UNDERSTANDING
SPECIAL OPERATIONS



And Their Impact on The Vietnam War Era




1989 Interview with L. Fletcher Prouty
Colonel USAF (Retired)






David T. Ratcliffe


rat haus reality press
Santa Cruz, California

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Copyright © 1999 by David T. Ratcliffe

All rights reserved.
rat haus reality press, 45 Bexley Road, Roslindale, Massachusetts 02131
www.ratical.org
Printer and binder: Thomson-Shore, Inc.
_______________________________________________________________________


1st edition, first printing.

ISBN 0-9673507-0-0

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 99-75115


Manufactured in the United States of America
on 60% recovered and 25% post-consumer waste recylced paper
with soy-based inks.

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For

my parents, John and Elizabeth Ratcliffe,
who taught me to seek out life's infinite possibilities,

and

all who strive to build a sustainable civilization
where nature, humanity, and technology manifest
a contemporary wholeness that serves and honors life.

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Special Operations are an ad hoc creation -- probably the strongest ad hoc creation in our government today. -- L. Fletcher Prouty, 1999

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Copyright


Table Of Contents

Acknowledgments
Forward
Introduction


1.  Colonel L. Fletcher Prouty's Military Experiences 1941-1963

Part I: 1941-1945
• Entering the Army, the Air Corps, and Air Transport Command
• Air Transport Command Pilot: North Africa
• Air Transport Command Pilot: the Middle East
• Air Transport Command Pilot: Eurasia
• Air Transport Command Pilot: the West Pacific

Part II: 1945-1961

• On Okinawa: The Surrender of Japan,
  and a 500,000 manpack Re-Routed to Korea and Indochina
• 1946-1948: Inaugurating the Air Force's ROTC Program at Yale
• 1949-1950: Writing the First USAF ROTC text book on
  Aeronautics and a Major Portion of Rockets and Guided Missiles
• 1950-1951: A New Air Defense Command
• 1952-1954: Managing Tokyo International Airport
  And Heavy-Transport Flying
• 1955: Attending the Armed Forces Staff College
• 1955: Assignment to New Position of "Focal Point" Officer
  for Air Force Support of U.S. Government Clandestine Operations
• Coordination of the CIA: How Covert Operations Are Run
• The Suez Crisis of 1956
• The CIA in Europe
• Nuclear Warfare: the CIA becomes a Fourth Force
• Cuba, 1959-1960: From Over-The-Beach Work to Invasion

Part III: 1961-1963

• Experiences of and Perspectives on the Bay of Pigs
• A Result of CIA Covert Military Commanders in Vietnam:
  The League of Families for the Prisoners of War in Southeast Asia
• JFK Prepares To Get Out Of Vietnam:
  The Taylor/McNamara Trip Report of October 1963 and NSAM 263
• The Murders of President Diem and Kennedy
• Explanation of the Office of Special Operations--
  Military Services Providing Support to Government Clandestine Activities
• The Economy Act of 1932: Handling The Money To Run Covert Operations
• Clarifying the Role of the National Security Agency (NSA)
• Abolishing the OSO and Moving Special Operations Into the JCS

2.  Understanding The Secret Team in the Post-World War II Era

Part I

• In The Context of Its Time: The National Security Act of 1947
• The Creation of the National Security Council
• The Dulles-Jackson-Correa Report
• Opening the Door to CIA Clandestine Operations:
  Shifting NSC Oversight from Directing to Approving Plans
• The Function of the Director of Central Intelligence:
  Coordinating Intelligence of the Government Intelligence Community
• Clandestine Operations: Out of Control
  If Not Directed by the National Security Council
• Four Categories of Military Personnel Employed by CIA
• Final Chapter in the History of War Making:
  Going From Offense to Defense
• The Threat of Nuclear Weapons: Making War Planning Obsolete
• Creating a Manichaean Devil to Justify Spending $6 Trillion for a Cold War
• Secret Team Foundations:
  Creation of the CIA Focal Point System Throughout The Government

