He was 76 and lived in the Georgetown section of Washington. Mrs. Colby supported her husband when, after his testimony about the family jewels, he was removed from office by President Gerald R. Ford. Shelton-Colby, a former U.S. ambassador, was disturbed by her stepson's take on her dead husband, and, as it turns out, so is the rest of the Washington-based Colby clan. 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. And, most recently, a Salem teens film wins L.A. Indie Short Fest honors. For these missions, he earned the Silver Star and the French Croix de Guerre. For the Colby family, the movie is yet one more turbulent moment stemming from the career of their patriarch, The CIAs 10th director was best known for revealing the family jewels. Colby was dismissed as CIA director 20 years ago, after 3 1/2 years, by President Ford. But Mr. Colby "got what he wanted: no President could put the C.I.A. He was denounced as a war criminal over CIA assassinations in Vietnam. Norwich University hosts an annual writers symposium named in his honor. At Bill's funeral the next month, Shelton-Colby, who wears on her left arm the watch she gave Bill as a wedding present, remembers one moment more than most. He also mentioned a number of reforms intended to limit excessive classification of governmental information.[15]. 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). She previously worked for the Outlook and Local Living sections. They were packed into a train by Nazis in May 1944 and werent told where they were goin Connecticut College students were asked to shelter in place as police and fire officials investigated a suspicious object on campus that turned out to be a disc 'We're back where we were' prior to Roe v. Wade, Sound On The Sound: How one New London artist celebrates culture and identity through music, Sound On The Sound: The philanthropic power of music, Sound On The Sound: Musicians test the waters in the New London restaurant scene, Conn College students continue to occupy administration building, Electric Boat hopes to hire 5,750 employees this year, OPINION: Earth to Conn College trustees: Your school is on fire, Lawmakers suggest tribes need to agree on what Thames Rivers name should be, No. Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. [21][22], Colby was the subject of a biography, Lost Crusader, by John Prados, published in 2003. Call it whatever you like. 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. As I wrote in a retrospective column in The Hill two days after Colby's body was recovered when he vanished on a solo canoe trip in the Chesapeake Bay in May, 1996, his death "was one of those events that seems destined to She also came to realize, after her husband asked her for a divorce, that she didn't know him as well as she thought. The film concerned a dead man she's still in love with. William Egan Colby was born on Jan. 4, 1920, in St. Paul, the son of Elbridge and Margaret Egan Colby. John, Michael Collins Piper has some interesting things to say about Colby. [17] On May 6, Colby's body was found in a marshy riverbank lying face down not far from where his canoe was found. During and after her husbands tenure as director, she was regarded inside the agency as a charismatic advocate for CIA families. And all she said to me was, We both loved him., 11 arrested as Occupy D.C. supporters claim vacant downtown school, Va. parish decides to stop training girls as altar servers, D.C. man convicted in attack on transgender woman. Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future. 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. Over the next several years, they traveled the world. The apparent cause was a heart attack, said her son Paul Colby. web pages But Mrs. Colbys own loyalty kept her from complaining or letting anything interfere with his work, he wrote. She admits to feeling jealous of another CIA wife whose husband talked more about his job. Ultimately, the movie reveals Carl's ambivalence about his dad. Two months after the firing, Ford honored Colby with the National Security Medal, citing his ``outstanding contribution in the field of intelligence.. Earlier this year, when Paul was shown the film, he told Carl that it would be "unethical" to keep it as is. She said, 'They can make their own movie,'" Carl said in an interview. They were later Family and friends are welcome to send flowers or leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with the family. William Edger Colby. It was when Barbara came up to me, Shelton-Colby remembered. Christine Colby Giraudo of Northwest Washington declined to be interviewed. 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. At their Georgetown home, after dinner, they had their rituals. Died: April, 1973 (Complications from epilepsy and anorexia) Mini Bio (1) Catherine Colby died in April 1973. The couple met on a blind date and were married shortly after William Colby returned from service in Europe during World War II with the Office of Strategic Services. William Colby, a former directorof the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, was alone at his weekendhouse across from Cobb Island, Maryland, 60 miles south of Washington,D.C. Colby, however, consistently insisted that such tactics were not authorized by or permitted in the program. WebSally Angela Shelton-Colby (born August 29, 1944) is an American diplomat. [16][18] After an autopsy, Maryland's Chief Medical Examiner John E. Smialek ruled his death to be accidental. The film is about the oldest question: Who are your father and mother? [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. 