Blowback, Second Edition: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire

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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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.

E840.J63 2000

99- 047713

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

CONTENTS

Introduction: After 9/11

Prologue: A Spear-Carrier for Empire

1.     Blowback

2.     Okinawa: Asia’s Last Colony

3.     Stealth Imperialism

4.     South Korea: Legacy of the Cold War

5.     North Korea: Endgame of the Cold War

6.     China: The State of the Revolution

7.     China: Foreign Policy, Human Rights, and Trade

8.     Japan and the Economics of the American Empire

9.     Meltdown

10.     The Consequences of Empire

Further Reading

Notes

Index

INTRODUCTION:

AFTER 9/11

In a speech to Congress on September 20, 2001, shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, President George W. Bush posed this question: “Why do they hate us?” His answer: “They hate our freedoms—our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote.” He commented later that he was amazed “that there’s such misunderstanding of what our country is about that people would hate us. . . . I just can’t believe it because I know how good we are.”

But how “good” are we, really? If we’re so good, why do we inspire such hatred abroad? What have we done to bring so much “blowback” upon ourselves?

This book is a guide to some of the policies during and after the Cold War that generated, and continue to