WILLIAM COLBY ASSESSES WILLIAM CASEY'S CIA LEGACY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00901R000500050012-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 2, 2004
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: May 6, 1987
• Content Type: TRANS

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RADIO 1V REPORTS, INC.
4701 WILLARD AVENUE, CHEVY CHASE, MARYLAND 20815 [phone]
PROGRAM Good Morning America STATION WJLA-TV
ABC Network
DATE May 6, 1987 8:30 A.M. CITY Washington, D.C.
SUBJECT William Colby Assesses William Casey's CIA Legacy
JED DUVALL: A principal figure in the Iran-Contra
affair is dead. CIA Director William Casey died early today in a
New York area hospital at the age of 74 of complications from
pneumonia. Casey had resigned his CIA post in February, in his
struggle to recover from brain cancer surgery.
Casey has been identified as a key figure in the
operation to supply arms to the Nicaraguan Contras after Congress
had prohibited-such aid.
In a few moments in Good Morning America, we will hear
from another former CIA Director, William Colby.
CHARLES GIBSON: As you may have heard, we have learned
this morning that William Casey, who was the CIA Director during
the first six years of the Ronald Reagan Administration, died
this morning of pneumonia. But he really had been incapacitated
since a brain tumor was discovered early this year -- late last
year, actually.
And we asked on very short notice a man who has also
held the CIA Director's position, William Colby, to come in and
join us this morning.
Nice to have you here, sir.
WILLIAM COLBY: Thank you.
GIBSON: What do you think William Casey's legacy will
be at the CIA?
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 Approved For Release 2004/11/29 : CIA-RDP91-00901 R000500050012-8
WILLIAM COLBY: Well, I think he did two major things.
First, he picked them up after the bad days of the '70s and put
them back to work. Not every one of his operations was a great
success, but that's true of all of us.
The second major thing he did was to reorganize the
analytical side of the agency, so that it's much more responsive
to the intelligence problems that need to be addressed by our
government.
GIBSON: And in so doing, we understand, restored morale
at the CIA.
COLBY: Oh, yes, very much so. But that's part of
putting them back to work. That's where the morale will be high,
when they're really working hard on a job they think is
important.
GIBSON: It is interesting, though, that while
internally he may have been seen as such a great success,
externally, outside the CIA, there's been great questions about
his stewardship.
COLBY: Well, there are certain questions about
anybody's stewardship of any job. You don't win them all, by any
means. But I think, on balance, he did a very fine job as
Director.
GIBSON: Frustration, I guess, for him, and probably for
you -- we heard him say in a news report earlier this morning, an
old sound clip of his, he said the problem with being CIA
Director is nobody ever hears about your successes.
COLBY: That's right.
GIBSON: But. we do hear about the failures.
COLBY: Well, you also, I think, have heard a little bit
about one of the successes, which is the assistance to the
Mujahideen in Afghanistan, a thing that we all agree on. We
think it's a good idea, and it's gone very well.
GIBSON: What will be his legacy in terms of covert
operations? Is there now a greater restriction on covert
operations, given what has been learned about the Iran operation,
the funding of the Contras?
COLBY: No, I don't think so. I think the effect of
these investigations will show a few CIA fingerprints a little
bit over the edge of what's proper, but nothing substantial with
respect to the Contra aid.
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With respect to the Iran activity, I think, there, it
was clearly conducted under presidential directive. And one of
those directives was not to tell the Congress, which was a great
mistake.
GIBSON: You think so?
COLBY: Yes.
GIBSON: One of the interesting ironies out of all this,
of course, is that his death coincides with the beginning of the
Iran-Contra hearings. You knew Bill Casey, as you said a moment
ago as we were talking just before we went on the air, an old
friend. Was he very frustrated, do you expect, that he couldn't
testify in these hearings?
COLBY: That -- I really haven't had any direct contact
with him since he was taken by the tumor.
GIBSON: Knowing him as you do, though, I would...
COLBY: Well, he's a very activist man and he responded
to challenge. He was a risk-taker and he believed in marching
into the middle of the battle on any issue.
GIBSON: Who started as an intelligence officer, did he
not? He goes way back to the beginning days.
COLBY: He was in OSS during World War II and he devised
system of sending agents into Nazi Germany, which was generally
thought by most people as quite impossible. But he did very
well.
G I B S 0 N : William Colby, thank you for joining us this
morning. Nice to have you here. Thanks for coming in.
COLBY: Thank you.
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