Deep Politics and the Death of JFK

by Scott, Peter Dale

• ISBN13: 9780520205192
• ISBN10: 0520205197
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-04-01
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr

Summary

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" within the American government that allowed such a crime to occur and to go unpunished. In nuanced readings of both previously examined and newly available materials, he finds ample reason to doubt the prevailing interpretations of the assassination. He questions the lone assassin theory and the investigations undertaken by the House Committee on Assassinations, and unearths new connections between Oswald, Ruby, and corporate and law enforcement forces. Revisiting the controversy popularized in Oliver Stone's movieJFK,Scott probes the link between Kennedy's assassination and the escalation of the U.S. commitment in Vietnam that followed two days later. He contends that Kennedy's plans to withdraw troops from Vietnam--offensive to a powerful anti-Kennedy military and political coalition--were secretly annulled when Johnson came to power. The split between JFK and his Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the collaboration between Army Intelligence and the Dallas Police in 1963, are two of the several missing pieces Scott adds to the puzzle of who killed Kennedy and why. Scott presses for a new investigation of the Kennedy assassination, not as an external conspiracy but as a power shift within the subterranean world of American politics.Deep Politics and the Death of JFKshatters our notions of one of the central events of the twentieth century.

Author Biography

Peter Dale Scott is Professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Preface
The Kennedy Assassination, Deep Politics, and Denial	p. 3
Kennedy, Johnson, and Vietnam: A Tale of Two NSAMs	p. 24
The Dialectical Cover-Up	p. 38
The Key to the Cover-Up: The FBI, COINTELPROS, and the Case	p. 58
Oswald, Intelligence, and the Mob in New Orleans	p. 77
Oswald, Intelligence, the Mob, and the Banana Companies	p. 93
Mexico, Somoza, and the Martino-Rosselli Story	p. 107
Ruby and Narcotics: The Heart of What Was Suppressed	p. 127
Ruby's Background: Narcotics, the Teamsters, and the Racing Wire Service	p. 144
The Nationally Protected Drug Traffic and Ruby's Relation to It	p. 164
Blakey and the Politics of Fighting Crime	p. 182
Ruby, Narcotics, and the Establishment	p. 197
The Coalitions against the Kennedys	p. 211
Intrigue, Murder, Cover-Up: The Continuity of Manipulation	p. 226
Oswald as an Informant for the Government	p. 242
Oswald as a Double Agent for Hoover	p. 254
Army Intelligence and the Dallas Police	p. 267
The Assassination and the Great Southwest Corporation	p. 283
Who Killed JFK? The Deep Political System	p. 295
Notes	p. 315
Bibliography	p. 383
Index	p. 393
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