William Colby
William Colby | |
---|---|
Deputy Director of Central Intelligence for Operations | |
In office March 2, 1973 – August 24, 1973 | |
President | Richard Nixon |
Preceded by | Thomas Karamessines |
Succeeded by | William Nelson |
Personal details | |
Born | William Egan Colby January 4, 1920 Arlington, Virginia |
Spouse(s) | Barbara Heinzen (1945–1984) Sally Shelton (1984–1996) |
Children | 5 (with Heinzen) |
Education | Princeton University (A.B.) Columbia University (LL.B.) |
Military service | |
Allegiance | United States |
Branch/service | United States Army |
Unit | Office of Strategic Services |
Battles/wars | World War II |
William Egan Colby (January 4, 1920 – May 6, 1996) was an American intelligence officer who served as Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) from September 1973 to January 1976.
During
Early life and family
William Egan Colby was born in
William's mother, Margaret Egan, was from an Irish family in St. Paul active in business and Democratic politics. With his Army father, William Colby had a peripatetic upbringing before attending public high school in
Colby was for his entire life a staunch
He married Barbara Heinzen (1920–2015) in 1945 and they had five children. His daughter, Christine, was presented as a
Career
Office of Strategic Services
Following his first year at Columbia, in 1941 Colby volunteered for active duty with the United States Army and served with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) as a "Jedburgh," or special operator, who was trained to work with resistance forces in occupied Europe to harass German and other Axis forces. During World War II, he parachuted behind enemy lines twice and earned the Silver Star as well as commendations from Norway, France, and Great Britain. In his first mission he deployed to France as a Jedburgh commanding Team BRUCE, in mid-August 1944, and operated with the Maquis until he joined up with Allied forces later that fall. In April 1945, he led the NORSO Group Operasjon Rype into Norway on a sabotage mission to destroy railway lines in an effort to hinder German forces in Norway from reinforcing the final defense of Germany.[7]
After the war, Colby graduated from Columbia Law School and then briefly practiced law in William J. Donovan's New York firm, Donovan, Leisure, Newton & Irvine. Bored by the practice of law and inspired by his liberal beliefs, he moved to Washington to work for the National Labor Relations Board.
Central Intelligence Agency
Post-war Europe
Then, an OSS friend offered him a job at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and he accepted. Colby spent the next 12 years in the field, first in Stockholm, Sweden. There, he helped set up the stay-behind networks of Operation Gladio, a covert paramilitary organization organized by the CIA to make any Soviet occupation more difficult, as he later described in his memoirs.[8]
Colby then spent much of the 1950s based in
Southeast Asia
In 1959 Colby became the CIA's deputy chief and then chief of station in
In 1968, while Colby was preparing to take up the post of chief of the Soviet Bloc Division of the Agency, US President
More broadly, along with Ambassador
CIA HQ: Director
This section needs additional citations for verification. (April 2017) |
Colby returned to Washington in July 1971 and became executive director of CIA. After long-time DCI Richard Helms was dismissed by President Nixon in 1973, James Schlesinger assumed the helm at the Agency. A strong believer in reform of the CIA and the intelligence community more broadly, Schlesinger had written a 1971 Bureau of the Budget report outlining his views on the subject. Colby, who had had a somewhat unorthodox career in the CIA focused on political action and counterinsurgency, agreed with Schlesinger's reformist approach. Schlesinger appointed him head of the clandestine branch in early 1973. When Nixon reshuffled his agency heads and made Schlesinger secretary of defense, Colby emerged as a natural candidate for DCI, apparently on the basis of the recommendation that he was a professional who would not make waves. Colby was known as a media-friendly CIA director.[5] His tenure as DCI, which lasted two-and-a-half tumultuous years, was overshadowed by the Church and Pike congressional investigations into alleged US intelligence malfeasance over the preceding 25 years, including 1975, the so-called Year of Intelligence.
Colby's time as DCI was also eventful on the world stage. Shortly after he assumed leadership, the Yom Kippur War broke out, an event that surprised the American intelligence agencies but also those of Israeli. The intelligence surprise reportedly affected Colby's credibility with the Nixon administration. Colby participated in the National Security Council meetings that responded to apparent Soviet intentions to intervene in the war by raising the alert level of US forces to DEFCON 3 and defusing the crisis. In 1975, after many years of involvement, South Vietnam fell to Communist forces in April 1975, a particularly difficult blow for Colby, who had dedicated so much of his life and career to the American effort there. Events in the arms-control field, Angola, Australia,[13] the Middle East, and elsewhere also demanded attention.
