Naturally, the CIA director's death on a canoe ride triggered murder conspiracy theories. The pain and sadness of losing [my father] has now been intensified by my brother Carls inexplicable and unfounded attempt to debase the reputation and memory of a modest and decent man, a dedicated father, and an exemplary public servant., Carl kept the wrenching footage to bolster the films credibility, he said. The journal appeals to readers from a wide variety of disciplines, including American studies, international economics, American history, national security studies, and Latin-American, Asian, African, European, and Middle Eastern studies. Since then, he had promoted a nuclear freeze and big cuts in the military budget. Colby then worked briefly for the National Labor Relations Board in Washington and signed on with the Central Intelligence Agency. She admits to feeling jealous of another CIA wife whose husband talked more about his job. On April 27, 1996, Colby set out from his weekend home in Rock Point, Maryland, on a solo canoe trip. He was denounced as a war criminal over CIA assassinations in Vietnam. He feels his father left his wife isolated and eschewed real father-son bonds. In the latter book, Colby argued that the U.S.RVN counterinsurgency campaign in Vietnam had succeeded by the early 1970s and that South Vietnam could have survived had the U.S. continued to provide support after the Paris Accords. Call it whatever you like. He drank some wine and ate some clams. He returned for some of the worst years of the war there, in the doomed cause of winning the hearts and minds of the people. Phoenix killed 20,587 Vietnamese. The agency had violated its charter by spying on Americans, tapping their telephones, reading their tax returns and opening their mail. Colby said later that some of Fords advisers felt ``I was responding too willingly to Congress; I was giving them information when I should have stonewalled them and refused to give them information., The former CIA director maintained that it was necessary to own up about past CIA misdeeds, ``to get rid of them and to demonstrate that CIA, itself, had corrected those a year and a half before.. The disclosures in 1975, historians believe, saved the CIA from destruction when members of Congress were eager for its death, but they made Colby a pariah to CIA officers who believed such transparency imperiled the agency's mission and national security. He left Saigon in 1962 and returned in 1966, eventually taking charge of the Vietnamese pacification program and its Phoenix project, aimed at rooting out the Viet Cong, the communist guerrilla organization. With heavy hearts, we announce the death of William Colby of Price, Utah, born in Huntington, Utah, who passed away on December 31, 2020 at the age of 74. Carl elaborated on his theory more in the interview, asserting that if his dad suffered a stroke or heart attack while canoeing, "he may not have had the will to live. 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. killed himself on a canoeing trip in the mid-1990s. Aiden Rodgers of Salem has won an award from Indie Short Fest, a Los Angeles-based international film competition. But she does not share her son's degree of bitterness. The film has drawn criticism from family members. In The Man Nobody Knew, Carl, the narrator, traces his fathers career as an intelligence operative in World War II to his tenure as CIA director. The disclosures in 1975, historians believe, saved the CIA from destruction when members of Congress were eager for its death, but they made Colby a pariah to CIA officers who believed such transparency imperiled the agencys mission and national security. It's been 15 years since Bill Colby vanished on a solo canoe trip near his vacation home in southern Maryland, only to be found dead days later, floating on the banks of the Wicomico River. Sally Shelton-Colby, William Colby's second wife and a foreign policy professor at American University, is unhappy with the way her late husband is portrayed in her stepson's film. This interview is from August 8th "The worst thing I could have done was to sugarcoat my father and paint things as rosy.". William's mother, Margaret Egan, was from an Irish family in St. Paul active in business and Democratic politics. . 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. Anyone can read what you share. The film is about the oldest question: Who are your father and mother? William E. Colby: A Highly Suspicious Death This was Saturday, April 27, 1996. He also mentioned a number of reforms intended to limit excessive classification of governmental information.