The Secret Team, or ST, is a phrase coined by L. Fletcher Prouty in 1973, alleging a covert alliance between the United States' military, intelligence, and private sectors to influence political decisions.
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The phrase suggests the existence of a covert alliance between certain people within the U.S. intelligence community, the United States military, and American private industry who use their collective wealth, influence, and resources to manipulate current events to steer public policy and maximize profits. The term is pejorative since it accuses the organizations of prioritizing their personal fortunes above the national interest, as well as eliminating any opposition, whether through targeted propaganda or assassination.
Prouty wrote The Secret Team: The CIA and Its Allies in Control of the United States and the World and JFK: The CIA, Vietnam and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy in support of his view.[1]
The phrase has been used by the Christic Institute in their investigation of the La Penca bombing in Nicaragua.
According to the theory, the existence of ST was predicted and warned of by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in his farewell address to the nation in 1961 when he spoke of the military-industrial complex. The theory states that after eight years of exposure to the American defense establishment as President, Eisenhower knew that a disproportionate amount of influence rested in the hands of the ST, and he warned the public that this influence threatened the purity of American democracy.