Colby Cancels Duke Address; Aide Cites Campus Protesters

William E. Colby, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, canceled a November talk at a Duke University Law Forum because of "negative reactions" he received at Harvard and other college campuses he spoke at this fall, according to a CIA aide quoted by the Law Forum's chairman in the Duke Chronicle.

The Chronicle quoted Peter Kahn as saying a CIA aide told him the CIA had "encountered such trouble" in "attempting to go public" that Colby had for the time being "terminated his speaking tour in order to reassess the situation."

Kahn yesterday denied having quoted a CIA aide as saying Colby had canceled his planned talk because of campus protests. Kahn called the information "incorrect" and said, "Any conversation between a CIA aide and myself is personal."

A Colby aide who asked not to be named said yesterday he thought Colby had canceled his talk at Duke because of "his heavy schedule." Colby is "up to his gunwales in work," the aide said, denying that Colby had canceled his talk because of campus protests directed against the CIA and himself.

The Chronicle account quotes Kahn as saying he thought the possibility of protests at Duke during Colby's speech were "of secondary importance," to Colby's decision to cancel the talk.

Kahn told the Chronicle the speech would only have been open to Duke law students because "there would be too much of a crowd," but he denied the talk was closed to keep out protestors.

On November 6, 150 Harvard protesters greeted Colby with shouts of "Colby, killer" and "destabilize the CIA" outside a closed meeting with Neiman Fellows at the Faculty Club.

Six protesters confronted Colby inside the Faculty Club, asking him to come outside and answer questions about the CIA's role in the September 1973 military coup in Chile.

Colby refused, saying, "I've been invited to a private party." The protesters continued to chant protests directed against the CIA and Colby during Colby's dinner with the Neiman Fellows.

Daniel Ellsberg '52, who spoke to the Nieman Fellows two days before Colby, carried a placard at the demonstration that read, "William Colby Murders Humans and Democracy." He criticized Colby for making "off-record-comments" during the closed meeting.

Colby, who could not be reached to comment on his cancelation of the Duke Law Forum talk, told a reporter after the Harvard protest that he did not mind the demonstration. "It's part of life," he said