Blowback: the costs and consequences of American empire

284 Pages·2000·1.37 MB·English

by  Chalmers A. Johnson

“The 1990s were kind to the ‘indispensable nation,’ as Madeline Albright has
called it. But, as Chalmers Johnson argues in this vital and engaging book, the
halcyon days of American ascendancy cannot last: sooner or later, the stock
market will fall, a counterbalancing force will emerge, or Washington will be
unable to win a war without committing masses of ground troops, something for
which the American body politic is utterly unprepared. Then all the latent
contradictions in the American global position will emerge. When that happens
—and it will—this honest, deeply learned, courageous, provocative, and witty
man, Chalmers Johnson, will be your guide. Get hold of this prescient book and
keep it for that rainy day.”
—Bruce Cumings, author of The Origins of the Korean War
“This eye-opening account of U.S. imperialist relations in Asia is stunning,
disturbing, and very important. Chalmers Johnson warns that our present
national security arrangements are mobilizing enemies around the world.”
—Richard J. Barnet, coauthor of Global Dreams
“Blowback is a powerful warning that the ‘only superpower’ complex is driving
the United States into increasingly dangerous conflict with key countries
throughout the world. Demolishing the argument that the United States is
drifting into a new isolationism, Chalmers Johnson shows that American foreign
policy is, in reality, more committed than ever to military intervention abroad
and to the perpetuation of obsolete military alliances on terms incompatible with
U.S. economic interests. This is original, hard-hitting ‘must’ reading for all those
interested in the future U.S. global role.”
—Selig S. Harrison, author of The Widening Gulf: Asian
Nationalism and American Policy
“This brilliant dissection of the security, political, and economic relationships
between the United States and Asia offers indispensable reading for anyone
interested in the political economy of America’s role in world affairs in the
twenty-first century.”
—Glen S. Fukushima, president, American Chamber of Commerce in Japan
“Chalmers Johnson, the brilliant and iconoclastic scholar of China, Japan and the
rest of East Asia, has in Blowback written a brilliant and iconoclastic assault on
American foreign policy since the end of the Cold War.”
—Anthony Day, Los Angeles Times
“Johnson is on to something. . . . It is indeed a new post-Cold War ballgame, and
Johnson’s warning of blowback, if it were heeded in Washington, would help
keep America safe from the temptation of untrammeled power.”
—James P. Pinkerton, Newsday
Also by Chalmers Johnson

Peasant Nationalism and Communist Power:
The Emergence of Revolutionary China, 1937-1945
Revolution and the Social System
An Instance of Treason:
Ozaki Hotsumi and the Sorge Spy Ring
Revolutionary Change
Change in Communist Systems
(editor and contributor)
Conspiracy at Matsukawa
Ideology and Politics in Contemporary China
(editor)
Autopsy on People’s War
Japan’s Public Policy Companies
MITI and the Japanse Miracle:
The Growth of Industrial Policy, 1925-1975
The Industrial Policy Debate
(editor and contributor)
Politics and Productivity:
How Japan’s Development Strategy Works
(with Laura Tyson and John Zysman)
Japan: Who Governs?
The Rise of the Developmental State
BLOWBACK
BLOWBACK
THE
COSTS AND
CONSEQUENCES
OF AMERICAN
EMPIRE
CHALMERS JOHNSON
A Holt Paperback
Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt and Company New York
Holt Paperbacks
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Henry Holt and Company, LLC.
Copyright © 2000 by Chalmers Johnson
Introduction copyright © 2004 by Chalmers Johnson
All rights reserved.
Distributed in Canada by H. B. Fenn and Company Ltd.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Johnson, Chalmers A.
Blowback : the costs and consequences of American empire/
Chalmers Johnson.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8050-7559-5
ISBN-10: 0-8050-7559-3
1. United States—Foreign relations-1989– 2. United States—Military
policy. 3. United States—Foreign relations—Asia. 4. Asia—Foreign
relations—United States. 5. Intervention (International law) 6. Imperialism
—United States—History—20th century. I. Title.
99-047713
E840.J63 2000
327.73—dc21
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Originally published in hardcover in 2000 by Metropolitan Books First Holt
Paperbacks Edition 2001
Reissued 2004
Designed by Michelle McMillian
Printed in the United States of America 9 10 8