William Francis Buckley

For other people named William F. Buckley, see William F. Buckley (disambiguation).

William Francis Buckley
Birth name	William Francis Buckley
Born	(1928-05-30)May 30, 1928 Medford, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	June 3, 1985(1985-06-03) (aged 57) Lebanon
Buried	Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington County, Virginia, U.S.
Allegiance	United States of America
Service / branch	United States Army Central Intelligence Agency
Years of service	1947–1985
Rank	Lieutenant Colonel
Unit	U.S. Army 1st Cavalry Division 11th Special Forces Group MACV CIA Special Activities Division
Battles / wars	Korean War Vietnam War
Awards	Silver Star Soldier's Medal Bronze Star with Valor device Purple Heart (2) Meritorious Service Medal Combat Infantry Badge Parachutist Badge Vietnam Gallantry Cross Distinguished Intelligence Cross Intelligence Star Exceptional Service Medal

William Francis Buckley (May 30, 1928 – June 3, 1985) was a United States Army officer and a CIA station chief in Beirut from 1984 until 1985. His cover was as a Political Officer at the U.S. Embassy. He was kidnapped by the group Hezbollah in March 1984. He was held hostage and tortured by psychiatrist Aziz al-Abub. Hezbollah later claimed they executed him in October 1985, but another American hostage disputed that, believing that he died five months prior, in June. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery and is commemorated with a star on the Memorial Wall at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

Early life and education

Buckley was born in Medford, Massachusetts, on May 30, 1928. After graduating from high school in 1947, he joined the United States Army. He began as a military police officer and served in that capacity for two years, but then attended Officers Candidate School (OCS) and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in Armor. He continued his military education at the Engineer Officer's Course at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, the Advanced Armor Officer's Course at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and the Intelligence School at Oberammergau, West Germany.

Career

U.S. Army

During the Korean War, Buckley served as a company commander with the 1st Cavalry Division. Next, he returned to Boston University and completed his studies, graduating with a bachelor's degree in political science. It was during this time that Buckley began his first employment with the Central Intelligence Agency, from 1955 to 1957. He was also employed as a librarian in the Concord, Winchester and Lexington public libraries. In 1960, Buckley joined the 320th Special Forces Detachment, which became the 11th Special Forces Group, and attended both Basic Airborne and the Special Forces Officers Course. He was assigned as an A-Detachment commander and later as a B-Detachment commander. Colonel Buckley served in Vietnam with the U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, or MACV, as a senior advisor to the South Vietnamese Army.

CIA

In 1965 (or 1963, according to one source), Buckley rejoined the CIA in what is now called the Special Activities Division. He may have been recruited by Ted Shackley, joining his Secret Team that had been involved with Edwin Wilson, Thomas Clines, Carl Jenkins, Rafael Quintero, Félix Rodriguez and Luis Posada Carriles, in the CIA's Phoenix Program of assassinations. Leslie Cockburn pointed out in her book, Out of Control (1987), that Buckley was involved in approving CIA assassinations undertaken by the Shackley organizations. In his book, Prelude to Terror (2005) Joseph Trento claims that Buckley was "one of Shackley's oldest and dearest friends."

Buckley may have been working for the CIA while in Mexico in 1963, but this is unconfirmed. His CIA employment kept him in Vietnam from 1965 to 1970, and he was promoted in his military capacity to lieutenant colonel in May 1969. After leaving Vietnam, he served in Zaire (1970–1972), Cambodia (1972), Egypt (1972–1978), and Pakistan (1978–1979).

In 1983, Buckley succeeded Ken Haas as the Beirut Station Chief/Political Officer at the U.S. Embassy. Buckley was successfully rebuilding the network of agents lost in and due to the bombing of the U.S. Embassy; after the Marine Corps barracks bombing in October 1983, the Islamist group Hezbollah wrongly announced that they had also killed the CIA station chief (they did not yet know the station chief was Buckley) in the blast; their announcement was the first real indication that he was on a Hezbollah "hit list."

