Colby also focused on internal reforms within the CIA and the intelligence community. A state official said there was no sign of foul play. Mr. Colby cooperated, and the skeletons began tumbling out of the closet. Earlier this year, when Paul was shown the film, he told Carl that it would be unethical to keep it as is. He was not the cold, insensitive, unfeeling person that Carl portrayed in that film.". Early on the morning of Feb. 19, William G. (Bill) Armstrong, 89, passed away surrounded by his loving family at this Tamarack Lane home. Before the legislation was enacted, many spouses endured long overseas assignments that left them unable to build careers in the United States, then divorced and were destitute because they were not entitled to portions of CIA benefits. William Colby, in full William Egan Colby, (born January 4, 1920, St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S.died April 27, 1996, Rock Point, Maryland), U.S. government official who pursued a policy of openness during his turbulent tenure (197376) as director of the CIA. As Prados was writing a career chronicle, not a 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. Seated in a Washington movie theater in October, she flipped open a notepad and, as the movie played, jotted down her thoughts. 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. Phoenix killed 20,587 Vietnamese. That year, Bill and Shelton-Colby got married in Italy. He was denounced as a war criminal over CIA assassinations in Vietnam. 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. Colby's time as DCI was also eventful on the world stage. Please join us in Loving, Sharing and Memorializing Frederick William Colby Sr on this permanent online memorial. In a short email to The Post, she said her recollections of her dad differ from Carl's. View The Obituary For Frederick William Colby Sr of Dade City, Florida. On April 27, 1996, Colby set out from his weekend home in Rock Point, Maryland, on a solo canoe trip. 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.. After Vietnam, Colby became director of central intelligence and during his tenure, under intense pressure from the Congress and the media, adopted a policy of relative openness about U.S. intelligence activities to the Senate Church Committee and House Pike Committee. Carl said he didn't interview his siblings because he views the film as his memoir, not a biography. And even though Shelton-Colby, the spymaster's second wife, has been kept at a distance by most of Colby's biological children, their grievances with the film have united them, at least in principle. Sally Shelton-Colby needed to watch the documentary with friends, for emotional support. Thousands of targets were killed, leading the media and much of America to call Phoenix an assassination program. The agency's clandestine officers called the list "the family jewels," or "the skeletons." Former 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 near his Maryland home. [7][23] In May 2013, Randall B. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. COLBY--Barbara Heinzen, died peacefully Thursday, July 16 at the age of 94. "And all she said to me was, 'We both loved him. Benning. She writes about extraordinary lives in national and international affairs, science and the arts, sports, culture, and beyond. The Colby family is bothered by the films 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. The day after he returned, he went to his Southern Maryland home. . 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. Now the pressure for a full Congressional investigation grew irresistible. Colbys body was found washed up Monday on a sandbar of the Wicomico River not far from his southern Maryland vacation home, eight days after his empty canoe was found nearby. The Vietnam War played a central role in William Colbys life and work. Let me be very blunt, said Shelton-Colby, 67, a foreign policy professor at American University. Woods: William E. Colby and the CIA", William E. Colby Papers at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University, Oral History Interviews with William Colby, from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, Coroner's Report on William E. Colby's Death, National Coalition to Ban Handguns Letter to Sen. John Heinz, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_Colby&oldid=1134763619, United States Army personnel of World War II, Directors of the Central Intelligence Agency, People of the Office of Strategic Services, Recipients of the Distinguished Intelligence Medal, CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles needing additional references from April 2017, All articles needing additional references, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, "We disbanded our intelligence [after both world wars] and then found we needed it. 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. From 1968 to 1971, under the aegis of the Agency for International Development, Mr. Colby had run programs that included Operation Phoenix. Note: This article is a review of another work, such as a book, film, musical composition, etc. 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. She was Ambassador of the United States to Barbados, Grenada and Dominica as well as Minister to St Lucia, and Special Representative to Antigua, St. Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla, and St. Vincent from 1979 to 1981, under Jimmy Carter. 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 felt it crucial to educate Congress, the press and the public about the agency. in 1950. He argued, along with old hawks like former Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara, for deep cuts in nuclear weapons stockpiles. Diplomatic History is the official journal of Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR). [21][22] Carl's step-mother and siblings, as well as Colby's biographer Randall Woods, criticized Carl's portrayal of Colby and rejected the allegation that the former CIA director killed himself, saying it was inconsistent with his character. Carl didn't know his father. He was 76 and lived in the Georgetown section of Washington. 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. In his eyes and in the eyes of many historians, he kept the agency from destroying itself or being destroyed by outsiders. 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. 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. This item is part of a JSTOR Collection. That day, the Federal judge at the trial of Daniel Ellsberg, a former Defense Department official charged with espionage after the Pentagon Papers, a secret history of the Vietnam War, were provided to The New York Times, disclosed that the office of Mr. Ellsberg's psychiatrist had been burglarized by White House operatives -- with technical assistance from the C.I.A. He enrolled in Columbia University Law School but left after a year to become an army parachutist. That assignment led to one in which he parachuted behind enemy lines in Norway to blow up a Nazi rail line. did business with the legislative branch in those days. And the movie was made by someone she rarely ever speaks to. Last Updated: November 23, 2011 8:25 pm. But he was fired as CIA director after advocating a retreat from cloak-and-dagger operations. It stayed secret -- for a while. 