Our Man in Mexico: Winston Scott and the Hidden History of the CIA

There's a lot of CIA history in this book going back to the OSS during World War II. A lot of the founding members of the CIA come up in this book.Cuba and Fidel Castro come up a lot in relation to the JFK mystery. And as Mr. Morley's book explains to understand what the CIA was trying to do in Cuba it is helpful to understand what they had already done to destroy a democracy in Guatemala. And unfortunately for the CIA Fidel Castro and Che Guevara did understand what the Agency did in Guatemala.The CIA station in Mexico City is a very important subject for the JFK mystery. The reason for that is Lee Oswald allegedly went to Mexico City and tried to get a passport to travel to Cuba. But there are many unanswered questions about whether it really was Lee Oswald who went to the Cuban and Soviet embassies in Mexico City. The evil FBI director J. Edgar Hoover is on the record telling the equally evil Lyndon Johnson that somebody was impersonating Oswald in Mexico City.Judyth Baker surfaced after many years to reveal that she met and fell in love with Lee Oswald during that fateful summer of 1963 in New Orleans. Judyth says that Lee did travel to Mexico City to deliver an injectable form of cancer that they were going to use on Fidel Castro. But when Lee's contact in Mexico didn't show up the astute Oswald realized something was wrong. In his book called Oswald And The CIA author John M. Newman reveals the true reason why they sent Lee Oswald to Mexico City.Three sinister CIA figures that come up a lot in the JFK case are Allen Dulles, James Angleton, and David Atlee Phillips. After he left the CIA Phillips wrote an unpublished memoir where he suggests that the CIA trained Oswald as an assassin and tried to send him to Cuba to assassinate Castro. But Oswald double crossed the Agency and killed JFK instead. David Atlee Phillips continued to tell lies right up until he drew his dying breath.Win Scott was a very high ranking and senior person in what became one of the most diabolical intelligence agencies on Earth. As such Win Scott became another cog in this wheel of deceit and dirty tricks, sometimes willingly, sometimes unwittingly. It just came with the job. People tried to warn presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy to reign in this multi headed hydra before it was too late.In my opinion this is not the best book for new JFK researchers. The first three books I'm listing below provide a general overview of the JFK mystery. Fletcher Prouty's JFK also explains how devious and deceitful the CIA had become during John Kennedy's abbreviated presidency. New researchers may want to read one of those first before reading this one by Mr. Morley. I think they will probably get more out of it.As I recall the following quote appears at the end of David Talbot's Allen Dulles expose called The Devil's Chessboard:[Fundamentally, the founding fathers of U.S. intelligence were liars. The better you lied and the more you betrayed, the more likely you would be promoted. These people attracted and promoted each other. Outside of their duplicity the only thing they had in common was a desire for absolute power.I did things that, in looking back on my life, I regret. But I was part of it and I loved being in it.Allen Dulles, Richard Helms, Carmel Offie, and Frank Wisner were the grand masters. If you were in a room with them you were in a room full of people that you had to believe would deservedly end up in Hell.I guess I will see them there soon.]- James Jesus Angleton (CIA Counterintelligence Chief) Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years JFK: The CIA, Vietnam, and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy A Deeper, Darker Truth: Tom Wilson's Journey into the Assassination of John F. Kennedy Me & Lee: How I Came to Know, Love and Lose Lee Harvey Oswald Mary's Mosaic: The CIA Conspiracy to Murder John F. Kennedy, Mary Pinchot Meyer, and Their Vision for World Peace: Third Edition The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ 2: Countdown to Darkness: The Assassination of President Kennedy Volume II (Volume 2) Trained to Kill: The Inside Story of CIA Plots against Castro, Kennedy, and Che

Philip Shenon's recent "A Cruel and Shocking Act" prompted this reader to learn more about Win Scott, whose amazing career spanned early OSS days to 1970, his most important posting being CIA Chief in Mexico City.As a key player notes, Scott's nature, actions (and inactions) only acquire true appreciation when evaluated in the context of those turbulent Cold War days. Mexico City was Ground Zero for North and South American espionage of key powers. For the US, it was our only look into Cuba. By the time Lee Oswald visited in Sept/Oct 1963, the Bay of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis were fresh and, in the case of the former, a black eye for the CIA. Scott's actions reporting on that visit, before and after Dallas, are troubling in their own regard. Morley conveys the ultimate "good soldier" who wanted to do his job splendidly but who acquiesced promptly to gag orders from his Langley superiors. Mr. Morley's account here makes a nice sidebar to Shenon's.But there is so much more to Scott's story--which is also the story of a son wishing to know more about his enigmatic, accomplished father. The research is meticulous. A helpful "cast of characters" appears at the end. The sourcing is good. It must be very difficult to try to tell a life when by definition that life was led deliberately in deception, half-truth, innuendo. What's more, Scott's "memoir" is far from untroubled--and not even accessible in full.Winston Scott was a good and loving father to his children and step-children. His marital life, though, was unenviable. So much to compartmentalize. It is good to read a biography of a deeply-flawed person who left indelible marks on history.

The role of the CIA in Latin America is somewhat known but only to the extent that excellent scholars and journalists fight to get the records and testimonies that show how deep and disturbing their role has been and continues to be. The period covered in this book is the 1960s- early 1970s. More books have been written that cover the period following. For anyone interested in US-Mexico relations and in the role of US intelligence in shaping events and outcomes in the hemisphere, this book should be very helpful.

One of the most mysterious aspects of the Kennedy assassination and it's investigatory aftermath is what actually transpired in the Mexico City CIA Station while Oswald was in Mexico City and what the station did or didn't do during the investigation. This sheds a lot of light on one of the edgiest outstations of the CIA in that time period. The author did a lot of research and dug deep. He discovered some intriguing things but, as is usually the case, he can't definitively reach a conclusion one way or another. Still, a fascinating read.

Journalist Jefferson Morley has done an incredible job detailing the life of Winston Scott. I literally could not put the book down, it was written like a detective story. He covers ground on Lee Harvey Oswald and the JFK assassination mystery.But the most important is his analysis of Scott's involvement in Mexican politics. Morley was the researcher who declassified the documents proving how at least three Mexican presidents were paid CIA agents. These were Mateos, Ordaz and Echeverria. The relationship between Scott and the paid Mexican agents went so deep that Mateos and Scott had breakfast every Sunday and Mateos even became Scott's godfather! On one occasion Diaz Ordaz misheard Scott and stood up at Scott's command, believing him to have said "stand up" when in reality he meant "stop, speak slower". An incredible insight into how Washington has managed to continue interfering in Mexican politics.

Looking specifically for details about Oswald's activities in Mexico within two months of the JFK assassination but not a lot in this book about it. Should have had more details about CIA activities originating out of Mexico City and less about Scott's personal love life.

El producto llegó en buenas condiciones y rápido, una novela interesante sobre un hecho real