He thought spying for one's country an honorable task, he followed legitimate orders to the hilt and his public confessions took the form of atonement and redemption. Former CIA Director William Colby comes off as cold, mysterious and ultimately suicidal in his son's documentary, The Man Nobody Knew. As Prados was writing a career chronicle, not a On the one hand, Carl comes off as bitter that his father was so immersed in his work. The CIA's 10th director was best known for revealing the "family jewels" - a compilation of the agency's assassination attempts, drug testing on unwitting humans and eavesdropping on war protesters. Family and friends are welcome to send flowers or leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with the family. Arriving early at the accident scene, Dale Lappin and his father George found that Nancy had been thrown from the car. 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. [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 defender, not preventer of civil rights, an attempt to rebut the then emerging revelations of CIA and NSA domestic spying. [6] In 1984, he divorced Barbara and married Democratic diplomat Sally Shelton-Colby. Thousands of targets were killed, leading the media and much of America to call Phoenix an assassination program. A state official said there was no sign of foul play. Shortly after arriving Colby succeeded Komer as head of the U.S./South Vietnamese rural pacification effort named CORDS. He argued that "the key to the war in Vietnam was the war in the villages. Discharged in 1945 with the rank of major, Colby got his law degree from Columbia, then practiced two years with a New York law firm headed by his former OSS commander, William J. Donovan. 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, trained to work with resistance forces in occupied Europe to harass German and Axis forces. But Mr. Colby "got what he wanted: no President could put the C.I.A. The Vietnam War played a central role in William Colbys life and work. Carl paints his father as a mysterious family man more occupied with the agency's mission against communism and less concerned about his wife Barbara and their five kids. This transformation began on April 27, 1973, 12 days before Mr. Colby learned that President Richard M. Nixon, then deeply enmeshed in the Watergate scandal, was about to nominate him as Director of Central Intelligence. In his 1989 book, Lost Victory: A First-Hand Account of Americas Sixteen-Year Involvement in the Vietnam War , Colby argued that the way to defeat the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese in Vietnam was not to send in large numbers of U.S. troops, but to help make the government of South Vietnam responsive to the needs of its people, thereby making the government an attractive alternative to the communists. Then he took the canoe out. Colby was divorced in 1984 from the former Barbara Heinzen and married Sally Shelton. (Courtesy of the Colby family). VVA Launches Campaign Addressing Aging Veterans Healthcare. And the movie was made by someone she rarely ever speaks to. Carl says in the movie that two weeks before the canoe trip his dad called him "seeking absolution for his not doing enough when Catherine was so ill.". Mr. Colby left Saigon and returned to Washington in 1971, in part to care for his eldest daughter, Catherine, who was slowly dying of anorexia nervosa. Christine Colby Giraudo of Northwest Washington declined to be interviewed. In his memoir, Colby wrote that in his absence, Mrs. Colby faced increasing difficulties, particularly in caring for their daughter Catherine, who suffered from epilepsy and anorexia. Mrs. Colby served for many years on the CIAs Family Advisory Board, which represents the interests of agency family members, and in 2002 received the prestigious Directors Award from then-CIA Director George Tenet, recognizing her untiring efforts on the part of former Agency spouses and her constant concern for the welfare of Agency families., In a statement after Mrs. Colbys death, Tenet and his wife, Stephanie Glakas-Tenet, said that CIA Directors came and went, but Barbara was an indispensable foundation, serving the Agency for nearly 60 years.. In an interview, Jonathan Colby, who lives in Chevy Chase, Md., said he does not understand why Carl implies that his dad committed suicide. The apparent cause was a heart attack, said her son Paul Colby. And when the cold war was over, he proposed beating swords into plowshares, arguing that half of the billions for the Pentagon should go to education, economic competitiveness and programs for the poor. The agency's clandestine officers called the list "the family jewels," or "the skeletons." And he founded the American Commitee for a Free Vietnam, which sought to strengthen human rights and democracy in Vietnam. Due to a planned power outage on Friday, 1/14, between 8am-1pm PST, some services may be impacted. He was born After long-time DCI Richard Helms was dismissed by President Nixon in 1973, James Schlesinger assumed the helm at the Agency. His father, Elbridge Colby, who came from a New England family with a history of military and public service, was a professor of English, an author, and a military officer who served in the Army and in university positions in Tientsin, China; Georgia; Vermont; and Washington, D.C. [11] Some, including Colby later in life, argue that this approach succeeded in reducing the Communist insurgency in South Vietnam, but that South Vietnam, without air and ground support by the United States after the 1973 Paris Peace Accords, was ultimately overwhelmed by a conventional North Vietnamese assault in 1975. For terms and use, please refer to our Terms and Conditions She admits to feeling jealous of another CIA wife whose husband talked more about his job. Those cuts are slowly becoming a reality in the 1990's. She was his little sister. "My dad's shoes were off when they found his body, usually a sign of a drowning victim fighting to live," he said. 