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. Colby then worked briefly for the National Labor Relations Board in Washington and signed on with the Central Intelligence Agency. He was an avid outdoorsman but he died, apparently by drowning, while canoeing on a familiar river. The film is about the oldest question: Who are your father and mother? In the film, Carl wonders whether his friends were right when they called his dad a murderer for running the notorious Phoenix Program a CIA operation in the Vietnam War sought to ferret out Viet Cong agents in South Vietnam. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. William E. Colby, 76, Head of C.I.A. The following is a transcript of the part of the interview that is available here as a streaming mp3 file: I don't understand why more people don't know about this. Their dad's legacy, they said, is something still worth defending. The apparent cause was a heart attack, said her son Paul Colby. ", "Carl told me that if I didn't like it, I should make my own film," Paul said. It had plotted to assassinate Fidel Castro and other foreign leaders. Before the vote, he decided to share the family jewels with a few select members of Congress. WebCatherine Colby died in April 1973. And a Surround Sound system for my TV. After an autopsy, Maryland's Chief Medical Examiner John E. Smialek ruled his death to be accidental. 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. He showed unusual candour while testifying before Congress in 1975 in the wake of . PRICE William Edger Colby (AKA) Gummer, 74, passed away unexpectedly at his home in Price on December 31, 2020. "And all she said to me was, 'We both loved him. Senior agency officers called him a traitor. Mrs. Colby jumped into the job of the junior diplomats wife with her typical enthusiasm and charm, William Colby wrote in his 1978 memoir Honorable Men: My Life in the CIA, crediting her also with maintaining a normal family life. experience and a deep antipathy to Fascism and Communism. After that posting, the family returned to the United States and William Colby went back alone to South Vietnam. Carl didnt know his father. On May 6, Colby's body was found in a marshy riverbank lying face down not far from where his canoe was found. She served with her husband and their family during his long CIA career in Sweden, Italy, Naturally, the CIA directors death on a canoe ride triggered murder conspiracy theories. She was 44. December 4, 2022, at the age of 80. In 1973, their daughter died at 23. It was about 1982, Shelton-Colby recalled, and she met Bill Colby at the offices of International Business-Government Counsellors, a Washington consulting firm. His brothers and sister had their own relationship with him, he said. Vet documentarian Carl Colbys ambitious, decades-spanning film about his CIA spymaster father delves deeply into historical events William Colby helped to shape, from his OSS days during WWI The agency had violated its charter by spying on Americans, tapping their telephones, reading their tax returns and opening their mail. We all have our own relationships. 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. He was given the Outstanding Achievement Award (Young Male Filmmaker) for his six-min Building trust: Jason Wallaces Strange Brew Pub welcomes all kinds. Colby also focused on internal reforms within the CIA and the intelligence community. 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. In December 1974, The New York Times reported that the agency had spied on Americans, and Mr. Colby was a source for the article. 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. 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. Colby was born Jan. 4, 1920, in St. Paul, Minn., the son of a career Army officer. Carl Colby, whose documentary opened in September and is playing in theaters nationwide, declined to discuss his familys reactions to his film. This interview is from August 8th 2004. [5] His tenure as DCI, which lasted two and a half tumultuous years, was overshadowed by the Church and Pike congressional investigations into alleged U.S. intelligence malfeasance over the preceding 25 years, including 1975, the so-called Year of Intelligence. COLBY, William H. "Colby" - Of Flint, age 60, died Saturday, August 4, 2007 at Hurley Medical Center. "It's a terrible thing to say, but sometimes I think I would have rather worked for him than be his son," Carl said. william colby daughter death. I think hed had enough of this life.. In recent months, Mr. Colby became senior editor of Strategic Weekly Briefings, a faxed newsletter, and embarked on a quintessential post-cold-war endeavor: marketing a computer CD-ROM game about espionage and counter-terrorism he created with Oleg Kalugin, a former top Soviet intelligence officer. He practiced law and advised various bodies on intelligence matters. Benning. The Cosby Family thanks many people for their was just an ordinary guy with ordinary desires., Carl interviewed Shelton-Colby, but he opted not to use any of the footage. Though the topic remains open and controversial, some recent scholarship, including by Lewis "Bob" Sorley, supports Colby's arguments. 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. Through her sons, Barbara, 90, who lives in a Washington retirement community, also declined to be interviewed. 