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John Prados

William Colby and the CIA: The Secret Wars of a Controversial Spymaster Paperback – October 8, 2009

by John Prados (Author)

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It is surprising that no one previous to John Prados attempted a biography of quintessential cold warrior William Colby, because his story is in many ways also the story of the CIA. From Italy to Vietnam, to the military coup in Indonesia, to Watergate, the prosecution of Richard Helms, investigations of CIA assassination plots, and the drugging and surveillance of unwitting Americans, Colby was there, on the ground or deeply involved at headquarters.—The Guardian

William E. Colby was one of the most enigmatic figures of the Cold War and a central player in the operations of the Central Intelligence Agency. While publicly appearing as a calm bureaucrat, behind the scenes Colby helped orchestrate some of CIA's most controversial operations. His mysterious death even added to the aura. In the wake of new questions relating to CIA activities since 9/11—which John Prados discusses in his new preface—Colby's story provides crucial lessons for a nation that still struggles to reconcile intelligence methods with democratic principles.

Prados tracks Colby's life and career from early years in the OSS to his tumultuous tenure as Director of Central Intelligence in the 1970s. Reviled by many outside the CIA for his role in Vietnam—and inside it for his cooperation with probes of the agency—Colby was cast as a scapegoat by the Ford White House during the Church and Pike congressional investigations. In addition, Prados offers fresh insights and new perspectives on Colby's involvement in the notorious Phoenix program in Vietnam and in the bloody Indonesian coup of 1965 that overthrew President Sukarno and brought General Suharto to power, as well as on the CIA's role in the 1963 assassination of President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam and on the actions of high-level CIA officials during the final demise of South Vietnam in 1975.

A masterful study of a master spy, William Colby and the CIA also offers a vital and timely history of the inner workings of "the Company" for which he worked. Originally published in a cloth edition under the title Lost Crusader and retitled for this first paperback edition, William Colby and the CIA explores dilemmas of intelligence that are of renewed importance today.

Print length

400 pages
Language

English
Publisher

University Press of Kansas
Publication date

October 8, 2009
Dimensions

6.1 x 0.9 x 9.1 inches
ISBN-10

070061690X
ISBN-13

978-0700616909
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"This highly detailed look at one of the major spymasters of the post-WWII era is another intriguing work by the prolific Prados. . . . An essential and provocative addition to works on the CIA."--Publishers Weekly

"Prados is correct in suggesting that his life of Colby is 'a parable for today, when the CIA and U.S. intelligence in general again stand in need of visionary leadership.'" --Denver Post

"An important contribution to intelligence literature."--Washington Post Book World

"A deeply researched and well-written account that should stand the test of time."--Library Journal

"Gripping, revealing, and timely."--Kai Bird, author of The Color of Truth

Review

"An important contribution to intelligence literature."

Publisher ‏ : ‎ University Press of Kansas; 1st edition (October 8, 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 070061690X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0700616909
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.25 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.1 x 0.9 x 9.1 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #890,618 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,867 in Political Intelligence
- #5,333 in Political Leader Biographies
- #12,874 in United States Biographies

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Retired Reader

An Inside Story

Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2009

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This book is aptly titled in that it is not so much a biography of William E. Colby as it is a sliver of CIA history as revealed by Colby's CIA career. As such it provides an excellent window on the halcyon days of the now somewhat tarnished agency. The book also provides a marvelous explanation of the notorious `Phoenix' program and other pacification programs as part of discussing Colby's long (1958-1973) involvement with Vietnam.

According to its original 1947 charter, CIA was originally set up as a center were intelligence information collected from a variety of sources could be analyzed and vetted, in the current parlance it was the place were all the dots were to be connected. There was a loophole however that would permit CIA "to perform other missions" as directed by the National Security Council (or the president). As CIA struggled to develop a viable institutional mission, "other missions" was interpreted as covert political actions or various types of `support' (including military) to various pro-West movements in selected foreign countries. Clandestine collection of human intelligence through the use suborned foreign nationals (agents) also was assumed under this loophole. (See Creating the Secret State, University of Kansas 2000).

