Bill Colby and Political Madness

  

Bill Colby and Political Madness

Peter Schultz

 

Two reflections inspired by John Prados’s excellent biography of William Colby, Lost Crusader: The Secret Wars of CIA Director William Colby.

 

Here are two sentences from John Prados’s biography of William Colby referring to his sending people into North Vietnam under Project Tiger, even though they disappeared or were “doubled”, I.e., captured and used by the North Vietnamese unbeknownst to Colby, et. al. “From one point of view,  Colby’s stance could be considered one of steadfast determination. From another it could be seen as ignorant and naive.” (81) 

Sounds like a dichotomy: Colby as virtuous or Colby as ignorant/naive. But why should we think of “steadfast determination” as a virtue? Or, put differently: why not recognize that being morally virtuous in this way, being steadfastly determined, leads to what were deadly or cruel results? 

Most assume that being morally virtuous always leads to proper results. But Aristotle argued that being morally virtuous leads to being magnanimous, with results that seem less than desirable, viz., haughtiness, vanity, injustice even. By being “steadfastly determined,” i.e., by being morally virtuous, Colby in fact was sending men to their deaths, to torture, or to captivity. Being morally virtuous doesn’t always lead to proper or humane results. Sometimes, e.g., in Vietnam or the war on terror, it leads to inhuman cruelty. 

 

 

 

 

 

“Frustration drove Bill Colby after the Diem assassination. He…and the CIA might have lost the policy battle in Washington, but Colby emerged determined to effect change directly…in Vietnam. This became the subtext of his post-coup swing through Southeast Asia. That trip [led] to new CIA initiatives, greatly increasing the agency’s role in the Vietnam war….Colby created some of these projects while energizing or becoming instrumental in others. In a way he…submerged his loss of friends in the Ngo family with frantic activity that might avenge them by winning the Vietnam war.” (132 Lost Crusader) 

 

Madness through and through. It wasn’t frustration that drove Colby; he was delusional. As if doing more of what he had been doing would have different results. Definition of insanity: keep doing the same things while expecting different results. As if “frantic activity” is a virtue. As if “determining to effect change” is a virtue. As if “steadfast determination” is a virtue. As if “avenging loss” is a virtue. 

 

We can’t see the madness because its elements are taken to be moral virtue. And, so, because we can’t see it, we don’t question moral virtue, its ambiguous value as reflected by its often untoward results.

 

 [What would have happened if Darcy had dealt with Lydia and Wickham moralistically, rather than mercifully? What might have transpired – or not transpired – in Vietnam if the US had treated the Vietnamese mercifully rather than moralistically?]