| Revision as of 07:11, 11 June 2006 edit84.54.166.36 (talk) →Death← Previous edit | Revision as of 18:32, 20 June 2006 edit undo198.81.129.186 (talk)No edit summaryNext edit → | ||
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| ===Central Intelligence Agency=== | ===Central Intelligence Agency=== | ||
| Shortly thereafter, an OSS friend offered him a job at CIA, and Colby accepted. Colby spent the next twelve years in the field, first in ], ]. There, he helped set up the ] networks of ], a covert paramilitary organizations organized by the CIA in order to prepare an eventual Soviet invasion, as he later described in his memoirs . |
Shortly thereafter, an OSS friend offered him a job at CIA, and Colby accepted. Colby spent the next twelve years in the field, first in ], ]. There, he helped set up the ] networks of ], a covert paramilitary organizations organized by the CIA in order to prepare an eventual Soviet invasion, as he later described in his memoirs . | ||
| <blockquote> Colby's story is absolutely correct. Absalon was created in the early 1950s. Colby was a member of the world spanning laymen catholic organisation ], which, using a modern term, could be called right-wing. Opus Dei played a central role in the setting up of Gladio in the whole of Europe and also in Denmark... The leader of Gladio was Harder who was probably not a Catholic. But there are not many Catholics in Denmark and the basic elements making up the Danish Gladio were former resistance people - former prisoners of ], ], ] and also of the ].</blockquote> | |||
| William Colby then spent much of the 1950s based in ], where he led the Agency's covert political operations campaign to support moderate anti-Communist parties. After World War II, Italia was the first ground for the CIA covert operations to stop the Communist from legally taking power, in a strategy later dubbed ] by the Italian press. | William Colby then spent much of the 1950s based in ], where he led the Agency's covert political operations campaign to support moderate anti-Communist parties. After World War II, Italia was the first ground for the CIA covert operations to stop the Communist from legally taking power, in a strategy later dubbed ] by the Italian press. | ||
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| ==Death== | ==Death== | ||
| On ], ], Colby died in a supposed boating accident near his home in ]. He reportedly did not mention any canoeing plans to his wife, nor was it normal for him to go boating at night. Colby had left his home unlocked, his computer on, and a partly eaten dinner on the table. . Colby's body was eventually found, underwater, on ], ]. The life jacket his friends said he usually wore was missing. The body was found 20 yards from the canoe, after the area had been thoroughly searched multiple times. The subsequent inquest found that he died from drowning and hypothermia after collapsing from a heart attack or stroke and falling out of his canoe. There is no evidence that Colby went canoeing. There is no evidence that Colby died on ], ]. Colby disappeared ], ]. His body was recovered on ], ]. Hence, the date of Colby's death is somewhere between these two dates. The ] states Colby died on ], ]. . Colby was laid to rest at ] on ], ]. | On ], ], Colby died in a supposed boating accident near his home in ]. He reportedly did not mention any canoeing plans to his wife, nor was it normal for him to go boating at night. Colby had left his home unlocked, his computer on, and a partly eaten dinner on the table. . Colby's body was eventually found, underwater, on ], ]. The life jacket his friends said he usually wore was missing. The body was found 20 yards from the canoe, after the area had been thoroughly searched multiple times. The subsequent inquest found that he died from drowning and hypothermia after collapsing from a heart attack or stroke and falling out of his canoe. There is no evidence that Colby went canoeing. There is no evidence that Colby died on ], ]. Colby disappeared ], ]. His body was recovered on ], ]. Hence, the date of Colby's death is somewhere between these two dates. The ] states Colby died on ], ]. . Colby was laid to rest at ] on ], ]. | ||
| ===Theories about Death=== | |||
| Conservative news reportor ] (as part of the ]) has claimed ] had Colby murdered because Colby was going to write about a conspiracy between Clinton and ].. | |||
| The former CIA director acknowledged to ] State Senator John DeCamp that the scenario described in the documentary, '']'', is real, which tells of a sex ring that had links to political conservatives in Washington D.C. Not long thereafter Colby turned up dead under suspicious circumstances. John DeCamp has since authored The Franklin Coverup. This all came to public view on the morning of ], ], when the '']'' headline was "Call Boys Took Midnight Tour of White House." | |||
| ==Quotes== | ==Quotes== | ||
Revision as of 18:32, 20 June 2006
William Egan Colby (January 4, 1920 – April 27, 1996) became Director of Central Intelligence on September 4, 1973, after James R. Schlesinger. It was Colby who launched the Accelerated Pacification Campaign during the Vietnam War. He later would reveal a large amount of information to Congress, such as CIA attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro. He was fired by President Gerald Ford and replaced with George H.W. Bush on January 30, 1976.
Early life
Colby was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1920. His father, Elbridge Colby, was a professor of English and Army officer who raised his son in a peripatetic manner, including a stint in Tientsin, China. William attended Princeton University, graduating in 1940 and entering Columbia Law School the following year.
