Peter Dale Scott (born 11 January 1929) is a Canadian poet, academic, and former diplomat. A son of the Canadian poet and constitutional lawyer F. R. Scott and painter Marian Dale Scott, he is best known for his critiques of deep politics and

American foreign policy The officially stated goals of the foreign policy of the United States of America, including all the bureaus and offices in the United States Department of State, as mentioned in the ''Foreign Policy Agenda'' of the Department of State, are ...

since the era of the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

. Notably, he was a signatory in 1968 of the "

Writers and Editors War Tax Protest Tax resistance, the practice of refusing to pay taxes that are considered unjust, has probably existed ever since rulers began imposing taxes on their subjects. It has been suggested that tax resistance played a significant role in the collapse o ...

" pledge, in which participants vowed to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War. Although trained as a political scientist, Scott holds an atypical academic appointment as a poet-scholar in an English department.

Academic and diplomatic career

After receiving undergraduate degrees in

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

(first-class honours) and

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

(second-class honours) from

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

in 1949, he studied at the

Institut d'Etudes politiques An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

(France, 1949) and

University College, Oxford University College, formally The Master and Fellows of the College of the Great Hall of the University commonly called University College in the University of Oxford and colloquially referred to as "Univ", is a Colleges of the University of Oxf ...

(1950-1952) before receiving a Ph.D. in political science from McGill (with a dissertation on the social and political philosophy of T. S. Eliot) in 1955. He briefly taught in McGill's political science department and spent four years (1957–1961) with the Canadian diplomatic service before joining the speech department of the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

as a lecturer in 1961. He was subsequently promoted to assistant professor of speech (1962), associate professor of English (1968), and professor of English (1980); since his nominal retirement in 1994, he is

professor emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

of English.

Literary works

In terms of poetry, he is best known for his book-length

epic poem In poetry, an epic is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. With regard to ...

''Coming to Jakarta'' (subtitled "a poem about terror"), which describes in measured, prosodically regular verse the 1965 crisis in Indonesia that resulted in the Indonesian Civil War and the deaths of as many as half a million people, in which the CIA played a decisive role. Scott is far from a stridently political poet, working always to connect the polemical to the personal. In ''Coming to Jakarta'' he writes: :To have learnt from terror
to see oneself
as part of the enemy :can be a reassurance In the context of this emotional and psychological side of conflict, Scott alternates between descriptions of his own life—"dressed up in polished / gaiters with a buttonhook"—and the massive violence of his principal subject. Somewhere between confessional and scholarly, his poems often contain citations in the margins. Scott has described the book-length ''Minding the Darkness'' (2000) as his most important poetic work, though he concedes that "Like other long poems by older men...it toys dangerously with abstract didactic principles." The work is intended as the culmination of a trilogy (also including ''Listening to the Candle''

992 Year 992 ( CMXCII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Worldwide * Winter – A superflare from the sun causes an Aurora Borealis, with visibility as far south as Germany and Korea. Euro ...

of which ''Coming to Jakarta'' was the inception. His poetry has been translated into Indonesian,

Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian ( / ), also known as Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS), is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is a pluricentric language with four mutually i ...

, and Hungarian.

Contemporary politics

Scott has written about the role of the

deep state Deep state is a term used for (real or imagined) potential, unauthorized and often secret networks of power operating independently of a State (polity), state's political leadership in pursuit of their own agendas and goals. Although the term ori ...

(as opposed to the public state). Rejecting the label of "

conspiracy theory A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful sinister groups, often political in motivation), when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * ...

", he has used the phrase "deep politics" to describe his political concerns. His interest in

contemporary history Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from about 1945 to the present. In the social sciences, contemporary history is also continuous with, and related t ...

has spilled over into his works of poetry, some of which must contain marginal notes to explain to readers which documents or real-world news events are being referred to. His book, ''The Road to 9/11'' (2007), deals with

geopolitical Geopolitics () is the study of the effects of Earth's geography on politics and international relations. Geopolitics usually refers to countries and relations between them, it may also focus on two other kinds of states: ''de facto'' independen ...

context of events leading to 9/11, and argues "how U.S. foreign policy since the 1960s has led to partial or total cover-ups of past domestic criminal acts, including, perhaps, the catastrophe of 9/11." His books ''The Road to 9/11'' and ''American War Machine'' are available in French under the titles ''La Route vers le Nouveau Désordre Mondial'' and ''La Machine de Guerre Américaine''. The latter was reviewed in March 2011 by Bernard Norlain, a retired French five-star

General of the Air Force General of the Air Force (GAF) is a five-star general officer rank and is the highest possible rank in the United States Air Force. General of the Air Force ranks immediately above a general and is equivalent to General of the Army in the Unit ...

