07-02-2011, 12:10 AM
I forger which paper(s) it appeared in - The Boston Globe? The NYT? - but I do distinctly remember the insistence, entirely plausible on the face of it, that Prouty was unleashed by the Pentagon as a rejoinder to the CIA's Pentagon Papers. Can anyone remember where this appeared?
The argument went as follows:
The CIA cobbled together a version of the origins of the US assault on Vietnam which exonerated it of all responsibility, and instead lumped it on the Military: the Pentagon fired back with Prouty's revelations concerning NSAMs 51, 53 & 55 (can't remember the exact numbers), which detailed Kennedy's post-BoP's attempt to strip the Agency of responsibility for large-scale covert ops, and place them under McNamara and the soon-to-be-founded DIA.
The argument went as follows:
The CIA cobbled together a version of the origins of the US assault on Vietnam which exonerated it of all responsibility, and instead lumped it on the Military: the Pentagon fired back with Prouty's revelations concerning NSAMs 51, 53 & 55 (can't remember the exact numbers), which detailed Kennedy's post-BoP's attempt to strip the Agency of responsibility for large-scale covert ops, and place them under McNamara and the soon-to-be-founded DIA.
"There are three sorts of conspiracy: by the people who complain, by the people who write, by the people who take action. There is nothing to fear from the first group, the two others are more dangerous; but the police have to be part of all three,"
Joseph Fouche
Joseph Fouche