Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire

Front Cover
Macmillan, Mar 14, 2000 - Law - 268 pages
An explosive account of the resentments American policies are sowing around the world and of the payback that will be our harvest in the twenty-first century.

Blowback, a term invented by the CIA, refers to the uninted consequences of American policies. In this sure-to-be-controversial book, Chalmers Johnson lays out in vivid detail the dangers faced by our overexted 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 actions in the Balkans, Johnson reveals the ways in which our misguided policies are planting the seeds of future disaster.

In the wake of the Cold War, the United States has imprudently expanded the commitments it made over the previous forty years, argues Johnson. In Blowback, he issues a warning we would do well to consider: it is time for our empire to demobilize before our bills come due.
 

Contents

1 Blowback
3
2 Okinawa Asias Last Colony
34
3 Stealth Imperialism
65
4 South Korea Legacy of the Cold War
95
5 North Korea Endgame of the Cold War
119
6 China The State of the Revolution
137
7 China Foreign Policy Human Rights and Trade
157
8 Japan and the Economics of the American Empire
175
9 Meltdown
193
10 The Consequences of Empire
216
Further Reading
231
Notes
239
Index
253
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About the author (2000)

Chalmers Johnson, president of the Japan Policy Research Institute & professor emeritus at the University of California, San Diego, has written numerous books on Japan & Asia including his classic "Miti & the Japanese Miracle" & "Japan: Who Governs?" He lives near San Diego.