Saint Fletcher the Obscure

[Paul Rigby]

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.

It's NSAM #'s 55, 56, & 57.

I've retrieved my copy of The Secret Team from storage, and you're right, Greg, so thanks for that.

For those interesed in exploring the strengths and weaknesses of Prouty's work, the shrewdest critique is Vincent Salandria's. Most of it can be found within Michael D. Morrisey's Correspondence with Salandria 1993-2000 (Lulu, 2007).

Paul