. In all, his books have been translated into French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and Indonesian. His articles have been translated into 16 languages, including Turkish, Arabic, Persian, Chinese, and Japanese. An aspect of Scott's work that combines both his investigating interests and his poetry is illustrated by ''The Global Drug Meta-Group: Drugs, Managed Violence, and the Russian 9/11''.

Books

''The War Conspiracy''

In 1972, Bobbs-Merrill Company published Scott's book ''The War Conspiracy'', which lays out Scott's theories of why the United States went to war in Vietnam. ''Kirkus Reviews'' said ''War Conspiracy'' is "undoubtedly one of the most important overviews to date of the subterranean reaches of the U.S. intelligence machine in Southeast Asia."

''Deep Politics and the Death of JFK''

Scott's book ''Deep Politics and the Death of JFK'' was published in 1993 by the

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...

. Promotional reviews of the book were provided by Bruce Cumings, Gaeton Fonzi, and

Oliver Stone William Oliver Stone (born ) is an American filmmaker. Stone is an acclaimed director, tackling subjects ranging from the Vietnam War and American politics to musical film, musical Biographical film, biopics and Crime film, crime dramas. He has ...

. ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, no ...

'' called the book a " aggeringly well-researched and intelligent overview not only of the JFK assassination but also of the rise of forces undermining American democracy". The ''Kirkus'' review also described the book as a "kind of

Rosetta stone The Rosetta Stone is a stele of granodiorite inscribed with three versions of a Rosetta Stone decree, decree issued in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty of ancient Egypt, Egypt, on behalf of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The top and middle texts ...

for cracking open the deepest darkness in American politics." ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'' said that Scott's "thoughtful, extremely (and sometimes excessively) detailed book promises more than it actually delivers" and that "the 'facts' on which he relies are often the result of other people's not necessarily accurate reporting". According to ''PW'', " e book's most useful feature is a careful discussion of how U.S. Vietnam policy changed abruptly after Kennedy's death." In a 2004 review for '' The Wilson Quarterly'', Max Holland, recipient of a Studies in Intelligence Award from the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

, wrote that "''Deep Politics'' is an unreadable compendium of 'may haves' and 'might haves,' non sequiturs, and McCarthy-style

innuendo An innuendo is a wikt:hint, hint, wikt:insinuation, insinuation or wikt:intimation, intimation about a person or thing, especially of a denigrating or derogatory nature. It can also be a remark or question, typically disparaging (also called in ...

, with enough documentation to satisfy any paranoid." Shortly thereafter, Holland reiterated similar comments in a second piece written for '' Reviews in American History'' and criticized the University of California Press' editorial committee for approving the publication of the book: "This peer approval by a major university press illustrates the boundless and utter disbelief in the Warren Report that exists even in the highest reaches of the academy, and it also reveals the gross inattention given to the subject by serious historians." Scott responded to Holland with a letter to the editor, stating: "I was disappointed to see those who have published me attacked vigorously for doing so by a major historical journal. I continue to believe that it is the job of the academy to open minds, not to close them." Scott observed that it is "gross intellectual cowardice to allege or imply falsehoods without supporting this accusation", and that "One might have thought in a 19-page attack... there would be at least a paragraph dealing with what I had actually written." He added that, "Holland demonstrates at the outset that he has done no basic research on Oswald, whom he believes to be the only important person in the case." In 2013, former ''

Salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon A beauty salon or beauty parlor is an establishment that provides Cosmetics, cosmetic treatments for people. Other variations of this type of business include hair salons, spas, day spas, ...