Kidnapping and death

Historically, Lebanon had always been a politically and socially unstable country but throughout 1983 this instability increased dramatically and the Shi'ite population of Lebanon became increasingly radicalized and started to target Westerners and Western-owned infrastructure such as embassies. Within this backdrop, on March 16, 1984, Buckley was kidnapped by Hezbollah from his apartment building when he was leaving for work. It was thought that one of the reasons he was kidnapped along with two other Americans at different times in Beirut was because of the upcoming trial of 17 Iranian-backed militants that was about to begin in Kuwait. Army Major General Carl Stiner had warned Buckley that he was in danger, but Buckley told him that "I have a pretty good intelligence network. I think I'm secure." However, according to Stiner, Buckley continued to live in his apartment and travel the same route to and from work every day.

William Casey, who was by then the Director of Central Intelligence, asked Ted Shackley for help in securing Buckley's release. Three weeks after Buckley's abduction, President Ronald Reagan signed National Security Decision Directive 138. This directive was drafted by Oliver North and outlined plans on how to get the American hostages released from Iran and to "neutralize" alleged "terrorist threats" from countries such as Nicaragua. This new secret counter-terrorist task force was to be headed by Shackley's old friend, General Richard Secord. This was the beginning of the Iran–Contra affair, which culminated in the exchange of missiles for the release of hostages.

On November 22, 1985, Ted Shackley, Buckley's friend and recruiter, traveled to the Atlantic Hotel in Hamburg, where he met General Manouchehr Hashemi, the former head of SAVAK's counterintelligence division. Also at the meeting on November 22 was Manucher Ghorbanifar. According to the report of this meeting that Shackley sent to the CIA, Ghorbanifar had "fantastic" contacts with Iran, but the CIA had designated him one year earlier as a "fabricator". At the meeting, Shackley told Hashemi and Ghorbanifar that the United States was willing to discuss arms shipments in exchange for the four Americans kidnapped in Lebanon, although Buckley was already dead at this point.

Major General Carl Stiner stated that "Buckley's kidnapping had become a major CIA concern. Not long after his capture, his agents either vanished or were killed. It was clear that his captors had tortured him into revealing the network of agents he had established." According to the United States, Buckley had undergone 15 months of torture by Hezbollah before his death. After Buckley's kidnapping, three videos of Buckley being tortured were sent to the CIA in Athens. Interpreters noticed puncture marks indicating he was injected with narcotics. According to several sources, as a result of his torture, he signed a 400-page statement detailing his CIA activities. In a video taken approximately seven months after the kidnapping, his appearance was described as follows:

Buckley was close to a gibbering wretch. His words were often incoherent; he slobbered and drooled and, most unnerving of all, he would suddenly scream in terror, his eyes rolling helplessly and his body shaking. The CIA consensus was that he would be blindfolded and chained at the ankles and wrists and kept in a cell little bigger than a coffin.

On October 4, 1985, Islamic Jihad announced that it had executed Buckley. The United States National Security Council acknowledged in an unclassified note that Buckley probably died on June 3, 1985, of a heart attack. Buckley's remains were recovered by Major Jens Nielsen (Royal Danish Army) attached to the United Nations Observation Group Beirut on December 27, 1991, after it was dumped on a road near Beirut airport. His body was returned to the United States on December 28, 1991, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia.

After Buckley's death, Hezbollah the treatment of the other hostages they had captive improved and their the attitudes of their captors softened; minimizing torture to a minimum, inquiring regularly about their health and wellbeing and even offering them basic medical attention if needed.

Legacy

The CIA Memorial Wall as of January 2005

An agency memorial service was held in August 1987 to commemorate his death. A public memorial service was held with full military honors at Arlington on May 13, 1988, just short of three years after his presumed death date. At the service, attended by more than 100 colleagues and friends, CIA Director William H. Webster eulogized Buckley, saying, "Bill's success in collecting information in situations of incredible danger was exceptional, even remarkable."

