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The Secret Team

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Originally published
  
1 January 1973

4.1/5
Goodreads

Author
  
L. Fletcher Prouty

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Similar
  
Assassination of John F Kennedy books, Central Intelligence Agency books

The Secret Team: The CIA and Its Allies in Control of the United States and the World (ISBN 0-13-798173-2) is a book by L. Fletcher Prouty, a former colonel in the US Air Force, first published in 1973.

Contents

From 1955 to 1963 Prouty was the "Focal Point Officer" for contacts between the CIA and the Pentagon on matters relating to military support for "special operations" but he was not assigned to the CIA and was not bound by any oath of secrecy. (From the first page of the 1974 Printing) It was one of the first tell-all books about the inner workings of the CIA and was an important influence on the Oliver Stone movie JFK. The book details how the CIA started as a think tank to analyze intelligence and states that the CIA had no authority to run their own agents or to carry out covert operations but that they quickly did both and much more. The book provides many details about the organization's activities and how they operate. In Prouty's own words, from the 1997 edition of The Secret Team:

The work

  • LOC Catalogue card:
  • LC Control No.: 72013361 Type of Material: Book (Print, Microform, Electronic, etc.) Personal Name: Prouty, L. Fletcher (Leroy Fletcher), 1917- Main Title: The secret team: the CIA and its allies in control of the United States and the world [by] L. Fletcher Prouty. Published/Created: Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall [1973] Description: xiv, 496 p. 24 cm. ISBN 0137981732 Notes: Bibliography: p. [481] Subjects: United States. Central Intelligence Agency. Intelligence service--United States. Espionage, American. LC Classification: JK468.I6 P76 Dewey Class No.: 327/.12

    Secret Team

    The Secret Team, or ST, is a phrase coined by L. Fletcher Prouty in 1973, alleging a covert alliance between the United States' military, intelligence, and private sectors to influence political decisions. He suggests the existence of a covert alliance between certain people within the U.S. intelligence community, the United States military, and American private industry who use their collective wealth, influence, and resources to manipulate current events to steer public policy and maximize profits. The term is pejorative since he accuses the organizations of prioritizing their personal fortunes above the national interest, as well as eliminating any opposition, whether through targeted propaganda or assassination.

    The phrase has also been used by the Christic Institute in their investigation of the La Penca bombing in Nicaragua.

    Eisenhower's alleged prediction

    According to Prouty, the existence of ST was predicted and warned of by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in his farewell address to the nation in 1961 when he spoke of the military-industrial complex. Prouty states that after eight years of exposure to the American defense establishment as President, Eisenhower knew that a disproportionate amount of influence rested in the hands of the ST, and he warned the public that this influence threatened the purity of American democracy.

    References

    The Secret Team Wikipedia