The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby

The story of legendary spymaster and CIA director, William E. Colby, is told through the eyes of his award-winning filmmaker son, who offers an intimate view of one of the most mysterious and controversial intelligence officers in American history. Carl Colby tells his father s story from inside the family, revealing the secrets and dangers of living the cover life with its lies, half-truths, sacrifices, and casualties. In looking behind the public persona, the author seeks to solve the ultimate mystery of why his dad, the consummate American soldier and spy who always followed orders, refused the president when told to stonewall Congress.

An OSS officer who parachuted behind enemy lines during World War II, Colby was part of the CIA from its beginnings, serving in Stockholm and Rome and leading covert political actions against the Communists during the Cold War. In Vietnam he served as chief of Station Saigon and later as chief of the CIA s Far East Division. In 1968 he returned to Vietnam and ran the controversial CORDS/Pacification and Phoenix programs, harbingers of our harrowing experiences today in Iraq and Afghanistan. This book offers fascinating insights into these events, culminating with Colby s turbulent tenure as director, when he appeared repeatedly before congressional committees and took the heat for the revelation of CIA's family jewels in the aftermath of Watergate and the fall of Vietnam, thus leading to his firing by President Gerald Ford for being far too forthcoming to the Congress. Carl Colby draws on extensive interviews with a who s who of the world of intelligence, including Donald Rumsfeld, James Schlesinger, George Tenet, Michael Hayden, Gen. Brent Scowcroft, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Bob Kerrey, Gen. H. R. McMaster, John Nagl, Lewis Sorley, Rufus Phillips, Senator Patrick Leahy, Senator Daniel Inouye, William Webster, Walter Mondale, Adm. Eric Olson, and more than thirty veteran CIA and OSS officers. Commentary is also provided by noted journalists David Ignatius, Bob Woodward, Seymour Hersh, Tim Weiner, Daniel Schorr, Frances Fitzgerald, and Evan Thomas. In probing beneath the veil of secrecy that normally shields CIA operatives, Carl Colby attempts to understand his father, his motivations, his triumphs, his sacrifices and those of his family.

The book will be released simultaneously with the documentary feature film by Carl Colby about his father entitled The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby to be released in theaters nationwide in the Fall of 2011.