Colby also focused on internal reforms within the CIA and the intelligence community. He attempted to modernize what he believed to be some out-of-date structures and practices by disbanding the Board of National Estimates and replacing it with the National Intelligence Council.[14] In a speech from 1973 addressed to NSA employees, he emphasised the role of free speech in USA and moral role of CIA as a defender, not a preventer, of civil rights, an attempt to rebut the then emerging revelations of CIA and NSA domestic spying. He also mentioned a number of reforms intended to limit excessive classification of governmental information.[15]
President
Later career
This section needs additional citations for verification. (April 2017) |
In 1977 Colby founded a D.C. law firm, Colby, Miller & Hanes, with Marshall Miller, David Hanes, and associated lawyers, and worked on public policy issues. In consonance with his long-held liberal views, Colby became a supporter of the
During that period, he also wrote two books, both of which were memoirs of his professional life, combined with discussions of history and policy. One was titled Honorable Men: My Life in the CIA; the other, on Vietnam and his long involvement with American policy there, was called Lost Victory. In the latter book, Colby argued that the US–South Vietnamese counterinsurgency campaign in Vietnam had succeeded by the early 1970s and that South Vietnam could have survived if the US had continued to provide support after the Paris Accords. The topic remains open and controversial, but some recent scholarship, including by Lewis "Bob" Sorley, supports Colby's arguments.
Colby also lent his expertise and knowledge, along with Oleg Kalugin, to the Activision game Spycraft: The Great Game, which was released shortly before his death. Both Colby and Kalugin played themselves in the game.
Colby was a member of the
At the time of the Senate hearings to confirm his appointment, Colby was relentlessly grilled about The Family Jewels, a secret 693-page report ordered by Schlesinger, directed by Colby, and compiled by CIA's own Inspector General's Office. It dealt with what Colby calls "some mistakes," specifically CIA abuses ranging from assassination plans to dosing people with mind-control drugs to domestic spying.
Death
On April 27, 1996, Colby set out from his weekend home in
External videos | |
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William Colby Memorial Service, National Cathedral, May 14, 1996, C-SPAN |
Colby's death triggered
In his 2011
Legacy
Colby was the subject of a biography, Lost Crusader, by John Prados, published in 2003. His son, Carl Colby, released a documentary on his father's professional and personal life, The Man Nobody Knew, in 2011.[7][23] In May 2013, Randall B. Woods, Distinguished Professor of History at the J. William Fulbright School at the University of Arkansas, published his biography of Colby, titled Shadow Warrior: William Egan Colby and the CIA.[24] Norwich University hosts an annual writers symposium named in his honor.[25]
His grandson, Elbridge A. Colby, served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Force Planning from 2017 to 2018 and is a co-founder of the Marathon Institute.[26]
Quotes
- "We disbanded our intelligence [after both world wars] and then found we needed it. Let's not go through that again. Redirect it, reduce the amount of money spent, but let's not destroy it. Because you don't know 10 years out what you're going to face."[27]
- "The more we know about each other the safer we all are." — Colby to Leonid Brezhnev
- On walking alone unfollowed through Red Square in 1989 during the end of the Cold War: "That was my victory parade."[28]
References
- ^ Colby, William Egan (1940). "Surrender -- French Policy toward the Spanish Civil War".
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) - ^ "Justice in Georgia". The Nation. 123 (3184): 32–33. 1926-07-14.
- ^ Honorable Men: My Life in the CIA. 1978. pp. 26–28.
- ^ "Obituary: William Colby". The Daily Telegraph. 1996-05-07. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-09-07. Archived on personal website.
- ^ a b Elliott, John (2011-11-11) Finding William Colby, The American Conservative
- ^ "Christine M. Colby to Marry". New York Times. 16 November 1986. Retrieved 17 December 2017.
- ^ a b c d Carl Colby (director) (September 2011). The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby (Motion picture). New York City: Act 4 Entertainment. Retrieved September 18, 2011.
- OCLC 16424505.
- ^ "Interview with William Egan Colby, 1981." Archived 2010-12-21 at the Wayback Machine 07/16/1981. WGBH Media Library & Archives. Retrieved 9 November 2010.
- ^ ISBN 9780809245093.
- ^ "For histories on the CIA's role in Vietnam and on the pacification effort more broadly, see foia.cia.gov". Archived from the original on 2015-09-06. Retrieved 2015-08-21.
- ^ General David Petraeus, Lieutenant General James F. Amos, and Lieutenant Colonel John A. Nagl (2008). The U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual. pp. 73–75.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ISBN 9780099152316, pp. 185, 210-11, 219, 235.
- ^ For further information on Colby's leadership of the Intelligence Community, see cia.gov
- ^ William H. Colby (1973). "Security in an Open Society" (PDF). NSA. Archived from the original on 2013-09-18.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ New York Times. Archived from the originalon 2020-04-15. Retrieved August 20, 2015.
