Colonel L. Fletcher Prouty(retired) served as a
Focal Point liason officer between the Pentagon and the CIA from 1955- 1963. From his vantage point, Prouty was able to witness the control mechanisms over both intelligence and military.
Writing in 1973, Prouty said the United States was run by a "Secret Team," an "inner sanctum of a new religious order" answerable only to themselves. "The power of the team derives from its vast intra-governmental infrastructure and its direct relationship with great private industries, mutual funds and investment houses, universities,and the news media, including foreign and domestic publishing houses."