William Douglas Pawley (September 7, 1896 — January 7, 1977) was a U.S. ambassador and noted businessman who was associated with the Flying Tigers American Volunteer Group (AVG) during World War II.

In 1928, he returned to Cuba to become president of Nacional Cubana de Aviación Curtiss, which was sold to Pan American Airlines in 1932.

In 1941, with his brothers Edward and Eugene, he was involved with the organization and support of the 1st American Volunteer Group, popularly known as the Flying Tigers.

Later, when Allied forces were driven out of lower Burma by the Japanese, the CAMCO factory and airfield across the border in Loiwing, China, served as a base for the AVG.

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 Operation PBSuccess, a plan to remove unfriendly foreign leaders from power.

[2][5] His final residence was in Miami Beach, Florida, where he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, in January 1977,[6] because he suffered from a severe case of the very painful disease - shingles.