[15]. His name appears on a note to Senator John Heinz dated July 5, 1989 as a "National Sponsor". And the movie was made by someone she rarely ever speaks to. His calm in this crisis -- his enemies called it cold-bloodedness -- was composed in equal parts of his grounding in espionage, the military and the Roman Catholic Church. "We all have our own relationships. He practiced law and advised various bodies on intelligence matters. The contradictions followed him to the end. in politics in 1940 after completing a 196-page long senior thesis titled "Surrender -- French Policy toward the Spanish Civil War. Funeral service will be celebrated at Hodges Family Funeral Home, 114412 US Hwy 301, Dade City on Shes just a coda.. Colby spent the next 12 years in the field, first in Stockholm, Sweden. I have come to a hard spent realization: Costco has my number. Then he took the canoe out. During and after her husbands tenure as director, she was regarded inside the agency as a charismatic advocate for CIA families. 's station chief in Saigon from 1959 to 1962. She wasnt forthcoming about any insights into his character, Carl said. 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, her son Paul said. (In his memoir "Honorable Men," Bill wrote that the vast majority of Phoenix deaths occurred "in combat actions" with Vietnamese and American military forces. He showed unusual candour while testifying before Congress in 1975 in the wake of A state official said there was no sign of foul play. Carl Colby, who recently released a documentary that chronicles the career of his father, former CIA director William Colby, stands next to his father's grave at Arlington National Cemetery. Part of the effort was the controversial Phoenix Program, an initiative designed to identify and attack the "Viet Cong Infrastructure." This item is part of a JSTOR Collection. She admits to feeling jealous of another CIA wife whose husband talked more about his job. Before and during the Vietnam War, Colby served as chief of station in Saigon, chief of the CIA's Far East Division, and head of the Civil Operations and Rural Development effort, as well as overseeing the Phoenix Program. What do they mean to you?". On the one hand, Carl comes off as bitter that his father was so immersed in his work. His canoe was found the following day on a sandbar in the Wicomico River, a tributary of the Potomac, about 0.25 miles (0.40 km) from his home. 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. Soon, she began courting him. She drew attention to the particular problems, including high divorce rates, that are shouldered by couples who must contend with the rigors of clandestine life. Mr. Colby "had no choice in 1975 but to cooperate," but the agency's pride, "however based on a fiction, took a blow from which we never recovered," Mr. Gates recounts in his just-published memoir, "From the Shadows," (Simon and Schuster). In the 1980s, Mrs. Colby helped lead a successful effort to win legislation guaranteeing shares of lifetime benefits, survivor benefits and health insurance for former spouses mainly wives of CIA employees. They are especially upset with the films suggestion that the former spymaster spent his retirement in deep regret and killed himself on a canoeing trip in the mid-1990s. I think he'd had enough of this life.". He enrolled in Princeton University in 1937 and graduated in 1940 with a liberal education and outlook, a Phi Beta Kappa key, R.O.T.C. Arriving early at the accident scene, Dale Lappin and his father George found that Nancy had been thrown from the car. 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. For the Colby family, the movie is yet one more turbulent moment stemming from the career of their patriarch, whose CIA directorship in the 1970s is one of the agencys most controversial. Giraudo, the daughter of William Egan Colby of Washington and Barbara Heinzen Colby of Arlington, Va., is an account executive at the New York public relations firm of Hill & Knowlton. ", "Carl told me that if I didn't like it, I should make my own film," Paul said. [10] The CORDS model and its approach influenced U.S. strategy and thinking on counterinsurgency in the 2000s in Iraq and Afghanistan.[12]. They were just teenagers. There were times when, really, I didnt know what role we were playing, Mrs. Colby said in an interview for the film The Man Nobody Knew, a 2011 documentary about her ex-husband and directed by their son Carl Colby. The film: The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby.. Colby headed the CIAs Far East Division until he was named CIA director in 1973, a position he held until retiring in November of 1976. The film: "The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby." Request Permissions, Review by: The new dad . william colby daughter death. Shelton-Colby was in Houston, visiting her ailing mother. 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.. December 4, 2022, at the age of 80. She filled out several pages. For terms and use, please refer to our Terms and Conditions Seated in a Washington movie theater in October, she flipped open a notepad and, as the movie played, jotted down her thoughts. 