Secret Team
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The Secret Team, or ST, is a phrase coined by L. Fletcher Prouty which 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. It is exclusively pejorative since it accuses the aforementioned of prioritizing their personal fortunes above the national interest, as well as eliminating any opposition, whether through targeted propaganda or assassination.
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 first introduced the term "military-industrial complex" into American discourse. After eight years of exposure to the American defense establishment as President, he 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.
A noteworthy example of the term's application is in connection with the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963. Many people theorize that the ST had a hand in the assassination since President John F. Kennedy was preparing to withdraw U.S. troops from Vietnam, which would have meant billions of dollars in lost defense industry revenue.
[edit] See also
- Military-industrial complex
- Conspiracy theory
- The Power Elite
- L. Fletcher Prouty and his novel The Secret Team: The CIA and Its Allies in Control of the United States and the World and JFK: The CIA, Vietnam, and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy [1]
