Product Description

The term 'blowback,' invented by the CIA, refers to the unintended results of American actions abroad. In this incisive and controversial book, Chalmers Johnson lays out in vivid detail the dangers faced by our overextended empire, which insists on projecting its military power to every corner of the earth and using American capital and markets to force global economic integration on its own terms. From a case of rape by U.S. servicemen in Okinawa to our role in Asia's financial crisis, from our early support for Saddam Hussein to our conduct in the Balkans, Johnson reveals the ways in which our misguided policies are planting the seeds of future disaster. In a new edition that addresses recent international events from September 11 to the war in Iraq, this now classic book remains as prescient and powerful as ever.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14185 in Books
• Published on: 2004-01-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Amazon.com Review
If the 20th century was the American century, the 21st century may be a time of reckoning for the United States. Chalmers Johnson, an authority on Japan and its economy, offers a troubling prognosis of what's to come. Blowback--the title refers to a CIA neologism describing the unintended consequences of American activity--is a call for the United States to rethink its position in the world. "The evidence is building up that in the decade following the end of the Cold War, the United States largely abandoned a reliance on diplomacy, economic aid, international law, and multilateral institutions in carrying out its foreign policies and resorted much of the time to bluster, military force, and financial manipulation," writes Johnson. "The world is not a safer place as a result." Individual chapters focus on Okinawa (where American servicemen were accused of raping a 12-year-old girl in "Asia's last colony"), the two Koreas, China, and Japan. The result is a liberal-leaning (and Asia-centric) call for the United States to disengage from many of its global commitments. Critics will call Johnson an isolationist, but friends (perhaps admirers of Patrick Buchanan's A Republic, Not an Empire) will say he simply speaks good sense. All will agree he is an earnest voice: "I believe our very hubris ensures our undoing." --John J. Miller

From Publishers Weekly
This no-holds-barred indictment of what Johnson calls the post-Cold War American "global empire" is not for the faint of heart. Among the opening images is a plastic bag containing three pairs of bloodied men's underwear gathered as evidence from the brutal 1995 gang rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan girl by two American marines and an American sailor, a crime that was officially passed off as an aberration but may qualify more accurately as another move in the endgame of, in Johnson's astringent phrase, "stealth imperialism." In his highly critical appraisal of the global U.S. military presence, Johnson, president of the Japan Policy Research Institute and prolific commentator on Japan and Asia, focuses on the effects of "blowback," a term coined by the CIA to denote the unintended consequences of policies that were in many cases kept secret from the American public. From anti-Chinese pogroms carried out by U.S.-trained soldiers in Indonesia to the viciously suppressed 1980 pro-democracy demonstration in Kwangju, South Korea, Johnson examines the fallout from what he sees as American "economic colonialism." Detailed assessments of American engagement in Japan, Korea and China are coupled with closer-to-home observations on the liquidation of American jobs in places such as Birmingham, Ala., and Pittsburgh, the latter yet another consequence of the massive U.S. trade deficit with the countries of East Asia. Brazenly spending ever-swollen defense budgets, Johnson argues, the Pentagon is fueling an "antiglobalization time bomb" that could blow up at any moment. His chilling conclusion--backed by copious and livid detail--is that a nation reaps precisely what it sows. (Apr.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
"Blowback": it's a term coined by the CIA to describe the unforeseen consequences of U.S. foreign policy. Chalmers, president of the Japan Policy Research Institute, here takes us from Okinawa to the Balkans.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Ron Paul on a "hyper-interventionist foreign policy"
"The question [CIA bin Laden expert Michael] Scheuer and I are asking is not who is morally responsible for terrorism - only a fool would place the moral responsibility for terrorism on anyone other than the terrorists themselves. The question we are asking is less doltish and more serious: given that a hyper-interventionist foreign policy is very likely to lead to this kind of blowback, are we still sure we want such a foreign policy?... I have [n]ever said or believed that Americans had it coming on 9/11, or that the attacks were justified, or any of this other nonsense. The point is a simple one: when our government meddles around the world, it can stir up hornets' nests and thereby jeopardize the safety of the American people. That's just common sense. But hardly anyone in our government dares to level with the American people about our fiasco of a foreign policy."

Ron Paul quoted from The Revolution: A Manifesto
Another great book is The Prince (AD Classic)

Informative, Important, Imperfect
I must admit that I nearly set down this book of Chalmers Johnson on reading the prologue. There, Johnson offers praise for committed communist and "old China hand" John Stewart Service. Having previously read M. Stanton Evan's very important "Blacklisted by History", I was familiar enough with Service to know that anyone praising him would have an extraordinary bias in favor of Marxism and communist China. And while this bias does seep through in Johnson's work, it does not entirely diminish it. Finally, I am glad that I continued to read the book. And I feel that I profited from doing do.

Johnson essentially argues that America has created an imperial system that will ultimately unravel of its own weight. In fact, his last two chapters, written, I believe, in the late 1990's are extraordinarily prophetic in this regard. Johnson basically avers that the American empire may finally be brought down through its own inherent economic contradictions. From the perspective of the ending years of the first decade of the 2000's, this judgment is really to be applauded.

Readers ought to be aware that this book deals almost exclusively with American imperial operations in East Asia. There is particular emphasis on Japan and China. In addition, there is much important information revealed relative to Korea, Indonesia, and Taiwan. Here, Johnson's insights are excellent, and extremely valuable. But, even noticing this, we must also point out that many of Johnson's judgments in regard to Japan and China are clearly influenced by the above mentioned association with such as Service, and are really inaccurate. In particular, I can report that, like Johnson, I served as a US Navy officer in Cold War Yokosuka, Japan. From having so served, I can also report that Johnson's description of Yokosuka is very misleading in certain aspects. There was no "brothel exclusively for Navy officers", as Johnson reports, of which I was aware. And, as Police Operations at the Fleet Activity in Yokosuka, I would very likely have been aware of one if it indeed existed. Now, it may be that one did exist in the fifties when Johnson served in Yokusuka. But it almost certainly did not in the seventies.

The writing is generally very good. And the points made are important. Some of the insights could rightly even be styled as extraordinary. However, we can't help but to observe that the overall quality of the book is deeply marred by the evident prejudices of the author, alluded to above. In general, we recommend this book, but with a "grain of salt".

Amazing and informative
I have not finished this book, but after reading the first 20 pages, I learned about the wars and other raids that the United States military were involved in.

For me, I've always questioned the use of our military and our negative look at other countries. This book explains a great deal about the gray areas we don't know about.