The War Conspiracy: JFK, 9/11 and the Deep Politics of War

by Peter Dale Scott

Peter Dale Scott examines the many ways in which war policy has been driven by “accidents” and other events in the field, in some cases despite moves toward peace that were directed by presidents. This book explores the “deep politics” that exerts a profound but too-little-understood effect on national policy outside the control of traditional democratic processes.
An important analysis into the causes of war and the long-lasting effects that major events in American history can have on foreign and military policies, The War Conspiracy is a must-read book for students of American history and foreign policy, and anyone interested in the ways that domestic tragedies can be used to manipulate the country’s direction.
First published in 1972, this edition of The War Conspiracy is fully updated for the twenty-first century and includes two lengthy additional essays, one on the transition in Vietnam policy in the wake of the Kennedy assassination, and the other discussing the many parallels between that 1963 event and the attacks of 9/11.

Genres: History, Conspiracy Theories, Politics, Nonfiction, Audiobook, American

448 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

Reviews

[Elliott · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The Deep State” has become a decidedly far-right label to refer to nearly anything and everything that blocks the emergence of a utopian, free-market society. Supposedly Donald Trump was combating this entity when he led chants of “drain the swamp” at his rallies and presumably engorging himself at the government trough was also part of this larger battle though I have my doubts.
As is the case with most everything on the far-right “deep state” is used without any kind of intellectual rigor. Peter Dale Scott’s concept of the Deep State on the other hand is of a continuity of American policy regardless of administration. Rather than a Wednesday night meeting where Hillary Clinton and George Soros dine on infant flesh and plot evil for evil’s sake the Deep State is more like the inertia of a celestial body. When a state has crafted an apparatus solely for war it will use that apparatus and will find reasons to justify its existence: The Gulf of Tonkin, the Ho Chi Minh trail in Vietnam…
Peter Dale Scott is a believer in certain alternative conspiracy theories regarding 9/11 which is a position that I do not hold and is also a position not necessary to accept in order to accept his thesis which is well supported purely through Vietnam and the continuing War on Terror.

[Gage Hoefer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This needs a better editor- sections of the reprint were repeated whole cloth in the same chapters, and initial chapters had a wealth of typos. Outside of the publishing issues, I think PDS provides a very in-depth look into the instigating events leading to US invasion in Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam and their connection to the global heroin trade.

[David Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

PROOF IN DETAIL.

Proof of the truth that profit and the beliefs of the elite has steered political decisions to wage secret or overt war for a very long time.

[James Morton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an astonishing read. That the Americans were never going to win this war, was plain to see from other sources I have read on the subject. This book shed a lot of light on how the US managed to convince itself that it could. It showed how the "End Justifies the means" mindset led them down a rabbit hole. It also showed how they ultimately corrupted themselves by engaging narcotics to prop up various puppets in the region.

The concept of deep state politics interests me, and this was a good introduction to it.