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. Bored by the practice of law and inspired by his liberal beliefs, he moved to Washington to work for the National Labor Relations Board. Posing as a diplomat, Mr. Colby served in Stockholm from 1951 to 1953; in Rome from 1953 to 1958; and, fatefully, as the C.I.A. on February 5, 2010. 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 Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future. But the law, frankly, bored him, and he joined the fledgling C.I.A. Redirect it, reduce the amount of money spent, but let's not destroy it. William Colby died in 1996 in an apparent accidental drowning in the Wicomico River in Maryland. ", Carl kept the wrenching footage to bolster the film's credibility, he said. The CIAs 10th director was best known for revealing the family jewels a compilation of the agencys assassination attempts, drug testing on unwitting humans and eavesdropping on war protesters. The apparent cause was a heart attack, said her son Paul Colby. Only when contacted by a Post reporter did family members vent their frustrations about the film. Their dads legacy, they said, is something still worth defending. Shortly thereafter, William Colby married Sally Shelton, a former U.S. ambassador. . For these missions, he earned the Silver Star and the French Croix de Guerre. ", The Colby family is bothered by the film's suggestion that Bill killed himself because he felt guilty for not doing more to comfort his eldest daughter, Catherine Colby, before her death in 1973 from epilepsy and anorexia. Barbara had no real voice in their relationship anymore, Carl said. She and other CIA wives modeled their campaign on earlier, more public efforts by former spouses of State Department employees. [25], His grandson, Elbridge A. Colby, served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Force Planning from 2017 to 2018 and is co-founder of the Marathon Institute.[26]. That year, Bill and Shelton-Colby got married in Italy. And even though Shelton-Colby, the spymasters second wife, has been kept at a distance by most of Colbys biological children, their grievances with the film have united them, at least in principle. Steven Greer (from disclosureproject.org) reveals to Art Bell the circumstances surrounding William Colby's death. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. Although "The Man Nobody Knew" features an extensive interview with his biological mother, Barbara H. Colby, and more than 30 journalists, ex-CIA officials and other dignitaries, Carl did not ask his three siblings to be interviewed. 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. During World War II Colby served with the Office of Strategic Services. In a short e-mail to The Post, she said her recollections of her dad differ from Carls. Senior agency officers called him a traitor. Even though the movie shows Bill testifying before Congress, saying that he issued an order against assassination, Paul, the youngest brother, said he still believes the film slams their father as a "mass assassin." Carl didnt know his father. He entered Columbia Law School, but left to join the Army and serve in World War II. Then he took the canoe out. Mr. Colby's marriage to the former Barbara Heinzen ended in divorce. In retirement, Mr. Colby lectured, practiced law and worked as a risk consultant to clients that included New York investment banks. Mrs. Colby, 94, died July 16 in Washington. Colby was a vocal advocate within the CIA and the United States government for engaging the non-Communist left wing parties in order to create broader non-Communist coalitions capable of governing fractious Italy; this position first brought him into conflict with James J. Angleton. After she identified the body on Monday, she thanked the searchers and said her husband had left the world a better place. VVA Launches Campaign Addressing Aging Veterans Healthcare. It was about 1982, Shelton-Colby recalled, and she met Bill Colby at the offices of International Business-Government Counsellors, a Washington consulting firm. Bill was working with newly Democratic elected parliaments in Eastern Europe to help them figure out how to assert authorities over spy agencies, Shelton-Colby said. ", "The more we know about each other the safer we all are." The end result of his decision was a permanent system of Congressional oversight of the agency -- and a public understanding that the C.I.A. Its been 15 years since Bill Colby vanished on a solo canoe trip near his vacation home in Southern Maryland, only to be found dead days later, floating on the banks of the Wicomico River. The coroners report listed the cause of death as a drowning, brought on by a stroke or heart attack. Survivors include four children, Jonathan Colby of Jupiter Island, Fla., Carl Colby and Christine Colby Giraudo, both of Washington, and Paul Colby of Alexandria, Va.; eight grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. On April 27, 1996, Colby set out from his weekend home in Rock Point, Maryland, on a solo canoe trip. 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