Deep Politics and the Death of JFK

by Peter Dale Scott

Book Overview

Peter Dale Scott's meticulously documented investigation uncovers the secrets surrounding John F. Kennedy's assassination. Offering a wholly new perspective-that JFK's death was not just an isolated case, but rather a symptom of hidden processes-Scott examines the deep politics of early 1960s American international and domestic policies.

Scott offers a disturbing analysis of the events surrounding Kennedy's death, and of the "structural defects"...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520205197
• ISBN13: 9780520205192
• Release Date: June 1996
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 424 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.1" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

The Expanded Context of American Politics

Along with Carl Oglesby's "The Yankee Cowboy War" and Michael Piper Collins' "Final Judgment," this is the best book ever written on the JFK Assassination. It may also be the best book ever written on the way the American political process ACTUALLY works. It is certainly the most honest one. Deep Politics should be required reading for undergraduates in all American college and university Political Science courses. If for no reason other than that, in the course of getting at the bottom of the assassination of JFK, Professor Scott did not hesitate to expand the context of American political life to those unacceptable areas that lay just beneath the American consciousness and at the bottom of the American political undercurrents. Once one is guided through his process of expanding the context of understanding (or actually "over-understanding") the machinations of the American Political process (its corruption, deceptions, cover-ups, and other pretexts for explaining away its immorality), then the details of the assassination itself, are almost a foregone conclusions - little more than a logical afterthought. All three authors focus on what is most important -- the big picture - leaving the details to be sorted out by those "eager beaver" researchers that seem so much to relish and are so obsessed with, the minutia such as "who was in the sixth floor window," and with what happen to Senator's Specter's now infamous "Magic bullet," etc. ad infinitum. Oglesby eschews these nasty details and focuses on the economic war between the old money of the Northeast and the new money of the Southwest. In a reductionist socialist sort of way, he shows that the JFK assassination and Watergate were mere logical conclusions of this economic war. Collins, on the other hand, but like a radar (and like Jim Garrison before him), uses his own "crap detector" to separate the wheat from the shaft and divides the important from the inessential by forging ahead like a bulldog, even against charges of being anti-Semitic, to the only logical conclusion: that Myer Lansky was at the center of the planning of the JFK assassination. Scott, in his own inimical and professorial way, lays out a new political geography of the American political chessboard; one that is expanded to include what is both above and below the political waterline. He then shows that certain roles and circumstances when they cross the lines of morality, limit the men in them to only certain immoral squares on the chessboard. It turns out that once the links connecting "organized crime" to "disorganized crime" (the criminal minds within the acknowledged and "so-called" legitimate American political process) there is little else that needs explanation. The moves on the American chessboard are all then pre-determined and predictable. It is checkmate for anyone who gets in their way as JFK did, and for the American people and the democratic process -- which they all claim to love so much. By showing th

Peter Dale Scott knows his deep political History VERY well

At the very real risk of putting a name with this review, I feel so strongly about this book and the ground that it covers that I will try to say something of value regarding what is now considered either 'crackpot', 'paranoia', or even treasonous. Mr. Scott has written a book of such depth and accuracy that it is hard to follow unless one is prepared by way of knowing something of REAL American history. That is a lot harder than one might think. Mr. Scott proves not only that the Kennedy assassination was a desperate defense of an already badly corrupt system, but goes on to link the players involved in and around it to Watergate, Iran-Contra, and up to the present. He also takes it the other direction - making a great case that the JFK murder had its roots going far, far back. If I had to try to explain in a sentence what I felt the central point would be to take from this book, it would be that the JFK assassination could very well serve as a "Rosetta stone" for deciphering operations involving the U.S. government and its supporting "deep partners" over the course of the entire 20th Century...and now beyond. Not only do the major scandals link, but events like Lockerbie are deeply suspect due to the U.S.' role in drug trafficing and protection thereof by some in its intelligence agencies. Covering of prior misdeeds and scandals seem to serve as the basis for newly perpetuating ones. Scott makes a clear distinction between "conspiracy theory" and "deep political processes", and the point is - now more than ever - very well taken. I believe this to be a must-read for anyone who loves what this country could be and is willing to take the time to consider why we should deeply question what we are.

