Colby, William

Born in St. Paul, in 1941 he graduated from Princeton University , receiving a bachelor of arts. In August of that year, he volunteered for the army, receiving the rank of 2nd lieutenant. He served in the paratrooper troops. In 1943 he was transferred to the Office of Strategic Services . In the summer of 1944 it was thrown into the territory of France occupied by the Germans, and in 1945 - into occupied Norway. For the accomplishment of the last mission he was awarded a military award. Major (1945).

After the end of World War II he attended the Faculty of Law at Columbia University , where in 1947 he received a bachelor's degree in law. He was engaged in private legal practice together with the former head of the Office of Strategic Services W. Donovan .

In 1949-1950 he worked at the National Department of Labor Relations in Washington.

After the outbreak of war in Korea, he joined the Central Intelligence Agency .

In 1951-1953 he worked in the American Embassy in Stockholm, in 1953-1958 - in Rome, in 1959-1952 - the representative of the CIA in the US Embassy in Saigon (South Vietnam).

In 1962-1967 he worked in the Central Office of the CIA as head of the Far Eastern Directorate of Planning Directorate.

In 1968, he was again sent to Vietnam under the cover of the post of the American representative of the Agency for International Development . He participated in the operation "Phoenix", during which tens of thousands of Vietnamese were suspected of sympathy for the Communists.

In 1971, while remaining an employee of the CIA, he officially got a job at the State Department .

From March 2 to August 24, 1973 - Deputy Director of Operations Central Intelligence. At the same time - executive secretary of the CIA leadership committee.

On May 10, 1973, he was appointed by President R. Nixon the director of Central Intelligence and the head of the CIA; on August 1 he was approved by the Senate; on September 4, he took office. He headed the CIA until January 30, 1976.

We met with Colby at various international conferences dedicated to the future of intelligence, and established good relations with him. He told a lot of interesting things, called himself a dissident in the CIA. They really do not like him there, since he tried to put this department under the control of Congress, was the author of a number of laws that limited the CIA’s activities, mainly in relation to “wet” cases.

- V. A. Kirpichenko , [1]

In 1976, he left the civil service in order to devote himself to memoirs and lecturing. Author of Noble People: My Life in the CIA (Honorable Men: My Life in the CIA, 1977).

Killed on April 27, 1996 during a boat accident near his home in Rock Point (Maryland). His body was found under water on May 6, 1996. Subsequent investigation showed that he most likely fell out of the boat as a result of a heart attack and choked, although some media outlets doubted that it was an accident ^[2] .

W. Colby was married twice, for the first time - in 1945 on Barbara Heinsen, Colby had five children in a marriage. In 1984, W. Colby divorced B. Hazen and married diplomat Sally Shelton , with whom he lived until his death.

• Colby, William. Intelligence and the press: Address to the Associated Press annual meeting by William E. Colby on Monday, April 7, 1975 .-- CIA (1975), 1975.
• Colby, William. Foreign intelligence for America: Address to the Commonwealth Club of California by William E. Colby on Wednesday, 7 May 1975 in San Francisco, California. - CIA (1975), 1975.
• Colby, William. Director of Central Intelligence press conference: CIA Headquarters auditorium, 19 November 1975. - CIA (1975), 1975.
• Colby, William. Honorable Men: My Life in the CIA. - Simon & Schuster; First edition (May 15, 1978), 1978. - ISBN 978-0671228750 .
• Colby, William. The increased role of modern intelligence: A public speech on February 21, 1986 in Taipei (AWI lectures). - Asia and World Institute (1986), 1986.