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. He felt it crucial to educate Congress, the press and the public about the agency. Quoting his book "Final Judgement" (pp353-357): "The August 20, 1996 issue of The Sun, In the 1980's, he began speaking out against the nuclear arms race. The Vietnam War played a central role in William Colbys life and work. When Nixon reshuffled his agency heads and made Schlesinger secretary of defense, Colby emerged as a natural candidate for DCIapparently on the basis of the recommendation that he was a professional who would not make waves. And the movie was made by someone she rarely ever speaks to. Column: Look out, the Copycat is on the prowl, trying to figure out the Costco Bisconie recipe. In retirement, Mr. Colby lectured, practiced law and worked as a risk consultant to clients that included New York investment banks. And the list went on and on, growing to 693 single-spaced pages. The couple bonded over their backgrounds in foreign policy. He was born Then came a major congressional investigation of the CIA, including allegations that it was involved in overseas assassination plots, illegal domestic spying, illegal eavesdropping and experimentation with the drug LSD. |Privacy Policy He loved music and could play piano, accordion and guitar. Together in this way, he wrote, we did much to shore up my weak cover and convince most people that I was in fact what I said I was a diplomat.. The Christian Democrats and allied parties won several key elections in the 1950s, preventing a takeover by the Communist Party. Part of the effort was the controversial Phoenix Program, an initiative designed to identify and attack the "Viet Cong Infrastructure." The William E. Colby Military Writers Symposium, Deputy Director of Central Intelligence for Operations, Deputy Assistant For National Security Affairs, Learn how and when to remove this template message, United States Permanent Representative to NATO, "Surrender -- French Policy toward the Spanish Civil War", "Interview with William Egan Colby, 1981. Search the history of over 797 billion . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. His daughter, Christine, was presented as a debutante to high society in 1978 at the International Debutante Ball at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. Colby then spent much of the 1950s based in Rome, under cover as a State Department officer,[7] where he led the Agency's covert political operations campaign to support anti-Communist parties in their electoral contests against left wing, Soviet Unionassociated parties. Soon, she began courting him. Bill moved out of the family home in July 1983 to write a sequel to his memoir, Shelton-Colby said. "I would have been closer to him. From 1968 to 1971, under the aegis of the Agency for International Development, Mr. Colby had run programs that included Operation Phoenix. ``Its time to cut our military budget by 50 percent and to invest that money in our schools, our health care and our economy. . Mrs. Colby was born Barbara Ann Heinzen in Springfield, Ohio, on Dec. 25, 1920. I preferred the old dad, not the new, he said. Redirect it, reduce the amount of money spent, but let's not destroy it. "I think Carl portrayed his father in the way he did to sell his film. Robert M. Gates, the Director of Central Intelligence from 1991 to 1993, recalled that 1975 was the worst year in the agency's history. I think Carl portrayed his father in the way he did to sell his film. Then an OSS friend offered him a job at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and Colby accepted. Enterprise reporter covering the Washington region and beyond. Tasked by CIA with supporting the government of Ng nh Dim, Colby established a relationship with President Diem's family and with Ng nh Nhu, the president's brother, with whom Colby became close. There is considerable debate about the merits of the program, which was subject to allegations that it relied on or was complicit in assassination and torture. 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 argued, along with old hawks like former Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara, for deep cuts in nuclear weapons stockpiles. 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 agency's most controversial. He was said to have been too candid in testimony to congressional investigators; he had long ago aroused the ire of the agencys old guard for trying to channel more effort into the gathering, evaluation and analysis of information and less into covert operation. did business with the legislative branch in those days. Mr. Colby told Congress in 1971 that these deaths included "illegal killing." 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. But she does not share her son's degree of bitterness. The film: "The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby." Last Updated: November 23, 2011 8:25 pm. 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. 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. Earlier this year, when Paul was shown the film, he told Carl that it would be unethical to keep it as is. ``He fought fascism and communism and lived to see democracy take hold in the world., President Clinton said in a statement, ``Through a quarter of a century at the CIA, William Colby played a pivotal role in shaping our nations intelligence community. He argued that "the key to the war in Vietnam was the war in the villages. Few outsiders understood them -- "possibly because Angleton's explanations were impossible to follow, or possibly because the evidence just didn't add up," Mr. Colby wrote in his memoir. Bored by the practice of law and inspired by his liberal beliefs, he moved to Washington to work for the National Labor Relations Board. 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 film: The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby.. The new documentary, The Man Nobody Knew , produced by the spymasters son Carl Colby, looks at the odd circumstances surrounding his fathers death, as well as his long career in intelligence. Uploaded by Carl seemed less intrigued by his dad after he left the CIA in 1976. It appears now for use as a charismatic advocate for CIA families with his,... 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