Customer Reviews

Deep Politics and the Death of JFK

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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 that these unholy connections not only exist but are in symbiotic alliance with each other, and trump the normal American political process, Scott not only exposes, but lays completely bare the underbelly of the utter hypocrisy and corruption of the American political process.

There is one example in the book, above all others, that best summarizes and punctuates the orgy of corruption that existed in the American political process at the time of the JFK assassination and that remains alive as a result of it.

It is the Pre-assassination party (or final coordination meeting, or whatever one wants to call it) called to order in Dallas by J. Edgar Hoover at Clint Murchinson's house on November 21, 1963, the eve of the assassination.

The attendees included, among others:

J. Edgar Hoover (Head of the FBI, next door neighbor of LBJ, racist and Jew hater, and friend of mobster Frank Costello), Clint Murchinson (Texan oil Baron, racist and Jew hater but still a business partner of Myer Lansky, and acknowledged Kennedy hater),
H.L. Hunt (financier of rabid right-wing fanatic causes, racist and Jew hater, Texas Oil Baron, and Kennedy Hater), John J. McCloy (Washington Lobbyist/Fixer and later to be appointed member of the Warren Commission investigating the JFK assassination), Allen Dulles (ex-head of the CIA, fired by JFK in the aftermath of the Bay of Pigs fiasco, and soon to be appointee to the Warren Commission investigating the assassination of JFK), John Connally (ex-Secretary of the Navy, ex-Governor of Texas and close friend and confidant of LBJ), General Charles Cabell (Deputy Director of the CIA fired by JFK after the Bay of Pigs fiasco), and his brother Earle Cabell (the Mayor of Dallas at the time of the assassination), Richard Nixon (defeated by JFK for the U.S. Presidency, and avowed Kennedy hater), LBJ (the sitting Vice President who was days away from going to jail because of a whole series of scandals, and who would be sworn-in on Air Force One minutes after the assassination as JFK's successor)

Would someone please give me an innocent explanation for such a meeting in Dallas of all of these Kennedy haters on the eve before his assassination?

Five stars

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.

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.

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.

This is a complex book but it reaps the clearest, most compelling conclusions as to who were responsible for the JFK assasination.

Reading the last third of the book is dizzying and alarming. The vertigo effect lingers long after you put it away.

Peter Dale Scott tells us up front that his purpose is not to use the evidence to pinpoint the killer(s) but to illustrate deep politics. He mentions planting of evidence in various ways to paint Lee Harvey Oswald as part of a Communist conspiracy and as a lone-nut. Also discussed is the Oswald as double-agent idea, establishing a record of the mail-order purchases when guns were readily available locally and the difference between Marina Oswald's testimony and the official record. Scott also mentions the 100 names missing from an index of Jack Ruby's acquaintances. These names provided a negative template of organized crime and those with corrupt political backgrounds purposely deleted from official records. There are many other examples of suspicious activity cited. Hoover and the FBI figured prominently, though not alone in the fancy footwork and public relations (media) that made this at least temporarily satisfying to everyone that all was well as the killer was identified. Peter Dale Scott's investigation and writing is thorough, intelligent and thought provoking. By the way, at the time of writing this book, Scott named three senior FBI officials most likely to be Deep Throat and one of them was correct, as we have recently found out.

Still keep rereading some of the chapters, as it is so fact filled that its impossible to digest whole in one reading. Really scary and terrible power structures are brought to light in this treatment of the killing. No ONE person is named but power elites are exposed. Never realized that the HUNT family in Texas were up to such mischief - I thought they were 'merely' funding the Campus Crusade for Christ and attempting to corner the silver market in the 80's...

Note to any casually follower of this genre. Do not buy this book. Deep Politics And The Death Of JFK is a heavy academic read that doesn't come off the page lightly or with any pace. Each page is filled with meticulous and exact information that grabs you fully. This isn't a light read with a dramatic storyline, this is a real hard look into the facts surrounding the relationships that dominated politics at this time in U.S. history. While it is an impressive piece of work it is not to be read lightly.

It wouldn't be fair to say that Scott is the first investigator to present a theory of conspiracy theory, but it is tempting. Instead `deep politics' is presented as a method of investigation, and not as a more complex theory. Still, deep politics is probably the most interesting facet of the book, which consists mostly of facts already made familiar by literature on the crime. Unlike conventional social theory which excludes the role of the irrational in its researches - deep politics allows that criminal elements routinely participate in the actions of government at all levels.These elements - typified in the role of double agent, such as a Ruby or Oswald - exist as much within government as without, and represent a merging of otherwise disparate cultures at a deep level of contact. Therefore, traditional efforts to separate the underworld of crime from the overworld of government, or to render them merely accidental or temporary, are profoundly misleading, even if popularly accepted.

Evidence of this deep symbiosis confronts us time and again, as in the case of Watergate, Scott argues. But as a nation, such knowledge is repressed because it's too threatening to how we picture ourselves and our world. As a people, however, we need to confront this dark truth, not only to advance democracy but our self-understanding as well. Thus the Kennedy assassination with its undeniable ties to the twilight world serves as a national mirror through which we see ourselves only obscurely. True, most Americans reject official versions of the assassination, yet how many would acknowledge the role of deep politics and the symbiosis revealed in the details. Scott's is a provocative thesis that presses the belief that the interests of government and crime coincide at key points, producing an unholy relationship at the very foundations of the society.

Clearly *Deep Politics* with its professorial overtones does not typify the literature devoted to Kennedy and the end of the New Frontier. (What other book, for example, hints at a `deconstruction' of organized crime, the Mafia, and `shadow government' - innovations sure to catch the eye of French academic circles.) Though worthy topics in their own right, there is no discussion here of magic bullets, second shooters, or the immediate facts of the killing itself. True to method, Scott concentrates on those deeper interfaces surrounding key players, most obviously Oswald, Ruby, and Hoover, and the indications these might reveal as to the authors of the crime. I think it's fair to say that the results are rather meager and unsurprising. Still the idea of deep politics (which as a method could be applied to any society) appears solidly grounded in the realities of 20th century America.