Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is the apparently heavily edited re-release of one of the most mysterious conspiracy books and CIA exposes ever written, "The Secret Team" by L. Fletcher Prouty. First published in 1972 by Prentice-Hall, the original ran to three quick editions before disappearing completely from public view by 1975. Many believed it was blacklisted and suppressed by the CIA. In this way it resembles that other conspiracy classic, Professor Carroll Quigley's "Tragedy and Hope." In fact, if one had the patience and desire (both of these books are quite long, convoluted and "wordy") I would recommend reading them in historical sequence. The revelations would be startling. And this is one reason why I like "The Secret Team" so much. Having studied conspiracy for over 30 years while working in government and, I now discover, serving as an unwitting foot-soldier of the secret team (I worked in intelligence, special operations and "peacetime operations" work among other things), I was missing a few pieces of the conspiracy puzzle which all fell into place neatly by the time I finished this book. Not only that, but the bizarre shenanigans of the Intelligence Community, particularly the FBI, CIA and, to a lesser extent, DHS during the 2016 election and the coterie of retired military men selected to serve in President Trump's cabinet all took on greater significance to me due to the revelations of this book. Anyway, I do recommend this but not without some warnings: - Some reviewers have remarked that this is a re-write and lacks the punch of the 1972 original. Fine, but the original is an extremely rare and pricey book indeed. This re-release does stand well on its own... if you take into consideration the next couple warnings... - This book is long and somewhat repetitious. This is a real problem if the governmental jargon and acronyms are new to you. I could see the value in much of the repetition... but this is very familiar material to me. It won't be for most readers. - Do your homework ahead of time. If you are weak in post-World War II through Vietnam era history you will be lost in the sauce in no time. Not for the casual reader! - This could benefit from an update given the way things have progressed since 1972. But Prouty is a man of his time (circa 1955-64) and isn't qualified to write such an update. But a "Secret Team Part 2" would be a nice sequel if the right researcher/insider could be found to author it. - This is not pop culture conspiracy stuff nor is it particularly left-wing or right-wing. Your biases may cause you to draw the wrong conclusions about Prouty's motives. You need to do a little research into national security policy and how it changed in the "CIA" years to appreciate some of his points. All that being said, I loved this book but it's definitely not for everyone. It would make a fine addition to any collection of Cold War, CIA, intelligence, conspiracy and/or Indochina War history. Ignore the one-star and two-star reviews by people who obviously never read it or are incapable of understanding it. And if you aren't prepared for the meaty stuff you find between its covers you can always give it a bad review and go back to Info-Wars, Coast-to-Coast Radio, the Truther blog-o-sphere or wherever else you came from. Or better yet, do some honest research and discover there is real treasure between these covers. Recommended.