![]() ![]() He had understood the need for a far-flung American military presence to oppose the murderous tyranny of the Soviet Union. Only after the end of the Cold War did Johnson begin to question the assumptions of the American foreign policy he had served in and out of uniform. He performed consulting work for the CIA where the term “blowback” was used to refer to unintended consequences of government policies. After serving as a naval officer during the Korean War, he earned graduate degrees in political science at Berkeley and became a leading expert on China and Japan at his alma mater. He had believed in America’s anti-communist Cold War mission. In “Blowback,” Johnson described himself as an Eisenhower Republican. ![]() ![]() The “Blowback” series, eventually comprising three volumes, remains a prime source for understanding the motives of American foreign policy in the Trump era and merits a retrospective appreciation.Ī longtime political science professor at the University of California, Berkeley, Johnson was one of that institution’s most publicly visible conservatives during the anti-war protests of the 1960s. Such viewpoints more characteristically come from the left than the right. ( Responsible Statecraft) – It has been nearly ten years since Chalmers Johnson died, and twice that long since the publication of “ Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire.” That Johnson’s condemnation of American imperialism originated in a conservative political and philosophical tradition makes him a somewhat unusual figure. ![]()
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