Prior to CIA, during WWII, the U.S. created the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) as a semi-military force to conduct special operations, often in cooperation with resistance fighters in occupied countries. OSS also had an analytic group to provide intelligence support to it operation units. Although the operations side of OSS did not engage in systematic intelligence collection, its officers developed a good deal of experience operating in foreign countries often under difficult and dangerous conditions.

Thus when CIA was created and staffing it became the next challenge former OSS officers were seen as an obvious recruits to the new organization. Colby as a former OSS officer was an obvious candidate for CIA. He had other attributes as well which seemed to fit the early CIA profile: Ivy League credentials; a distinguished OSS record; and friends either already in CIA or closely associated with it. The former OSS officers, including Colby, that formed such a large portion of CIA's early staff were, far more comfortable engaged in political action or supporting guerilla movements than sitting at CIA analyzing information. Very quickly CIA formed the Deputy Directorate of Plans (DDP) to organize and direct a host of covert and clandestine activities. One of Colby's early jobs for example was the formation of `stay behind' agent networks in Scandinavia to serve as organized resistance groups in event of their countries being overrun by the Soviet Union. Because a succession of Presidents could call upon the DDP to implement or support various policy decisions, it came to dominate CIA and does so to this day as the Deputy Directorate of Operations (DDO), a name Colby as CIA Director gave to it.

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Michael S. Peredney

A Lot Of Interesting Material

Reviewed in the United States on August 9, 2010

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Very detailed text. Author John Prados is a wealth of knowledge in his field. A bit difficult to read because of all the facts therein. Each chapter could be a study in itself. If you have an interest in the "workings" of the CIA and its "poltics" during Colby's tenure, this is the book to read. If you are a former CIA agent with a photoraphic memory, you'll will work it to the hilt. Reads slowly if you are trying to ansorb all the "stuff" within. Well written and lots of info.

5 people found this helpful

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Thoughtful Piece on a Controversial Man

Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2009

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This is the third work by author Prados that I have read, the other two being "Combined Fleet, Decoded" and "Valley of Decision" (Khe Sanh), and all three have been excellent works. I wondered how Prados would treat Colby, due to two life-altering episodes in his career; the first as the head of the Phoenix Program in Vietnam, and the second when he stripped the veil of secrecy from the CIA while facing congressional inquiries in 1975. In essence, the left hated him for the Phoenix Program while the intelligence community felt betrayed by his caving in to the pressures of serving in a democratic country. Well, the answer is, "with sympathy."

Author Prados comes down on the side that Colby was correct to share secrets with congressional committees as proper in a democracy, and indeed, it was the only action possible if the Agency was to survive. There are those who disagree, and they would include yours truly, President Eisenhower, and a long line of people who have produced effective intelligence or used it adroitly.

Before going in to this specific issue, allow me to say the book is extremely well-written and informative. However, I suggest the reader compare it to "Honorable Men My Life in the CIA" by William Colby and Peter Forbath. Between the two books the reader should obtain a good understanding of covert actions and HUMINT gathering under official and semi-official cover.

There is also a theme that the Agency's heyday was from its inception to the sixties when it could pretty well do what it wanted (the Bay of Pigs notwithstanding), but in actuality the primary successes during that time were due to walk-ins (like Penkovskiy) or case officers willing to take substantial risks like Bill Harvey. The Agency was primarily composed of leftists and liberals in those days who felt they were a privileged elite keeping the world safe for all mankind rather than protecting the American people. For some it was simply to keep the world from blowing itself up until communism and capitalism could resolve their differences and meet somewhere in a socialist center like where the EU is today. A certain amount of opposition came from the internal Catholic mafia that protected Catholic employees and saw the conflict more in a religious light, even though authoritarianism itself was not considered negatively. It was through the efforts of those individuals that the Agency could (and did) support dictators, particularly if they were Roman Catholics.