Career
Office of Strategic Services
Colby volunteered for the Army in 1941 and served with the Office of Strategic Services during the war, parachuting behind enemy lines in France and Norway as part of Operation Jedburgh to support the French resistance, and receiving the Silver Star for his efforts. After finishing Columbia Law School, Colby briefly practiced law in New York and then, inspired by his liberal beliefs, moved to Washington to work for the National Labor Relations Board.
Central Intelligence Agency
Shortly thereafter, an OSS friend offered him a job at CIA, and Colby accepted. Colby spent the next twelve years in the field, first in Stockholm, Sweden. There, he helped set up the stay-behind networks of Gladio, a covert paramilitary organizations organized by the CIA in order to prepare an eventual Soviet invasion, as he later described in his memoirs .
William Colby then spent much of the 1950s based in Rome, where he led the Agency's covert political operations campaign to support moderate anti-Communist parties. After World War II, Italia was the first ground for the CIA covert operations to stop the Communist from legally taking power, in a strategy later dubbed strategy of tension by the Italian press.
Vietnam
In 1959 Colby became the CIA's Chief of Station in Saigon, Vietnam, where he served until 1962, when he returned to Washington to become the Chief of CIA's Far East Division. In 1968 he returned to Vietnam as Deputy to Robert Komer, and shortly thereafter succeeded him as head of the U.S./South Vietnamese rural pacification effort. This was an attempt to quell the Communist insurgency in South Vietnam. Part of the effort was the controversial Phoenix Program - an initiative designed to identify and attack the "Viet Cong Infrastructure". There is considerable debate about the merit of the program, which included assassination and torture. However it does appear to have had some effect in reducing the level of insurgent strength--as opposed to North Vietnamese Army strength--in South Vietnam.
CIA Director
Colby returned to Washington in 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, despite a career spent in the DDP, agreed with Schlesinger's reformist approach and 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 based on the recommendation that he was a professional who would not make waves.
Colby's tenure as DCI, which lasted two and a half tumultuous years, was characterized chiefly by the Church and Pike congressional investigations into alleged U.S. intelligence malfeasance over the preceding twenty-five years. Colby's view was that revealing such misdeeds--encapsulated in the so-called "Family Jewels"--was both advisable and right. Colby believed that the actual scope of such misdeeds was not actually that great, and that Congress and the American people would recognize that fact, do what was necessary to ensure such things did not happen again, and move on. Supporters of Colby's method argue that he saved the Agency from destruction by showing that it was accountable and an instrument of the Constitution rather than a "rogue elephant." Detractors say Colby gave away too much or did not understand that he was only feeding the fire of politicized congressional witch hunts.
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 not only American intelligence agencies, but Israelis as well. Meanwhile, 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.
President Ford, advised by Henry Kissinger, dismissed Colby in late 1975 because he had become too politically damaging to the Administration. He was replaced by George H. W. Bush.
Post CIA Career
In later life, and in consonance with his long-held liberal views, Colby became a supporter of the nuclear freeze and of reductions in military spending. He practiced law and advised various bodies on intelligence matters.
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.
According to him, Gladio "stay-behind" secret NATO paramilitary organizations in Western Europe were "a major program".
He was contributing editor of Strategic Investments Newsletter at the time of his death.
Death
On April 27, 1996, Colby died in a supposed boating accident near his home in Rock Point, Maryland. He reportedly did not mention any canoeing plans to his wife, nor was it normal for him to go boating at night. Colby had left his home unlocked, his computer on, and a partly eaten dinner on the table. . Colby's body was eventually found, underwater, on May 6, 1996. The life jacket his friends said he usually wore was missing. The body was found 20 yards from the canoe, after the area had been thoroughly searched multiple times. The subsequent inquest found that he died from drowning and hypothermia after collapsing from a heart attack or stroke and falling out of his canoe. There is no evidence that Colby went canoeing. There is no evidence that Colby died on April 27, 1996. Colby disappeared April 27, 1996. His body was recovered on May 6, 1996. Hence, the date of Colby's death is somewhere between these two dates. The Internet Movie Database states Colby died on May 6, 1996. . Colby was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery on May 13, 1996.
Quotes
- "South Vietnam faces total defeat, and soon."
- "We disbanded our intelligence 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." — Newsweek interview, December 2, 1991
Sources
- http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/usa/william-colby/
- William Colby and Peter Forbath, Honourable Men: My Life in the CIA, London: Hutchinson & Co., 1978 extract concerning Gladio stay-behind operations in Scandinavia available here
- William Colby and James McCargar, "Lost Victory: A Firsthand Account of Americas Sixteen-Year Involvement in Vietnam", Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1989
- John Prados , "Lost Crusader: The Secret Wars of CIA Director William Colby", Oxford University Press, 2003
External link
| Preceded byJames R. Schlesinger | Director of Central Intelligence September 4, 1973 - January 30, 1976 |
Succeeded byGeorge H. W. Bush |
| Directors of Central Intelligence and the Central Intelligence Agency | ||
|---|---|---|
| Central Intelligence |  | |
| Central Intelligence Agency | ||