'' editor-in-chief David Talbot included ''Deep Politics'' in his list of top seven "best books on the subject", describing the work as a "masterpiece, a meticulously detailed examination of the deep network of power that underlies the events in Dallas.... filled with provocative

insight Insight is the understanding of a specific causality, cause and effect within a particular context. The term insight can have several related meanings: *a piece of information *the act or result of understanding the inner nature of things or of se ...

s about how the upper circles of U.S. power actually operate."

''American War Machine''

Of Scott's book, ''American War Machine: Deep Politics, the CIA Global Drug Connection, and the Road to Afghanistan'' (2010), whistleblower

Daniel Ellsberg Daniel Ellsberg (April 7, 1931June 16, 2023) was an American political activist, economist, and United States military analyst. While employed by the RAND Corporation, he precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released th ...

remarked: "I said of Scott's last brilliant take on this subject, ''Drugs, Oil and War'', that 'It makes most academic and journalistic explanations of our past and current interventions read like government propaganda written for children.' Now Scott has written an even better book. Read it!"

Bibliography

Non-fiction books

* ''The war conspiracy; the secret road to the second Indochina war''. New York: Bobbs-Merrill (1972). . . * ''The Assassinations: Dallas and Beyond—A Guide to Cover-Ups and Investigations''. New York:

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

(1976). . . *''Crime and Cover-Up: The CIA, the Mafia, and the Dallas-Watergate Connection'' (1977). . * ''The Iran-Contra Connection: Secret Teams and Covert Operations in Reagan Era''. Boston:

South End Press South End Press was a non-profit book publisher run on a model of participatory economics. It was founded in 1977 in Boston's South End. It published books written by political activists, notably Arundhati Roy, Noam Chomsky, bell hooks, Win ...

(1987). . .
''Cocaine Politics: Drugs, Armies, and the CIA in Central America''
with Jonathan Marshall. Berkeley, Calif.:

(1991). . *''Deep Politics and the Death of JFK''. Berkeley, Calif.:

(1993). . *''Deep Politics II: The New Revelations in U.S. Government Files, 1994-1995: Essays on Oswald, Mexico, and Cuba''. JFK Lancer Publications (1995). . *''Oswald, Mexico, and Deep Politics: Revelations from CIA Records on the Assassination of JFK''. New York:

Skyhorse Publishing Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. is an American independent book publishing company founded in 2006 and headquartered in New York City, with a satellite office in Brattleboro, Vermont. History The current president and publisher is founder Tony Ly ...

(1995). .
''Drugs, Oil, and War: The United States in Afghanistan, Colombia, and Indochina''
Lanham, MD:

Rowman & Littlefield Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group is an American independent academic publishing company founded in 1949. Under several imprints, the company offers scholarly books for the academic market, as well as trade books. The company also owns ...

(2003). . *''The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire and the Future of America''. Berkeley, Calif.:

(2007).
Glossary.
*''American War Machine: Deep Politics, the CIA Global Drug Connection, and the Road to Afghanistan''. Lanham, MD:

(2010). . *''The War Conspiracy: JFK, 9/11, and the Deep Politics of War'' (2013) *''The American Deep State: Wall Street, Big Oil, and the Attack on U.S. Democracy''. Lanham, MD:

(2014). . *''Dallas '63: The First Deep State Revolt Against The White House''. (Forbidden Bookshelf Series). New York: Open Road Media (2015). *''Poetry and Terror: Politics and Poetics in Coming to Jakarta'', with Freeman Ng. Lanham, MD:

Lexington Books Bloomsbury Publishing plc is a British worldwide publishing house of fiction and non-fiction. Bloomsbury's head office is located on Bedford Square in Bloomsbury, an area of the London Borough of Camden. It has a US publishing office located in ...

(Sep. 2018). . * ''Ecstatic Pessimist: Czeslaw Milosz, Poet of Catastrophe and Hope''. Lanham, MD:

(Mar. 2023). Book contributions
Introduction
to ''Accessories After the Fact: The Warren Commission, the Authorities & the Report on the JFK Assassination'', by Sylvia Meagher (1976). . *

Introduction Introduction, The Introduction, Intro, or The Intro may refer to: General use * Introduction (music), an opening section of a piece of music * Introduction (writing), a beginning section to a book, article or essay which states its purpose and g ...

to ''The Great Heroin Coup: Drugs, Intelligence, & International Fascism'', by Henrik Krüger. Boston, Mass.:

(1980). Edited by Jonathan Marshall. Translated by Jerry Meldon. . ** Originally published in Danish as ''Smukke Serge og Heroinen''.
"The U.S. Establishment and Al Qaeda".
In: ''Haditha Ethics — From Iraq to Iran?'', pp. 26-39.

