Center
Magazine. Editors. "Freedom and the
Intelligence Function; Symposium." 12 (Mar.-Apr. 1979): 45-60. 1. Personal comment on Colby
2. Material on Colby
I served in the CIA Operations Center during a period that included the last 6 months of Bill Colby's tenure as DCI. In that position, I interacted with Colby on substantive issues on a fairly regular basis, although less frequently than might normally have been the case without his absorption in testifying to Congress. Colby had an eye for the good intelligence story, asked pointed questions, gave clear instructions, and treated underlings distantly but with respect.
Bill Colby also had a sense of humor. About three years before his death, I was in attendance at an academic conference where Colby was the keynote speaker. We had several mini-conversations during the day and evening. On one occasion, I reminded Colby that it had been my name on the "urgent message" handed him at National Airport on 2 November 1975. That message instructed him to call John Marsh, President Ford's counselor, "no matter how late," and preceded his firing by the President. Colby smiled and said, "Isn't it great that we only shoot the messengers."
Colby's actions in dealing with Congress, and specifically his handling of the "family jewels," will remain controversial. I will remember him as a humane individual who cared deeply for his country and the Agency.
Center
Magazine. Editors. "Freedom and the
Intelligence Function; Symposium." 12 (Mar.-Apr. 1979): 45-60.
Petersen: "Roundtable with DCI Turner, former DCI Colby, CIA critic Morton Halperin, and others."
Fallaci, Oriana. "The CIA's Mr. Colby: An Oriana Fallaci Interview." New Republic,
13 Mar. 1976, 12-21. [Petersen]
Ford, Harold P. "Bill Colby Remembered." Center for the Study of Intelligence Newsletter 5 (Spring 1996): 1-3. Excerpts published in CIRA Newsletter 21, no. 2 (Summer 1996): 18-20. "William Colby: Retrospect." Studies in Intelligence (Semiannual ed., no. 1, 1997): 1-5.
Ford reviews Colby's career in broad terms and without avoiding the contentious aspects.
In a letter to the CIRA Newsletter, Fall 1996, John Warner, CIA General Counsel in the mid-1970s, says that Ford's "is a fine article," but seeks to correct several errors he believes are present. Warner addresses Colby's dealings with James Angleton, with events surrounding the indictment of Richard Helms, and with Colby's decision to cooperate fully with the Congressional committees.
Gonzales, Lawrence.
"William Colby Interview." Playboy, Jul. 1978, 69 ff.
Petersen: "Ex-DCI discusses covert action, domestic spying charges."
Johnson, Loch K. "A Conversation with Former DCI William E. Colby: Spymaster during the 'Year of the Intelligence Wars.'" Intelligence and National Security 22, no. 2 (Apr. 2007): 250-269.
This "previously unpublished interview ... was conducted in 1991." It is well worth reading.
Lardner, George, Jr.,
and Walter Pincus. "The Man Who Uncloaked the CIA: William Colby Will
Be Remembered for Disclosing the Agency's Most Embarrassing Secrets."
Washington Post National Weekly Edition, 13-19 May 1996, 30.
Periscope. Editors.
"Wiiliam Colby, 76, Chief of CIA in Time of Upheaval and Honored at
National Cathedral." 21, no. 4 (1996): 2-3.
Periscope reprints two articles by Tim Weiner in the 7 May and 15 May issues of the New York Times and a 15 May article from the Washington Post by Jeffrey Smith.
Prados, John. Lost Crusader: The Secret Wars of CIA Director William Colby. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
David Wise, Washington Post, 27 Apr. 2003, comments that "[a]lthough written in generally dry, academic style, Prados's study is richly detailed (sometimes overwhelmingly so)." The author "has mined newly declassified documents and scores of interviews to reveal some previously undisclosed gems.... If at times Prados is too admiring of his subject, there was nevertheless much to admire.... [Colby] paid dearly for revealing the agency's transgressions, but he was comforted by the knowledge that what he did was right for his country and his conscience. By portraying William Colby's life in all its nuances, Lost Crusader makes an important contribution to intelligence literature."
Karabell, FA 82.4, finds that this is a "comprehensive (although often dry) account of the strange career of Colby." However, "much of [Colby's] life and personality remain veiled, and Prados ... does not succeed in fleshing out his personality."
For Bath, NIPQ 19.4, this work is as much about the Agency as it is about Colby. Prados is "firm in his conclusion that Colby's basic strategy [during the CIA's troubles in the 1970s] was to reveal only enough information to preserve the CIA." The amount of detail included by the author, while "germane to his arguments," is "sometimes difficult for the uninitiated to follow. However, the value of the book lies in this detail."
Tovar, IJI&C 17.1, notes that in covering the assassination of Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, "it is hard to escape the thought that Prados's real target" is the CIA. Elsewhere, the author "worries the Indonesian bone through many pages of supposition and speculation." With regard to the public problems of 1974-1975, Tovar believes that "Prados reports the events of those turbulent times even-handedly," but at the same time does not agree with the author's interpretation of either the events or Colby's rationale for dealing with them.
To Leary, I&NS 18.4, this work "constitutes the best defense to appear to date on the actions of the beleaguered director" in 1975. The author "knows what he is talking about, and his judgments are balanced." He "deals well with Colby's public career, but not his personal life, or the interaction between the two."
Robarge, Studies 47.4 (2003), sees the author handling "the narrative of Colby's curriculum vitae in a workmanlike fashion.... But in a biography, the less captivating attributes of the main character or lacunae in the documentary record of his career cannot be offset with lengthy accounts of Agency operations and bureaucratic developments with which, at least based on the material presented, Colby's involvement can only be discerned by inference.... Surprisingly for a researcher of Prados's diligence, Lost Crusader contains many factual errors and questionable interpretations."
U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Center for the Study of Intelligence. Ed. Nicholas Dujmovic. "Oral History: Reflections of DCI[s] Colby and Helms on the CIA’s 'Time of Troubles.'" Studies in Intelligence 51, no. 3 (2007): 11-28. [https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol51no3/index.html]
"Colby and Helms were interviewed on 15 March and 2 February 1988, respectively, as part of an effort by the Center for the Study of Intelligence to compile the perspectives of former Agency leaders on what has often been termed the CIA’s 'Time of Troubles' in the 1970s. The perspectives of these two officials, different in several respects, illustrate the dilemmas a secret intelligence agency faces in serving a democracy."
Weiner, Tim. "Ex-Director
of C.I.A. Disappears While Canoeing on Choppy River." New York Times,
30 Apr. 1996, A1, A12 (N).
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