Awards and decorations

Among Buckley's decorations and awards are the Silver Star, Soldier's Medal, Bronze Star Medal with "V" Device, two Purple Hearts, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Combat Infantryman's Badge, and the Parachutist Badge. He also received the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with bronze star from the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. Among his CIA awards are the Intelligence Star, Exceptional Service Medallion and Distinguished Intelligence Cross. Among Buckley's civilian awards are the Freedom Foundation Award for Lexington Green Diorama, Collegium and Academy of Distinguished Alumni Boston University. The William F. Buckley Memorial Park in Stoneham, Massachusetts, is dedicated to his memory. The 51st star on the CIA Memorial Wall represents him, surrounded by about 132 other stars (as of January 2021) representing CIA officers killed in the line of duty. Approximately 35 of the stars are for unnamed agents whose identities have not been revealed for national security reasons. His name and year of death are recorded in the "Book of Honor" at the wall. The CIA awarded him the Distinguished Intelligence Cross, an Intelligence Star, and an Exceptional Service Medal, but has not said whether any of these were issued posthumously (although at least one award of the Exceptional Service Medal must have been made posthumously).

Badge	Combat Infantryman Badge with Star (denoting 2nd award)
1st row	Silver Star						Soldier's Medal
2nd row	Bronze Star with "V" device				Purple Heart with 1 Oak leaf cluster				Meritorious Service Medal
3rd row	Army Commendation Medal with 1 Oak leaf cluster				Prisoner of War Medal				National Defense Service Medal with 1 Service star
4th row	Korean Service Medal with 3 Campaign stars				Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal with 4 Campaign stars				Vietnam Service Medal with 2 silver and 1 bronze Campaign stars
5th row	Armed Forces Reserve Medal with silver Hourglass device and "M" device				Army Service Ribbon				Army Overseas Service Ribbon
6th row	Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with 1 bronze Service star				United Nations Korea Medal				Vietnam Armed Forces Honor Medal First Class
7th row	Vietnam Campaign Medal with 1960- device				Cambodia National Defense Medal with 1 Service star				Korean War Service Medal
Badges	South Vietnamese Parachutist badge						Master Parachutist Badge
Badges	Special Forces Tab						United States Army Special Forces Distinctive unit insignia

	Intelligence Star
	Distinguished Intelligence Cross
	Exceptional Service Medal
	12 Overseas Service Bars

Personal life

According to the biographical information distributed by the CIA, Buckley was "an avid reader of politics and history" and "a collector and builder of miniature soldiers." The latter hobby enabled him to become a principal artisan in the creation of a panorama at the Lexington Battlefield Tourist Center near his native Medford, Massachusetts. The press release also said he owned an antique shop and was an amateur artist and a collector of fine art. It called him "a very private and discreet individual."

See also

• William R. Higgins (1945–1990)
• Imad Mughniyah (1962–2008)

References

Sources

• Clancy, Tom; Stiner, Carl; Koltz, Tom (2002). Shadow Warriors: Inside the special Forces. New York City, New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. ISBN 9780399147838. OCLC 318994713 – via Internet Archive.
• Kushner, Harvey W. (2003) [2002]. Westby, Jerry; Tauber, Sara; Burns, Vince; Axelsen, Diana E.; Peterson, Kate (eds.). Encyclopedia of terrorism (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications. ISBN 9780761924081. OCLC 50725450 – via Internet Archive.
• Picco, Giandomenico (1999). Man Without a Gun: One Diplomat's Secret Struggle to Free the Hostages, Fight Terrorism, and End a War. Times Books - Random House. pp. 334 (Buckley). Retrieved January 16, 2021.
• Thomas, Gordon (1989) [1988]. Journey into Madness: Medical Torture and the Mind Controllers. New York City, New Work: Bantam Books. ISBN 978-0553053579. OCLC 476815079.

Further reading

• Ignatius, David (December 24, 2013) [1987]. Agents of Innocence (8th ed.). London, England, United Kingdom of Great Britain: W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 9780393024869. OCLC 16228285 – via Google Books
  This book contains a thinly disguised portrait of Buckley in the form of the character Tom Rogers{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
• West, Nigel (1992) [1991]. Seven spies who changed the world. A Mandarin paperback (2nd ed.). London: Mandarin. ISBN 9780749306205. OCLC 26543346.