Part II

• The Power of Indirection--
  Military Units Financed and Controlled by the CIA
• Secret Team Growth: Focal Point Personnel Assuming Broader Roles
• Obtaining Everything Money Can Buy: The CIA Act of 1949 and
  Secretary of Defense Johnson's paper on Covert Operations
• Employing the System of Reimbursement To Fund Unaccountable Activities
• Post WWII War Plans--CIA Begins Amassing
  Its Own Stockpile of Military Equipment
• From the Chairman of the JCS On Down: "where the CIA was concerned
  there were a lot of things no one seemed to know"
• The Importance of the CIA's Deputy Director of Support (DD/S) Side of the Agency
  by the Time of the Bay Of Pigs
• Congressional Non-Oversight of Agency Funding
  and Executive Branch Responsibility for CIA
• The Significance of the Sense of Infallibility
  Leaders of the Agency Felt Imbued With
• The ST Running A Government Of Reaction: Develop and Control
  All Secret Intelligence, And Brief The President On It Every Day

Part III

• Allen Dulles: Forging a Government of Reaction
• Dispersion of the OSO, Creation of the Office of SACSA
• DOD Adoption of a Counterinsurgency Role in the late Eisenhower Years
• NSAM 55--JFK's Attempt to Get CIA out of Clandestine Operations
• Chairman of the JCS: Exit Lyman Lemnitzer, Enter Maxwell Taylor
• Bay of Pigs Post-Mortem and the Dynamics of Personality:
  Allen Dulles, Maxwell Taylor, and Bobby Kennedy
• Bay of Pigs Report: Taylor's Letter to the President
  and the Origin of NSAM Nos. 55-57
• Understanding the Military Assistance Program (MAP)
• The Little Red Book's Influence on General Stilwell and Lansdale
• MAP as a Sensor to React To
• MAP's Ultimate Manifestation: Iran
• The Secret Team: Far Beyond the Capability of the CIA
• An Impossible Contradiction: Covert Operations Must Be Deniable

3.  A Very Special Operation: The Assassination of President Kennedy

Part I
• What Would Entail Conducting A Proper Murder Investigation?
• In Context: August-November 1963
• Cancelling Secret Service, Military, and Police Units
  in Dallas and Inserting False Actors in Their Place
• The Volume and Significance of the Photographic Evidence
• The Christchurch Star's Impact Upon the Facts of the Assassination

Part II

• The Existence of a High Cabal or Power Elite
• Magellan's Circumnavigation of the Globe:
  The Philosophy That Derived From Knowing the World Was Finite
• The Development of the East India Companies and "Proprietary" Colonies
• Inventorying Earth: Haileybury College and the Roles of Malthus and Darwin
• Two Books: The End of Economic Man and The Road To Teheran
• The Changing Nature of Warfare: From a Military to an Economic Basis
• Human History and the Composition of the High Cabal
• Building a Bridge: Trusting Ourselves to Know How to Work and Live Together

Epilogue

Appendix A

• Prefaces to 3 Editions of The Secret Team

Appendix B

• Copies of NSAMs 263 and 273, and Some Primary Supporting Documents

Appendix C

• NSC 5412, "National Security Council Directive on Covert Operations"

Appendix D

• Krulak Letter Re: Dealey Plaza Photos And Lansdale Ident

Appendix E

• Copies of NSAMs 55, 56, and 57

Appendix F

• Prouty Letter Regarding JFK Assassination Conspiracy and Cover Story

Appendix G

• Organizations Dedicated To A Sustainable Future

Index

Back Cover

Understanding Special Operations And Their Impact on The Vietnam War Era
1989 Interview with L. Fletcher Prouty Colonel USAF (Retired)
1999. Paper, 424 pp, index, $23.00 + $5 postage and handling.
ISBN 0-9673507-0-0

David T. Ratcliffe, Publisher
rat haus reality press
45 Bexley Road
Roslindale, Massachusetts   02131   USA
617-323-2363

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