Political articles

* "Vietnam: The Importance of January." ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper ...

'', vol. 204, no. 3 (January 16, 1967), pp. 74-77.
"Air America: Flying the U.S. Into Laos."
'' Ramparts'' (February 1970).
"Tying up loose end in Dallas."
''Pacific Sun'' (September 12-18, 1975), pp. 12, 14. Pacific News Service.
"From Dallas to Watergate: The Longest Cover-Up."
'' Ramparts'' (November 1973).
"Was Oswald One of Castros Terrorists?: The Oswald-Castro Connection."
''

Los Angeles Free Press The ''Los Angeles Free Press'', also called the "''Freep''", is often cited as the first, and certainly was the largest, of the underground newspapers of the 1960s. The ''Freep'' was founded in 1964 by Art Kunkin, who served as its publisher un ...

'' (June 11, 1976), pp. -47. * "Contragate: Reagan, Foreign Money, and the Contra Deal." ''Crime and Social Justice'', vol. 27/28 (1987), pp. 126-161.
"Noriega: Our Man in Panama."
''

Convergence Convergence may refer to: Arts and media Literature *''Convergence'' (book series), edited by Ruth Nanda Anshen *Convergence (comics), "Convergence" (comics), two separate story lines published by DC Comics: **A four-part crossover storyline that ...

Poetry

*''Fantasy Poets'', No. 6. 1952. *''Prepositions of Jet Travel''. 1981. *''Rumors of No Law: Poems from Berkeley, 1968-1977''. 1981. *''Heart's Field''. 1986. *''Coming to Jakarta: A Poem About Terror''. 1989. *''Listening to the Candle: A Poem on Impulse''. 1992. *''Crossing Borders: Selected Shorter Poems''. 1994. *''Minding the Darkness: A Poem for the Year 2000''. 2000. *''Mosaic Orpheus''. 2009. *''Tilting Point''. 2012. *''Walking on Darkness''. 2016. *''Dreamcraft''. 2024.

Poetry and politics

*''Poetry and Terror: Politics and Poetics in Coming to Jakarta''. 2018.

Interviews

"Spooks, Planes, and Heroin: Keys to Escalation in Indochina."
(June 30, 1972). New York:

WBAI WBAI (99.5 FM) is a non-commercial, listener-supported radio station licensed to New York, New York. Its programming is a mixture of political news, talk and opinion from a left-leaning, liberal or progressive viewpoint, and eclectic musi ...

. Interview by Nick Egleson.
"A Conversation with Professor Peter Dale Scott"
(February 1985). England: ''

Lobster Lobsters are Malacostraca, malacostracans Decapoda, decapod crustaceans of the family (biology), family Nephropidae or its Synonym (taxonomy), synonym Homaridae. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on th ...

'', no. 7. pp. 1-12. Edited by Robin Ramsey
Full issue.

Filmography

Video

"Spooks, Planes, and Heroin: Keys to Escalation in Indochina."
(June 30, 1972). Interviewed by Nick Egleson for

. Pacifica Radio Archives.

References

External links

*
Official bibliography

Deep politics discussion forum and video channel

Five poems
in '' Jacket Magazine''
Interview
in '' Words Without Borders''
Interview
in ''Electric Politics'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Scott, Peter Dale 20th-century Canadian non-fiction writers 21st-century Canadian non-fiction writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers Canadian political writers American political writers American foreign policy writers Criticism of United States foreign policy Historians of the Vietnam War Historians of the Central Intelligence Agency Researchers of the assassination of John F. Kennedy Deep politics Iran–Contra affair Illegal drug trade Writers from the San Francisco Bay Area Canadian expatriate writers in the United States Anti–Vietnam War activists American tax resisters 20th-century Canadian poets Canadian male poets Poets from California English-language poets University of California, Berkeley faculty McGill University alumni 1929 births Living people