Deep investigation.

Peter Dale Scott poses essential questions and his investigations lead to very disturbing answers.He uses the JFK assassination as a paradigm for the revelation and understanding of the real powers in the US.With parallels to 3 other political scandals (MacCarthyism, Watergate, Contragate) he shows that there are deep continuities in the US political system. He arrives at the most alarming conclusion that the US power system is intrinsically vicious, violent and murderous and that conspiracies form an essential part of it.He shows convincingly that the real powers in the US lay in a symbiosis of public government, organized crime and private wealth.Most diabolic are the FBI (lead by the insidious Edgar J. Hoover) and the CIA, which are both responsible for the ruthless destruction of opponents and dissidents without legal or moral restraint.This book gives an appalling picture of the Agency, fighting for the justification of its existence and its resources by prolonging the Cold War. It infiltrated the media in order to preach its Gospel. It used organized crime and drug traffickers as means for its ends.Very revealing also is the fact that 20 percent of the shares of General Dynamics were in the hands of the mob.His final analysis is devastating: 'how far our office-holders, including our Presidents, have been reduced to the status of clients, dispensable when the more enduring patronage is withdrawn?' and 'To what extent has our visible political establishment become one regulated by forces operating outside the constitutional process?'After reading this book, I confess that posing these questions is answering them.A provocative, dark and disturbing book.A must read.

Doesn't get any better.

In a country such as ours, anyone attempting to voice an opinion that falls outside the mainstream is ridiculed and margainalized until no one takes them seriously. Not so with Professor Scott. Incredibly well researched and documented, he makes a strong case for who actually runs this country, and why. It is books like this that show you why your vote is meaningless, protest is generally futile, and how the US can skip around the world, bringing down governments (and at home) and no one says boo. Frightening book, and required reading for anyone interested in the death of JFK, a landmark event.

Awesome research documents the killers' network

The exhaustive research and documentation by Peter Dale Scott exposes the "network" of personal and institutional relationships which interconnect the CIA, FBI, Department of Defense, Army Intelligence, the Office of Naval Intelligence, foreign leaders and agencies connected to the CIA and multi-national corporations, organized crime, anti-Castro Cuban organizations [Alpha-66, CDC], exteme Right wing groups and their ties to big business. From theses relationships, a web, network or milieu of individuals and institutions is revealed which is cemented by a set of common interests and beliefs: the continuation of the Cold War, the deisre to remove Castro in Cuba, the goal of escalating the U.S. involvement in Vietnam, enlisting the assistance of foreign governments and their agencies in the war against Communism, enlisting the assistance of organized crime and international narcotics trafficers in the war against Communism, U.S. government's domestic terrorism against dissidents, civil rights activists and anti-Vietnam War protesters. From this web or network of personal and institutional relationships arose the people who committed the assassination of JFK and devised and propagated the "cover story" regarding the lone nut/assassin. These people had common interests, all of which were threatened by the policies and new ideas of the Kennedy administration: a modus vivendi with the Soviet Union, including no further U.S. aggression against Cuba; withdrawal of all U.S. military forces from Vietnam by the end of 1965; crackdown on organized crime and their stranglehold on the American labor unions [prosecution of Jimmy Hoffa, Sam Giancana, Carlos Marcello]; promotion of the civil rights movement; transfer of all covert operations away from the CIA and under the control the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Pentagon; winding down of the Cold War in favor of detente with the Soviet Union. The exhaustive research conducted by Mr. Scott reveals the personal and institutional relationships which form the cement of the web or network discussed above. I highly recommend this book for scholars and general readers who wish to augment their knowledge and broaden their perspective on the forces/web/network behind the assassination of JFK.