The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby is a must see documentary directed by the titular character’s son, Carl Colby. I only saw it once, but I rewound a number of scenes, and it probably would improve upon multiple viewings. The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby is ostensibly about Colby’s personal and professional life, but it subtly and perhaps unintentionally made thematic points about the US’ historical successes and failures in influencing foreign policy.
First, The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby suggests that after WWII, the CIA’s use of the Catholic Church, i.e. an existing social religious infrastructure, was a successful way to find foreign, organic allies in the fight against Communism in Italy. This success led to a prosperous Italy.
Second, the CIA was not successful in Vietnam because the CIA did not exploit a similar existing infrastructure. Instead the CIA backed a smaller group of people that were either similar to them or their allies in WWII: Catholics or French influenced local powers. Even though the CIA may not have intended the persecution of Buddhists, this alliance resulted in such persecution and alienated the locals. Perhaps if the CIA used (I know nothing about the following) the Buddhist temple infrastructure within the community, North Vietnam would not have won. Instead the CIA went with what was socially comfortable instead of what was unfamiliar and more common.
Finally, the US did not back a coup that resulted in the death of South Vietnam’s President Diem and his brother, Nhu, his chief political and military adviser, who were the US’ allies, but the US did nothing to prevent it even though the US knew about it. The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby stresses that two Catholic brothers are shockingly shot in the head during the coup, and less than a month thereafter President Kennedy is shot in the head. A viewer can draw the conclusion that in Vietnam, two Catholic brothers were shot in the head while in the US, two Catholic brothers did nothing to prevent it, then those two brothers are shot in the head. If it were a fictional story, we would not believe it.
I never made the connection before and cannot speak to the coincidence now. Correlation does not imply causation, but it feels significant, solemn and karmic when the story unfolds in The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby. I do not think that The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby is adding to the conspiracy theories regarding the assassination of the Kennedy brothers. I do think The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby was effectively using an eternal recurrence trope summarized in Battlestar Galactica, “All this has happened before, and all of it will happen again.” As humans beings, we are too close to the story and live too short lives to see the broader significance and patterns in unfolding global events, but there is a deeper meaning in the repetition of a tragic tale of murdered powerful brothers. Even though it did not occur in my lifetime, I am too close to the tapestry to know what that meaning is, but hopefully we will learn before it happens again.