Several years ago, my son, Jeff Woods, who is also a professional historian, suggested that we write a book together. I readily agreed, and we chose as our subject William Egan Colby, one of the Cold War’s great enigmas. For five years we researched and interviewed people, both in harness and separately. It soon became apparent that we were dealing with two potential books, one on Bill Colby and the other on the whole issue of counterinsurgency and pacification in the Vietnam War. In the end, we decided on a division of labor—I would do the Colby biography, and he would write on “the other Vietnam war.” I recount all of this to make it clear that this book has been very much a joint effort between Jeff and me, although the original composition (as well as any errors) is mine.
All historians stand on the shoulders of others, but I owe a special debt to John Prados, whose Lost Crusader: The Secret Wars of CIA Director William Colby paved the way for this book. His superb research allowed me to start the project at a much more advanced stage than would otherwise have been possible.
I am also indebted to the entire Colby family—wives Barbara and Sally, sons Jonathan, Carl, and Paul, daughter Christine, daughter-in-law Susan, and grandson Elbridge—for their cooperation on this project. They have shared their memories and observations without once attempting to control the end product.
As usual, the staffs of National Archives II, the Library of Congress, and the Lyndon B. Johnson and Gerald Ford presidential libraries have behaved with the utmost professionalism. My research brought me for the first time to the Vietnam Archives at Texas Tech University and the George C. Marshall Library at the Virginia Military Institute. Both institutions exceeded my expectations. In addition, my thanks go out to the dozens of CIA veterans and personal friends of Bill Colby who agreed to be interviewed for this project. Of particular importance were the counterinsurgency/pacification personnel who worked for him in Vietnam and Laos, especially David Nuttle, Vinton Lawrence, Jean Sauvageot, and Frank Scotton.
Richard Immerman, Wesley Wark, Rhodri Jeffrey-Jones, Mark Lawrence, and my in-house editor, Rhoda Woods, have all read the book in manuscript and saved me from many errors in fact and style. Finally, I would like to pay tribute to the excellent team at Basic Books. Lara Heimert, publisher and editor-in-chief, has been an enthusiastic supporter and wise adviser from the start. Roger Labrie proved to be one of the most skilled textual editors with whom I have ever worked. Kudos, too, to Katy O’Donnell and Melissa Veronesi. Again, all errors in fact and judgment are mine and mine alone.