[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 65 (Friday, May 10, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E766]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     A TRIBUTE TO WILLIAM E. COLBY

                                 ______


                        HON. BENJAMIN A. GILMAN

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                          Friday, May 10, 1996

  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to pay 
tribute to the life and times, the trials and tribulations, and the 
heroism that is so closely associated with the late William E. Colby. I 
also would like to express my heartfelt condolences to his surviving 
family.
  Mr. Speaker, as we all know, Bill Colby was a dedicated public 
servant who spent 30 years in the U.S. intelligence service, including 
a 2-year stint as CIA Director during one of the more turbulent periods 
in its history. Mr. Colby began his most remarkable career as an 
officer with the U.S. Office of Strategic Services--the predecessor of 
the CIA. During World War II, Mr. Colby parachuted behind enemy lines 
into France and Norway where he helped organize resistance forces and 
ran sabotage operations against Nazi strongholds. His heroism earned 
him the Silver Star Medal.
  As a seasoned intelligence officer, Mr. Colby served in South Vietnam 
from 1959 to 1962 and again in 1968 where he was responsible for 
managing the pacification program and where he played a key role in 
America's recruitment of Laotian Hmong fighters. Mr. Colby took a 
personal interest in the Hmong's valiant battle against the North 
Vietnamese who, in violation of the 1962 Geneva agreements calling for 
Laos's neutrality, kept their troops in Laos. Following the war, many 
Hmong fighters were resettled in the United States and Mr. Colby, as an 
act of loyalty, kept in touch with them during their period of 
assimilation.
  Under Mr. Colby's astute leadership as Director of the Central 
Intelligence Agency, from 1973 to 1975, he was almost singlehandedly 
responsible for raising and addressing the numerous operational abuses 
that had become manifest within the Agency. As a professional 
intelligence officer Mr. Colby was, both emotionally and 
intellectually, able and willing to confront the not so pleasant 
ambiguities that are often characteristic of the natural world of 
espionage. In the end, he succeeded in protecting the mission of 
intelligence (so absolutely vital to our national security) while at 
the same time ensuring that the Agency was held accountable to the 
highest standards of professionalism and as an integral part of our 
democratic heritage.
  I know my colleagues will join me in honoring the contributions and 
achievements of an American hero, William E. Colby.

                          ____________________