- Mr. X (Donald Sutherland) in the movie JFK by Oliver Stone was based off of the military career of Col. L. Fletcher Prouty.
- Prouty’s military career started before Pearl Harbour, where he was assigned as a Horse Cavalryman.
- After horses were replaced with tanks in 1941, Prouty joined the Tank Corps under General Creighton Abrams.
- Abrams went on to be the Senior Military officer in Vietnam during the Vietnam War from 1968-1972.
- Already a licensed pilot in the Tank Corp, the Air Force recruited Prouty; he transferred quickly to flight school in Africa.
- Prouty served in the Africa Middle East wing of the Air Transport Command.
- Prouty being sent to the Cairo Conference in 1943 was the start of Prouty’s career with clandestine operations.
- The Cairo Conference was attended by Churchill, Roosevelt & Chiang Kai-Shek from China.
- From there, Prouty was sent directly to the Tehran Conference between Churchill, Roosevelt & Stalin met for the 1st time.
- Why haven’t historians been told that Chiang Kai-Shek was ALSO at the Tehran Conference?
- Prouty knows Chiang Kai-Shek attended the Tehran Conference because he was the pilot that flew him there.
- A friend of Prouty’s was the pilot who flew Elliot Roosevelt to the same Tehran Conference in 1943.
- After the conferences Prouty was sent to Pacific, flying heavy transport, mostly patients to the hospital, until the war ended.
- The unit Prouty was flying in was asked to fly immediately into Japan once the war was over in August 1945.
- The only air base that the US hadn’t bombed in anticipation of invading was the major underground Japanese base at Atsugi.
- The CIA utilized the Atsugi base, where men like Lee Harvey Oswald were later stationed.
- When Prouty flew back to Okinawa he noticed a huge stockpile of military equipment being loaded onto US ships.
- The Harbour Master told Prouty the equipment was being sent to Vietnam and Korea.
- Who had given the orders for the relocation of the military equipment? How early were plans made to invade Vietnam?
- Prouty was ordered by the Army to report to Yale University to help start a new aviation program.
- Prouty taught at Yale for three years before being sent to NY to write a text book on Aeronautics for the US Army.
- After publishing the first text book, Prouty was asked to write another book on rockets and missiles.
- Given full authority by the government to go anywhere, and interview anyone, Prouty interviewed Werner Von Braun.
- Von Braun explained to Prouty in 1949 how he would land a rocket on the moon.
- After helping to set up the NORAD operation in Colorado Springs, after a year Prouty was sent to Tokyo.
- While the US was an occupation force in Japan, the US military ran the country while Japan was rebuilt.
- Tokyo had been completely devastated. Prouty was installed as the airport manager for the International Tokyo Airport.
- Prouty had never seen anywhere as destroyed as Tokyo was by the end of the war.
- In the Korean war period, after the airport was given back to the Japanese, Prouty helped fly supplies to Lansdale.
- In 1952-1953 CIA’s Edward G. Lansdale built up a covert army in the Philippines under the leadership of Ramon Magsaysay.
- President Quirino had been the leader of the Philippine government before Magsaysay was installed in 1953.
- In 1955 Prouty was sent back to US to attend the Armed Forces Staff College run by the Joints Chiefs of Staff.
- Prouty was then brought into the Pentagon.
- In 1955 under Eisenhower, CIA would get assistance and funds from military conduits to support their covert operations.
- In order to enable this plan, an office and system had to be created to handle this global operation.
- As Chief of Special Operations for the Air Force, Prouty was given the task of heading and creating the office and system.
- Lansdale was also in the Pentagon at this time, developing programs which later turned into the Special Forces.
- With the election of Kennedy, Macnamara disbanded this office and replaced part of it with the new DIA program.
- At this point, Macnamara ordered Prouty to set up an office at the Joints Chief of Staff to handle all logistics of CIA covert ops.
- This corresponded with the JFK administration, with Prouty retaining this position until JFK’s death, retiring in 1964.
- Oliver Stone read Prouty’s book, “The Secret Team”, inspired him to research vital questions. Why was JFK shot?
- Most people believe that JFK’s murder was the result of a conspiracy.
- Oliver Stone built on the book, “The Secret Team”, adding to the “Man X” section.
- Covert operations is a reaction to information learned or events happening in foreign countries.
- Wars have changed since WWII. The impact of the hydrogen bomb has changed war forever.
- Wars are started by people with financial interests in the war.
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