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. Mrs. Colby found herself a beneficiary of that legislation when she and her husband, who had supported the campaign on behalf of the ex-spouses, were divorced. Mr. Colby cooperated, and the skeletons began tumbling out of the closet. In April 1996, Bill set off on a worldwide consulting trip. Through her sons, Barbara, 90, who lives in a Washington retirement community, also declined to be interviewed. She received a bachelors degree in history from Barnard College in New York in 1942 and was an advertising copywriter before marrying. Mr. Colby spent the year testifying before Congressional committees, and the essence of his testimony became public: the assassination plots, the coups and the spying on Americans. WebFormer CIA Director William Colby, who played a significant role in U.S. Vietnam War policy-making, was founded dead in 1996, eight days after going missing on a solo canoe trip ", "The more we know about each other the safer we all are." Only when contacted by a Post reporter did family members vent their frustrations about the film. The Catholic Church played a "central role" in his family's life, with Colby's two daughters receiving their First Communion at St. Peter's Basilica.[5]. What do they mean to you?". He drank some wine and ate some clams. Though a career officer, Elbridge Colby's professional pursuits focused less on strictly military activities and more on intellectual and scholarly contributions to military and literary subjects. Bored by the practice of law and inspired by his liberal beliefs, he moved to Washington to work for the National Labor Relations Board. RHODRI JEFFREYS-JONES. Sally Shelton-Colby needed to watch the documentary with friends, for emotional support. In the documentary, Carl Colby said that his mother did everything for the mission., She hadnt signed up for this, he said, But she did it.. COLBY--Barbara Heinzen, died peacefully Thursday, July 16 at the age of 94. Colby died in a boating He was not the cold, insensitive, unfeeling person that Carl portrayed in that film.". During World War II Colby served with the Office of Strategic Services. In 1992, she received a masters degree in humanities from Georgetown University. Naturally, the CIA directors death on a canoe ride triggered murder conspiracy theories. On April 27, 1996, Colby set out from his weekend home in Rock Point, Maryland, on a solo canoe trip. Conceived by the White House and supported by the C.I.A., that program sought to expose Vietcong agents working in South Vietnam. Because you don't know 10 years out what you're going to face. Sally Shelton-Colby, pictured in Washington, the second wife of former CIA director William Colby, disputes a documentary produced about her late husband. They thought she was dead, but called an ambulance anyway. Mr. Colby spent most of his adult life as a cold warrior in his country's clandestine service, "a soldier-priest," as a colleague called him, on a covert crusade. ", This page was last edited on 20 January 2023, at 14:13. WebI have not found him in the death records yet but the 1900 Lawrence Co., KY Fed Census has him born Nov 1845, his wife Sarah born Sep 1847 and two He is survived by his wife, Sally Shelton-Colby, an assistant administrator for global programs at the Agency for International Development and a former Ambassador to Grenada, Barbados and eight other eastern Caribbean countries; his children from his first marriage, Jonathan, Carl, Paul and Christine, and six grandchildren. was a tool of Presidential power, not a rogue elephant. Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future. Last Updated: November 23, 2011 8:25 pm. In 1984, Bill and Barbara divorced. It was when Barbara came up to me, Shelton-Colby remembered. WASHINGTON (AP) _ William E. Colby was a professional spy and a man of contradictions. [19][20], Colby's death triggered conspiracy theories that his death was due to foul play. The film is about the oldest question: Who are your father and mother? He practiced law and advised various bodies on intelligence matters. The rest His immediate predecessor, James R. Schlesinger, had vowed to tear the agency apart if necessary to "find out if there were questionable or illegal activities hidden in the secret recesses of our clandestine past that we didn't know about and that might explode at any time under our feet.". William Colby died in 1996 in an apparent accidental Why Was Former CIA Director William Colby Assassinated? ", For histories on the CIA's role in Vietnam and on the pacification effort more broadly, see foia.cia.gov, For further information on Colby's leadership of the Intelligence Community, see cia.gov, "William E. Colby, 76, Head of C.I.A. On the one hand, Carl comes off as bitter that his father was so immersed in his work. And she, too, had been in a tired marriage to a Mexican ambassador that fell apart. 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. Then he took the canoe out. Mr. Colby, the agency's director of covert operations, was left with a task that violated every precept of a secret agency: compiling a list of the deepest secrets. In that city, he wrote, the family received its baptism of fire during an unsuccessful 1960 coup mounted against Diem. 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. "It was when Barbara came up to me," Shelton-Colby remembered. Before the vote, he decided to share the family jewels with a few select members of Congress. Colby to Leonid Brezhnev, On walking alone, unfollowed, through Red Square in 1989, after the end of the Cold War: "That was my victory parade. That year, Bill and Shelton-Colby got married in Italy. As the confirmation hearings convened in July 1973, antiwar protesters plastered Washington with wanted posters emblazoned with Mr. Colby's face, a skull and crossbones and the ace of spades, a symbol of death, his home telephone, which he insisted remain listed, rang with angry calls throughout the night. It currently publishes more than 6,000 new publications a year, has offices in around fifty countries, and employs more than 5,500 people worldwide. Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. To save the agency, Mr. Colby believed, he had to confess to its sins. Carl paints his father as a mysterious family man more occupied with the agencys mission against communism and less concerned about his wife Barbara and their five kids. In 1968, while Colby was preparing to take up the post of chief of the Soviet Bloc Division of the Agency, President Lyndon Johnson instead sent Colby back to Vietnam as deputy to Robert Komer, who had been charged with streamlining the civilian side of the American and South Vietnamese efforts against the Communists. It had plotted to assassinate Fidel Castro and other foreign leaders. On her nightstand by her bed, a photo shows the couple in Venice, seated in a gondola draped in flowers, yellow and white. He was CIA station chief in Saigon from 1959-62, was deputy director of the CORDS program in 1968, andmost famously (or infamously)ran the controversial Phoenix program in 1969. 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