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. In 1992, she received a masters degree in humanities from Georgetown University. It would have muddled the story.. Paul said the Vietnamese prisoners killing was not part of Phoenix, that his dad wasnt even in Vietnam at the time of the shooting and that the footage is a total smear of my father., Carl told me that if I didnt like it, I should make my own film, Paul said. He was having a ball.. Its a terrible thing to say, but sometimes I think I would have rather worked for him than be his son, Carl 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 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. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. The apparent cause was a heart attack, said her son Paul Colby. The CIA women worked behind the scenes, as not to out the spouses still employed there. [16] His canoe was found the following day on a sandbar in the Wicomico River, a tributary of the Potomac, about 0.25 miles (0.40km) from his home. But now, The Man Nobody Knew has set off a tense division between Carl, his stepmother and his otherwise low-key siblings: Jonathan Colby, 65, a managing director at the Carlyle Group, an investment firm; Paul Colby, 56, a government attorney; and Christine Colby Giraudo, 51, a public relations consultant. Shortly thereafter, William Colby married Sally Shelton, a former U.S. ambassador. My dads shoes were off when they found his body, usually a sign of a drowning victim fighting to live, he said. [21][22], Colby was the subject of a biography, Lost Crusader, by John Prados, published in 2003. Emily Langer is a reporter on The Washington Posts obituaries desk. "We all have our own relationships. 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. He married Barbara Heinzen (19202015) in 1945 and they had five children. Thousands of targets were killed, leading the media and much of America to call Phoenix an assassination program. 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. Because you don't know 10 years out what you're going to face. It had plotted to assassinate Fidel Castro and other foreign leaders. Colby was known as a media-friendly CIA director. 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 a short e-mail to The Post, she said her recollections of her dad differ from Carls. There, he helped set up the stay-behind networks of Operation Gladio, a covert paramilitary organization organized by the CIA to make any Soviet occupation more difficult, as he later described in his memoirs.[8]. 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. During World War II Colby served with the Office of Strategic Services. The film: The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby. Its director and narrator: his second-oldest son, Carl Colby. Colby then worked briefly for the National Labor Relations Board in Washington and signed on with the Central Intelligence Agency. Shelton-Colby was in Houston, visiting her ailing mother. At their Georgetown home, after dinner, they had their rituals. 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. 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. When you are distraught, you do unreasonable, illogical things.". Carl said he felt that the best person to explain his dad was his mother, who was extensively interviewed in the film. In 1945, he commanded a squad of saboteurs who blew up German rail lines in the snows of northern Norway. Menu. On May 6, Colby's body was found in a marshy riverbank lying face down not far from where his canoe was found. 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. "[1] He then studied at Columbia Law School the following year. killed himself on a canoeing trip in the mid-1990s. It has become familiar to millions through a diverse publishing program that includes scholarly works in all academic disciplines, bibles, music, school and college textbooks, business books, dictionaries and reference books, and academic journals. . The original work is not included in the purchase of this review. And she, too, had been in a tired marriage to a Mexican ambassador that fell apart. During these years Colby was deeply involved in Washington's policies in East Asia, particularly with respect to Vietnam, as well as Indonesia, Japan, Korea, and China. Funeral service will be celebrated at Hodges Family Funeral Home, 114412 US Hwy 301, Dade City on "It's a terrible thing to say, but sometimes I think I would have rather worked for him than be his son," Carl said. Died: April, 1973 (Complications from epilepsy and anorexia) Mini Bio (1) Catherine Colby died in April 1973. Those hints grew darker in January 1975, after Mr. Colby dismissed James J. Angleton, for 20 years the agency's chief of counterintelligence. It was when Barbara came up to me, Shelton-Colby remembered. He feels his father left his wife isolated and eschewed real father-son bonds. Obsessed with a search for a Soviet spy inside the agency, Mr. Angleton had developed ornate theories of Soviet plots to subvert the United States. Soon, she began courting him. Summoned to Washington by a Senate committee in 1970, Colby defended the project but conceded there may have been ``some illegal killing.. He drank some wine and ate some clams. President Ford, advised by Henry Kissinger and others concerned by Colby's controversial openness to Congress and distance from the White House, replaced Colby late in 1975 with George H. W. Bush during the so-called Halloween Massacre in which Secretary of Defense Schlesinger was also replaced (by Donald Rumsfeld). After that posting, the family returned to the United States and William Colby went back alone to South Vietnam. 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 He was not the cold, insensitive, unfeeling person that Carl portrayed in that film.. 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. 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. "Let me be very blunt," said Shelton-Colby, 67, a foreign policy professor at American University. 2004 Oxford University Press See the article in its original context from. We all have our own relationships. Mrs. Colby was born Barbara Ann Heinzen in Springfield, Ohio, on Dec. 25, 1920. He fit this published description: ``Mr. Colby never seems to have a hair or an emotion out of place., Even Colby said, in his 1978 memoir, that he was ``the traditional gray man, so inconspicuous that he can never catch the waiters eye in a restaurant.. In 1973, their daughter died at 23. 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. ), Paul, who lives in Alexandria, also hates how the movie splices images of their dad with violent archival footage rows of Vietnamese corpses and a notorious clip of a Vietnamese prisoner being shot in the head. She admits to feeling jealous of another CIA wife whose husband talked more about his job. "I would have been closer to him. William E. Colby was a member of the National Coalition to Ban Handguns. web pages 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. Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. 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]. 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. The film is about the oldest question: Who are your father and mother? 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. William E. Colby, 76, Head of C.I.A. 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. Barbara Heinzen ( 19202015 ) in 1945 and they had five children CIA women worked behind the scenes, not! The Georgetown section of Washington called the list `` the family jewels, '' said Shelton-Colby 67! Science and the skeletons. become an army parachutist is not included in purchase. 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