Today the problem is different. The Agency has been so repeatedly and thoroughly penetrated by foreign agents, and the US Government itself has shown itself to be such an unreliable ally, that walk-ins must assume they will be readily compromised. Case officers like Harvey are now "cowboys" detested by the risk-adverse bureaucrats populating the byzantine management channels within the Agency, so the advantages realized in the "heyday" and now gone.

With respect to Colby's alleged betrayal, the author argues that over the long haul a secret Agency acting without oversight from elected representatives would be dismantled and eliminated in our democratic society. As things are that is a difficult argument to refute. The U.S. Federal Government was so heavily penetrated by Communist agents during the Roosevelt administration (see Haynes & Klehr; "Venona Decoding Soviet Espionage in America"), that the Federal bureaucracy took a decidedly leftist tilt in the forties that has never been righted. Worse, American universities turned heavily left and began producing decidedly leftist books that were used in primary and secondary schools, effectively spreading communist and leftist propaganda throughout the U.S. with little resistance. Like boys in the Hitler Youth, many baby-boomer Americans have bought into this Marxist viewpoint (after all, it was all they were taught), and now are in positions of power in the U.S. Government. Under such circumstances, it is difficult to see how individuals such as Nancy Pelosi can be kept away from knowing about Agency operations so the Agency can be effective. In that respect Colby was right, but his initiative of allowing the camel's nose into the tent has been followed by letting a whole herd of camels into the tent and the destruction of the Agency as an effective gatherer of HUMINT has been the result.

It must be said in Colby's defense that essentially all operations devoted to intelligence gathering by covert sources must necessarily operate through means that are illegal in their home country, host country, and target country. The statement that "no one is above the law" cannot apply to covert operations -- and without covert operations we will have NO HUMINT intelligence. By definition they are breaking laws -- that is the reason they are covert. Case Officers in the Agency and other intelligence gathering organizations know this implicitly, and when acting under non-official cover they are subject to being arrested, jailed, tortured and killed at any time. The unwritten code among intelligence agencies that case officers should not be killed (to avoid the potential of reprisals) has pretty much gone by the wayside due to the nature of today's terrorists. And yet there are leftist organizations in the U.S. today that will freely publish names of CIA operatives and interrogators and disavow any responsibility when they come to grief. And I'm not talking about silly situations like that involving Valerie Plame.

The argument is never-ending, but the fact is that the American people need to decide whether they want a hamstrung Agency that cannot protect the U.S. through covert actions on their behalf (as at present) or an effective Agency that is allowed to function in part outside of the law. There does not appear to be any middle ground -- the ground that Colby attempted to find (and failed.)

Decide America, or the decision will be made for you by our enemies. Purchase and read this book carefully and you should be able to see the problem. It is real, and getting worse by the day.

Highly recommended.

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James innes

Colby a Classic Enigma of the times

Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2009

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This really is an excellent book an insiders view of the inside. I would have been dissapointed had the author not been a little defensive of Bill Colby who I personally saw as a man who took a viewpoint evaluated it made a decision to act and then carried it through with only slight regard to Opinion. If his lifes work had been in the service of Great Britain he would have retired with a Knighthood for services rendered .From his World War Two experiences in OSS he was always going to be the Man from langley who moved with a great conviction based morality tempered with only necessary ammounts of policy :and the author has managed to serve up a correct and worthwhile assessment of his work and value to the U.S the Government and the Agency . This really is an important book in terms of the contribution it makes to the student of Intelligence and the shaping of policy in volatile times. His leadership was unquestionably from the bottom up and based on experience. Greatly recommend this book to any reader wishing to examine the Anatomy of US Foreign Policy as applied to intelligence ,war and the people who made the hard decisions. A great book about a great American.

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G Tausch

Colby's death has always been a mystery

Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2014

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Cudos to John Prados! He wrote this book with facts he uncovered. Conclusions are drawn by your own mind unlike the JFK or Marilyn Monroe stories presented by others with cinematic shock and awe.

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