The Secret Team: The CIA and Its Allies in Control of the United States and the World is a book by L. Fletcher Prouty, a former colonel in the US Air Force, first published by Prentice-Hall in 1973.
 Cover of the 1973 Prentice-Hall first edition. | |
| Author | L. Fletcher Prouty |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | History |
| Publisher | Prentice-Hall |
Publication date | 1973 |
| Media type | book |
| Pages | 496 |
| ISBN | 978-0137981731 |
| OCLC | 869053900 |
| Text | The Secret Team: The CIA and Its Allies in Control of the United States and the World at Internet Archive |
Publication history edit
After initial publication in 1973, Prentice-Hall republished The Secret Team in 1992 and 1997. The book was published again in 2008 and 2011 by Skyhorse Publishing, the latter edition including an introduction by Jesse Ventura.[1]
The book was offered for sale by the Church of Scientology through their Freedom magazine, during the time when Prouty was a senior editor of the magazine.[2]
Reception edit
In Studies in Intelligence, an official journal and flagship publication of the Central Intelligence Agency, Walter Pforzheimer described reading the book as "like trying to push a penny with one's nose through molten fudge."[3] Despite what he grants as Prouty's "considerable background and knowledge," he says the book is punctuated by "faulty recollections" and "unwarranted conclusions."[3] In a later issue, a staff writer provides a retrospective of books reviewed in Studies in Intelligence and wonders aloud "whether word ever got back to [Prouty]."[3]
Washington Monthly magazine noted that "marvelous anecdotes about the CIA's dirty-trick department are accompanied by a troubling overstatement best suggested by the subtitle, "The CIA and Its Allies in Control of the United States and the World."[4]
Assassination researcher and former Office of Strategic Services officer Harold Weisberg was less than enthusiastic about Prouty’s book. He was particularly turned off by the claim that Daniel Ellsberg was a CIA agent: "He hemmed and hawed a bit on this when confronted with an unequivocal denial made by E. to Fred Graham and to Prouty by phone. Thus he looses the legitimate point."[5]
See also edit
References edit
- ^ The Secret Team. Simon & Schuster.
- ^ "Masthead of Freedom Magazine" (PDF). Freedom. Vol. 18, no. 4. Church of Scientology. p. 3. Retrieved June 15, 2023.
- ^ a b c Staff writer. "Book Reviews in Studies: Intelligent Literature About Intelligence Literature." Studies in Intelligence, vol. 49, no. 4, Special Issue: Fifty Years of Studies in Intelligence (2005), p. 4. Published by the Central Intelligence Agency.
- ^ Staff writer. "Political Book Notes." Review of The Secret Team by L. Fletcher Prouty. Washington Monthly (April 1973), p. 64.
- ^ Weisberg, Harold. Review of The Secret Team by L. Fletcher Prouty. Harold Weisberg Collection, Hood College (April 2, 1973)
External links edit
- The Secret Team available for online reading at Open Library
Further reading edit
- Berlet, Chip. "Populist Party/Liberty Lobby Recruitment of Anti-CIA Critics." Right Woos Left. Political Research Associates, February 22, 1994. Archived from the original.