Understanding Special Operations And Their Impact on The Vietnam War Era

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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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rat haus reality press, 45 Bexley Road, Roslindale, Massachusetts 02131
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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.

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.

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
Appendix B Appendix C Appendix D Appendix E Appendix F Appendix G
Index

Back Cover