William Colby

To your timely, well-taken editorial (“Colby’s Accountability,” May 1), I feel impelled to add a postscript regarding former Central Intelligence Agency Director William E. Colby.

He and I were brought together by our shared concern about the danger of a runaway nuclear arms race. We agreed to see how business executives might respond to hearing relevant facts and figures from someone who had served in his position. Our first “off-Broadway experiment” (as he jokingly termed it) took place in Columbus, Ohio, where the chief executive of a nationwide insurance company convened many of the city’s top businesspeople.

They paid attention, asked sensible questions and paid tribute to Colby’s performance with a standing ovation. Their remarkable receptivity and response encouraged similar gatherings around the country.

When I offered an honorarium to my new friend, he refused even expense compensation, saying: “I’m doing what any informed citizen should do--and it is I who should be paying you for making meetings such as these possible.”

HAROLD WILLENS

Los Angeles

* In its editorial, The Times omitted several things about Colby. As part of the CIA, he used clergy, academics, news correspondents and businessmen--all violations of the CIA charter. On his watch the Phoenix program was inaugurated. Allegedly an attempt to convert the North Vietnamese, it resulted in the deaths of 20,000 Viet Cong.

Colby was a quiet, private person who was not a member of the old-boys’ network. Meanwhile the old-boys’ network was bribing people, engaging in covert operations and plotting assassinations.

DON RADEMACHER

Glendale