1989 an Angolan pilot defected with his MiG-21MF to Namibia, where the plane was captured by South African forces (and is now displayed at SAAF Museum, in Waterkloof).
Other defections
Iranian defections:
In 1983, Iranian defectors flew a F-4E to Turkey.
Most Iranian defections during the mid and final stages of the Iran-Iraq War was the result of a joint CIA and the Foreign Technology Division of the DoD operation that became known under the code-name “Night Harvest”, with the main task to acquire several Iranian fighter aircraft built in the USA and find out what were the Iranians doing in order to maintain their F-4s, F-5s, and F-14s.
In August 1986, at least three Iranian pilots defected with their F-4Es.
On September 2 1986, an Iranian F-14A equipped with at least one AIM-54A defected to Iraq. Upon landing, the plane was surrounded by up to 20 US technicians, which took care about the aircraft and the pilot, while the radar interception officer - who opposed the defection - became Iraqi POW. The two F-4E and the F-14A of the defecting Iranians were then flown to Saudi Arabia (but only after their “new” US pilots refused to fly them before they were inspected and repaired by US technicians), and then throughoutly inspected, before being destroyed and buried in the Saudi desert.
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Political party defection
The term defection is also used to refer to the departure of a member from a political party to join another political party, typically because of discontent in his existing party. Depending on position of the person, it may be given a different name, such as party switching or crossing the floor.
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See also
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