[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 67 (Tuesday, May 14, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H5034-H5035]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              TRIBUTE TO FORMER CIA DIRECTOR WILLIAM COLBY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Barr] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BARR of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to remind my 
colleagues and remind the American people of a great American, a spy 
who has come in from the cold, William Colby. Mr. Colby was 
memorialized today in a service that I had the honor of attending at 
the National Cathedral and sitting there among so many hundreds of 
family members, friends, world leaders, former colleagues of his and 
probably many average American citizens who had read about him in the 
newspaper, believed in what he had done, recognized him for the 
greatness that he embodied and simply came in and attended the memorial 
service.
  As I sat there, I was reminded of the time that I have spent, that I 
have known Mr. Colby, first as a junior officer for several years 
during my tenure at the CIA. I had the honor of serving under him 
during the years that he served as DCI or Director of Central 
Intelligence. At the time I knew him probably simply by reputation as 
the boss, the man that headed the agency.

[[Page H5035]]

I knew him by reputation for the long years of service that he had put 
in serving his country at the CIA and, prior to that, in the OSS and in 
the military during the war. But it was really in the years after I 
left my service at the CIA, entered the private practice of law in 
Georgia, served as the U.S. Attorney in Georgia, and now as a Member of 
Congress that I have really come to know the William Colby that was 
such a tribute to his country, to his family and to his friends.

  Mr. Colby's passing, of course, is the signal of the passing of an 
era in some ways. The tremendous years, decades of service to his 
country, the selfless service that he embodied, the service that 
forsook the lucrative call of private practice for many years, that 
drew him away from his family for many years, that kept him apart 
indeed in many ways from his fellow citizens for many years because of 
the very nature of his work, the secrecy of it, are the sorts of things 
that we see far too infrequently in public life nowadays.
  Mr. Speaker, something else about Mr. Colby that I know from personal 
experience that is, if not unique, certainly something that we again do 
not see too often. That is the fact that, despite the man's tremendous 
intellect, despite the tremendous responsibilities that he continued to 
carry with him, even after leaving Government service, despite the fact 
that he could be jetting around the world anywhere at a moment's notice 
and meeting with world leaders, meeting with business leaders, large 
and small, he would always, and I emphasize always, find the time to 
take a call from a friend, to chat for a few minutes, to answer a 
question, to promise to get back to that old friend, that former junior 
colleague of his with an answer that might help with providing some 
information to an American citizen contemplating traveling abroad and 
who wanted to learn something about the inside scoop on a foreign 
nation.
  In listening to the tributes today at the National Cathedral to my 
old friend, Bill Colby, I really was struck by the depth of public 
service embodied in this man. It is something that I cherish very much, 
and I commend to my colleagues here in this House and to the American 
people to learn about this man, to study him, to take heart in the 
selfless public service, the nonpartisan public service. In all the 
years that I knew Bill Colby, and he supported me politically, he 
supported me in many ways, I never asked him whether he was a 
Republican or a Democrat, and I do not know. It is not something that 
he demanded as a litmus test of anybody, and probably most people never 
demanded it of him.
  Mr. Speaker, he responded to me as he responded to American citizens, 
many of whom he never knew, because he was that kind of man. He was a 
man that would constantly reach out, give of himself whether it was 
simply answering a question or whether it was parachuting behind 
enemies lines in World War II or serving this country very valiantly 
for many years in Vietnam. Mr. Colby truly was the professional's 
professional. He was the patriot's patriot for this country. He has 
indeed now come in from the cold, for he is now in the bosom of our 
Lord. I commend him to the American people.

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