LETTER TO EDWARD BOLAND FROM W. E. COLBY

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 05819619
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 22
• Document Creation Date: March 8, 2023
• Document Release Date: March 28, 2019
• Case Number: F-2019-00348
• Publication Date: March 5, 1982

Approved for Release: 2019/03/25 C05819619
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William E. Colby
1111 19ra STREET, N. W.
WABRINOTON, D. C. 20036
[phone]
March 5, 1982
The Honorable Edward Boland
Chairman
Select Committee on Intelligence
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Mr. Chairman:
In my letter of December 23, 1982, I requested that
the Committee consider amending the special CIA retirement sys-
tem to recognize the special contributions CIA spouses make to
the CIA mission. The CIA spouses and former spouses with whom
I have been associated in this effort have collected several ad-
ditional statements to those submitted in that letter showing the
manner in which such spouses earn this protection.
The amendment we request would provide that retire-
ment rights vest in a spouse serving during the qualifying serv-
ice of her partner for CIARDS retirement. As in the last sub-
mission, I have added to the full accounts submitted by the
spouses, three pages of excerpts which I believe highlight the
rationale and justice for this request. As indicated in my last
letter, I am aware of the identities of the individuals submit-
ting these materials and they are prepared to be interviewed in
order to elucidate any questions the Committee may have with re-
spect to this matter. Their names have been withheld in this
submission for reasons of privacy and security, and the entire
package has been submitted to you through the Central Intelligence
Agency for classification of such portions the agency believes
should be so handled.
In hopes that the Committee will proceed along the
lines requested in this submission, I remain at your disposal
for any further information or discussion you or your staff may
wish on the matter.
Enclosures
Sincerely,
W. E. Colby
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1M.
- Living under the same conditions and strains as the other
members of the U.S. Mission, yet also living a "secret life", the
successes and frustrations of which can never be shared, even in
the privacy of the home for fear of being monitored or compromised.
- Knowing that my husband is a terrorist target and that I
and the children are hostage or victim of that same threat.
- Spending many weeks and months arranging chance encounters
with the wife of a target official, winning her confidence,
playing on her fears and venality, using her to get to her rebel
husband...all in another language.
- Looking on PTA meetings, church socials, the Girl Scouts,
a picnic, any encounter as a chance to meet and effect new
relationships.
"Irrespective of life overseas, I wonder if you have
considered the sort of social withdrawal which the veil of silence
imposes even on simple things. For example, the wife cannot talk
to her friends about her husband's daily life, his 'office' friends,
his successes, his promotion up the ladder--all the ordinary things
which other wives talk about. In the long run it may be that the
husband has been Very successful in his work yet goes into retirement
appearing to the outside world to be a failure or at best to have
achieved mediocrity. The wife has to bear with all this without
even having the solace of job satisfaction. There is, too, the
likelihood that at some stage she will have to 34e to hp,- own
(b)(3)
children about her husio "
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It was only after my husband had retired from the Agency
and took a position in a private school that I realized how
different my role had become.
niS work now is totally separated from his home life. I
make little or no contribution to it. He gets whatever support
he needs from his colleagues.
In contrast, our entire life during his 30-year Agency
career was a family one. The children and I were a needed part
of his working life, especially overseas. His friends were ours,
his cohorts a part of our life.
If we had remained in one place throughout our married life,
the energies or fulfillment I found in supporting my husband's
career would undoubtedly have been channeled into some personal
outlet which would have made me self-supporting.
The rewards of a life such as ours have been enormous. But
the effort it took to produce them was not negligible. And it was
shared by both, husband and wife.- '
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Approved for Release: 2019/03/25 C05819619
Approved for Release: 2019/03/25 C05819619
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