Blowback (Paperback)

Johnson is most interesting because of his background. As he recounts in the beginning of this book, he was originally an academic Cold warrior who felt that his work could contribute to the fight against Communism. Now he feels that those early sentiments were incorrect, he believes US "imperial" impulses were (and are) far more destructive in the long term.

If you read this book with an already sceptical view of American foreign policy you will find it far more informative than knee-jerk leftist polemics. Even those who firmly support US aims and ambitions may find these arguments compelling.

On the military front, the US population forgot G. Washington’s warning: ‘avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments, which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to Republican Liberty.’
The US intelligence and military establishment is close to being beyond civilian control and becoming an autonomous system, whose colossal budget with its juicy cost-plus contracts is only controlled by vested ideological and financial interests. This book shows clearly that US presidents, like Carter or Clinton, had not the power to oppose the Pentagon’s designs: perpetuate and develop the Cold War structures in order to consolidate its power. The ends justify all means as numerous intelligence or military interventions in the world show, which sponsored dictatorships, genocidal campaigns, war crimes, state terrorism and paramilitary death-squads. 90 % of all US weapons were sold, not to democracies, but to human right abusers.

On the economic front, globalization US style provoked economic disasters in South-Asia and South-America, throwing millions of people into poverty. However the US still urged its ‘allies’ to buy weapons! This kind of globalization, which provoked still more economic inequality, will not be forgotten for a long time (see W. Bello: Dilemmas of Domination.).
By overstretching its financial means (weapon systems are profligate economic waste), the US risks a long lasting downfall of the dollar.
The US and its population need an industrial not a military or intelligence policy, because a new rival hegemon points at the horizon: China, which will be the superpower of the 21st century. China will not be contained. The US will have to adjust to it.

In a world of hypocritical and gagged media, Chalmers Johnson’s much needed voice proposes human solutions for the world’s problems: ‘bring most overseas land-based forces home and reorient foreign policy to stress leadership through example, economic aid, international law, multilateral institutions and diplomacy, instead of military intervention, economic bullying or financial manipulation.’

With its surprising comparisons, Chalmers Johnson sent a solid warning to the actual US establishment. A nation reaps what its sows. The blowback could be horrendous.

This book is a must read.