The War Conspiracy
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The War Conspiracy: JFK, 9/11, and the Deep Politics of War by Peter Dale Scott Order this book online or see its Selected Book page for comments and reviews. |
Peter Dale Scott has for decades been "minding the darkness," studying and reporting on the deeper aspects of our national tragedies. The original 1972 edition of The War Conspiracy dissected the many ways in which the escalation and continuation of the Vietnam conflict was not driven from the top down, but rather by means of a series of seemingly accidental bombings, aggressive operations in the field, suspicious intelligence failures and the like.
Kennedy & Vietnam: A Serious Question. Peter Dale Scott poses the often-asked "What would JFK had done in Vietnam had he lived?" and explains why he thinks it's the wrong question.
Declassifications and more recent accounts have generally supported Scott's analysis; for example, it is now commonly conceded that the second Tonkin Gulf attack, after which Congress granted LBJ a blank check to prosecute the Vietnam war, never actually occurred. In this fully updated 2008 edition, Scott provides a current view on the events described in the book, whose pattern is unfortunately not limited to the Indochina war.
This new edition also features two major additions:
• The Kennedy Assassination and the Vietnam War. In this essay, written in 1971 but not included in The War Conspiracy, Scott argues that the alleged JFK-LBJ continuity in Vietnam policy is anything but. This view has been corroborated by documentary releases and other accounts by Newman, McNamara, Galbraith, Jones, and others.
• JFK, 9/11 and War: Recurring Patterns in America's Deep Events. This lengthy new essay draws a striking number of parallels between the Kennedy assassination and the 9/11 attacks, and by doing so points the way for further examination of both.
Peter Dale Scott on JFK & Vietnam
![]() Historians and JFK-LBJ Continuity on Vietnam. Peter Dale Scott, author of the first scholarly article arguing that the Kennedy-LBJ transition was not one of continuity, discussing the conflict among historians on this issue. |
![]() The Change in Policy. Peter Scott discusses JFK-LBJ continunity on Vietnam for this and the question of why the battlefield assessments in Vietnam took a marked turn for the worse after Kennedy's death. |
For more details, read Peter Scott's essay The Kennedy Assassination and the Vietnam War on History Matters website. An updated version of this essay appears in the new edition of The War Conspiracy.
See also this walkthrough of 1963 Vietnam policy documents.
For more on Kennedy Vietnam policy and the JFK-LBJ transition, see Kennedy and Vietnam.
Peter Dale Scott on the Tonkin Gulf Incident
Alleged attacks on U.S. vessels on 4 Aug 1964 provided the "causus belli" for escalating the war in Vietnam. The original 1972 version of Chapter Three of The War Conspiracy pointed out the problems with accounts of the alleged attacks and the electronic intercepts which were supposed to have confirmed them. In recent years, mainstream historical opinion has shifted decidedly to the view that the attack indeed never occurred. The new edition of the book provides up-to-date information on the Tonkin Gulf Incident and poses the remaining questions.
Korea (1950), the Tonkin Gulf Incident, and 9/11: Deep Events in Recent American History. In this essay, Peter Scott draws parallels between these seemingly disparate events.
For more, see Gulf of Tonkin Incident.
Peter Dale Scott on the Kennedy Assassination

Deep Politics and the Death of JFK
Deep Politics II: Essays on Oswald, Mexico, and Cuba.
Related to them is Crime and Cover-Up: the CIA, the Mafia, and the Dallas-Watergate Connection.
Overview: The CIA, the Drug Traffic, and Oswald in Mexico discusses the "managed stories" which alleged an Oswald connection to Cuba and the Soviets, and explores the role of drug trafficking in the Kennedy assassination saga.
CIA Files and the Pre-Assassination Framing of Lee Harvey Oswald discusses the manipulations in CIA files on Lee Harvey Oswald.
The Kennedy-CIA Divergence Over Cuba analyzes the split between the Kennedy administration agenda on Cuba and that of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Peter Dale Scott on 9/11


Conversations with History - Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America: A Conversation with Peter Dale Scott. In this hour-long YouTube interview from 8 Aug 2007, Peter Scott discusses his book The Road to 9/11.

Peter Dale Scott - Cheney on 9/11. Scott discusses Cheney's actions on the day of 9/11, his role in Continuty of Government plans, what 9/11 Commission papers should be released to the public, and related topics at a 9/11 Accountability conference.
In the essay The JFK Assassination and 9/11: the Designated Suspects in Both Cases, Scott examines parallels between the 19 hijackers and alleged gunman Lee Harvey Oswald. A much-expanded version of this essay, which includes parallels beyond the designated suspects, appears in the new edition of The War Conspiracy.
9/11, Deep State Violence and the Hope of Internet Politics. In this essay, Scott casts 9/11 as one in a series of "deep events" which include the Kennedy assassination and the alleged Tonkin Gulf attacks.
Selected Talks and Essays by Peter Dale Scott

Congress, the Bush Administration and Continuity of Government Planning. This piece in Counterpunch draws attention to National Security Presidential Directive 51, asserting the right of the president to invoke Continuity of Government (COG) plans in the event of a "catastrophic emergency," as defined by the president himself, and shifts authority for these plans from the Dept. of Homeland Security to the White House.

Other Resources
www.peterdalescott.org. Peter Dale Scott's website is continually updated with links to his most recent talks, essays, radio interviews, and congressional appearances.
Press Release
August 5, 2008
The War Conspiracy: JFK, 9/11, & The Deep Politics of War. Mary Ferrell Foundation Press Publishes Updated Classic on the Deep Politics of War.