---
category: "Key Figures"
tags:
  - Person
  - Stargate
  - CIA
summary: "Director of the CIA from 1973 to 1976 who believed Israel possessed nuclear weapons and might use them in an extreme situation."
born: 1920-01-04
died: 1996-04-27
location: "Saint Paul, Minnesota"
---

William E. Colby served as the Director of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] from 1973 to 1976. He shared the assumption that [[Israel]] had a few nuclear weapons and that if there was a collapse during the 1973 [[Yom Kippur War]], there was a possibility that [[Israel]] would use them. Colby believed that nuclear weapons would be used "only in an extreme situation."[^1]

### Footnotes

[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 17.