- ^ "Search for ex-spymaster continues". Rome News-Tribune. Vol. 153, no. 103. Rome, Georgia. AP. April 30, 1996. p. 1. Retrieved April 20, 2015.
- ^ a b "Autopsy: Colby collapsed before falling out of canoe". Sun-Journal. Vol. 104. Lewiston, Maine. AP. May 11, 1996. p. 5A. Retrieved August 20, 2015.
- ^ Colby, Jonathan E.; Colby, Elbridge A. (December 2, 2011). "A film by the son of CIA spymaster William Colby has divided the Colby clan". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 20, 2015.
- ^ "Post Mortem Examination Report, Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, State of Maryland, Report on Death of William E. Colby" (PDF). Huffington Post. Retrieved August 20, 2015.
- ^ a b c Wilkie, Christina (December 5, 2011). "Former CIA Director's Death Raises Questions, Divides Family". The Huffington Post. Retrieved August 20, 2015.
- ^ a b c Shapira, Ian (November 19, 2011). "A film by the son of CIA spymaster William Colby has divided the Colby clan". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 20, 2015.
- ^ "The Man Nobody Knew". Retrieved 18 September 2011.
- ^ Thomas, Evan (May 5, 2013). "The Gray Man". New York Times.
- ^ The William E. Colby Military Writers Symposium, http://colby.norwich.edu/ Accessed 8/29/2013.
- ^ cite web|url= https://www.themarathoninitiative.org/elbridge-colby/%7Ctitle=[permanent dead link] Elbridge Colby|author= |access-date=2022-06-24
- ^ "A Spymaster Assessment". Newsweek. CXVIII (23): 56. 1991-12-02.
- ^ Randall Woods (2013). Shadow Warrior: William Egan Colby and the CIA. p. 493.
Bibliography
Memoirs
- Colby, William; Peter Forbath (1978). Honorable Men: My Life in the CIA. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-22875-0.
- Colby, William; James McCargar (1989). Lost Victory: A Firsthand Account of America's Sixteen-Year Involvement in Vietnam. Chicago: Contemporary Books. OCLC 20014837.
Speeches
- Colby, William (1975). Intelligence and the press: Address to the Associated Press annual meeting by William E. Colby on Monday, 7 April 1975. CIA.
- Colby, William (1975). Foreign intelligence for America: Address to the Commonwealth Club of California by William E. Colby on Wednesday, 7 May 1975 in San Francisco, California. CIA (1975).
- Colby, William (1975). Director of Central Intelligence press conference: CIA Headquarters auditorium, 19 November 1975. CIA.
- Colby, William (1986). The increased role of modern intelligence: A public speech on February 21, 1986 in Taipei. AWI lectures. Asia and World Institute.
Sources
Biographies
- Colby, Carl (2011). Colby: A Secret Life of a CIA Spymaster. Annapolis, Md: Naval Institute. OCLC 751577970.
- Ford, Harold P. (1993). William E. Colby as Director of Central Intelligence, 1973-1976. Washington, D.C.: Central Intelligence Agency. Declassified official CIA history of Colby's tenure, available at nsarchive.gwu.edu
- Prados, John (2009). William Colby and the CIA: The Secret Wars of a Controversial Spymaster. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas. OCLC 320185462.
- Waller, Douglas C. (2015). Disciples: The World War II Spy Story of the Four OSS Men Who Later Led the CIA: Allen Dulles, Richard Helms, William Colby, William Casey. New York: Simon & Schuster. OCLC 911179767.
- Woods, Randall B. (2013). Shadow Warrior: William Egan Colby and the CIA. Basic Books. OCLC 812081249.
Other sources
- "William Colby: Retrospect". Central Intelligence Agency. 2007-05-08. Archived from the original on June 13, 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-07. Evaluation of his tenure by CIA historian/official.
- Sorley, Lewis (1999). A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America's Last Years in Vietnam. Harcourt. ISBN 0-15-100266-5.
- Garthoff, Douglas (2005). Directors of Central Intelligence as Leaders of the U.S. Intelligence Community, 1946–2005. Central Intelligence Agency. ISBN 1-929667-14-0.
- "Randall B. Woods: William E. Colby and the CIA". 2011-04-29. Archived from the original on 2011-07-20. Retrieved 2011-09-18. Talk on Colby's legacy by University of Arkansas Cold War historian Randall Woods.
- Fallaci, Oriana (1977). Interview With History. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-25223-7. Interview with William Colby
External links
- William E. Colby Papers at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- Oral History Interviews with William Colby, from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library Archived 2001-11-26 at the Library of Congress Web Archives
- Coroner's Report on William E. Colby's Death
- OSS Operation RYPE / NORSO
- National Coalition to Ban Handguns Letter to Sen. John Heinz Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine