About this title: This highly critical report on America's foreign policy sounds a warning call that there may be a price to pay for what the author sees as a long-standing imperiousness by which the United States conducts itself among nations.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Fine Like New, Unread, not previously owned. May show signs of wear including remainder marks or stickers on book or cover. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 268 p. read more
Description: Fine Like New, Unread, not previously owned. May show signs of wear including remainder marks or stickers on book or cover. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 268 p. read more
Description: Fine Like New, Unread, not previously owned. May show signs of wear including remainder marks or stickers on book or cover. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 268 p. read more
Description: Fine Like New, Unread, not previously owned. May show signs of wear including remainder marks or stickers on book or cover. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 268 p. read more
Description: Fine Like New, Unread, not previously owned. May show signs of wear including remainder marks or stickers on book or cover. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 268 p. read more
Description: Fine Like New, Unread, not previously owned. May show signs of wear including remainder marks or stickers on book or cover. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 268 p. read more
Description: Fine Like New, Unread, not previously owned. May show signs of wear including remainder marks or stickers on book or cover. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 268 p. read more
Description: Fine Like New, Unread, not previously owned. May show signs of wear including remainder marks or stickers on book or cover. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 268 p. read more
Description: Fine Like New, Unread, not previously owned. May show signs of wear including remainder marks or stickers on book or cover. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 268 p. read more
Description: Fine Like New, Unread, not previously owned. May show signs of wear including remainder marks or stickers on book or cover. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 268 p. read more
Description: Fine Like New, Unread, not previously owned. May show signs of wear including remainder marks or stickers on book or cover. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 268 p. read more
Description: Fine Like New, Unread, not previously owned. May show signs of wear including remainder marks or stickers on book or cover. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 268 p. read more
Description: Fine Like New, Unread, not previously owned. May show signs of wear including remainder marks or stickers on book or cover. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 268 p. read more
Description: Fine Like New, Unread, not previously owned. May show signs of wear including remainder marks or stickers on book or cover. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 268 p. read more
Description: Fine Like New, Unread, not previously owned. May show signs of wear including remainder marks or stickers on book or cover. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 268 p. read more
Description: Fine Like New, Unread, not previously owned. May show signs of wear including remainder marks or stickers on book or cover. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 268 p. read more
Description: Fine Like New, Unread, not previously owned. May show signs of wear including remainder marks or stickers on book or cover. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 268 p. read more
Description: Fine Like New, Unread, not previously owned. May show signs of wear including remainder marks or stickers on book or cover. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 268 p. read more
Description: Fine Like New, Unread, not previously owned. May show signs of wear including remainder marks or stickers on book or cover. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 268 p. read more
Description: Fine Like New, Unread, not previously owned. May show signs of wear including remainder marks or stickers on book or cover. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 268 p. read more
Description: Fine Like New, Unread, not previously owned. May show signs of wear including remainder marks or stickers on book or cover. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 268 p. read more
Description: Fine Like New, Unread, not previously owned. May show signs of wear including remainder marks or stickers on book or cover. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 268 p. read more
Description: Fine Like New, Unread, not previously owned. May show signs of wear including remainder marks or stickers on book or cover. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 268 p. read more
Description: Fine Like New, Unread, not previously owned. May show signs of wear including remainder marks or stickers on book or cover. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 268 p. read more
Edition: First Printing
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Owl Book / Henry Holt and Company, New York, N.Y.
Date published: 2000
ISBN-13:9780805062397ISBN:0805062394
Description: Good. G trade paperback, shelf wear to cover edges, cover edges curled, page edges starting to yellow, text clean. read more
"Blowback, according to author Chalmers Johnson, is a term invented by the CIA to (page ix) ". . .describe the likelihood that our covert operations in other people's countries could result in retaliation against Americans, civilian and military, at home and abroad." At another point, he notes that (page xi) ". . .blowback is another way of saying that a nation sows what it reaps." It results in unintended consequences of actions.
This is an angry book, with Johnson not pretending to take an academic perspective or a neutral analytical viewpoint. One simple example: The United States provided assistance to the resistance in Afghanistan against the old Soviet Union. One of the beneficiaries was Osama bin Laden. The result (page xiv):
It was only after the Russians had bombed Afghanistan back to the stone age and suffered a Vietnam-like defeat, and the United States had walked away from the death and destruction the CIA had helped cause, that Osama bin Laden turned against his American supporters.
Blowback. We supported--and then abandoned the resistance; according to Johnson, this led to blowback later on.
The book examines a number of instances of what Johnson considers blowback--Okinawa, North and South Korea, China, Indonesia, Japan, and so on. The reader may not be fully convinced of one or another of these examples. He also noted, on page 26, the variety of dictators that the United States has supported to achieve foreign policy goals and, in the process, often angering local populations and producing negative effects for American goals.
In the concluding section, he says (page 217): ". . .the evidence is building 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 resported much of the time to bluster, military force, and financial manipulation." The end result? "The world is not a safer place as a result" (page 217). He argued that the United States has become an empire and is in danger of "imperial overreach."
All in all, this is an angry book. Johnson does not always successfully connect the dots; not all of his examples necessarily prove convincing. Nonetheless, this is a thought-provoking discussion."
"Johnson argues that America used aggressive means in counter-balancing Soviet power during the Cold War, but the economic and militaristic imperialism did not end with the Cold War. America's imperialism has brought blowback, what he describes as unintended consequences of American policies.
Johnson focuses on East Asia--primarily China, Japan, and Korea and America's relationships with them since the end of WWII. He ascribes the 1997 economic collapse in Asia directly to American policies. He then anticipates future blowback for America's policies in the East.
I learned a great deal about East Asia through this book. For those that are interested in the subject, this seems like a worthwhile book."
"A wonderful look at America's recent foreign policy in Southwest Asia. This book poses the question "Why do we have over 100,000 troops in Japan and Korea?" and answers it: There is no reason. Why is our defense budget almost $270 billion a year (2000 numbers)? Guess who has the next biggest military budget? Japan... at $47 billion, which dwarfs China's military budget, which is about $30 billion. Of course all of these numbers have increased over the years, especially with the onset of the "War on Terror". But it really makes you think: "What are we doing? Why are we spending so much money to get so little in return?" Perhaps our security would increase through treating others with respect and leading by example rather than strong arm deplomacy, only using force when necessary to prevent human rights violations""
"An amazing history of America's involvement in Southeast Asia with all its associated consequences from social, culutral, political, military, economical, financial and human rights aspects.
Again, it is another piece of outstanding written material that tragically paints a trajectory for the Empire of the age that is most unfortunate due to the loss of the Dream of the Founding fathers of America. Once again the power of the military-industrial complex( warned against by many including President Eisenhower) is highlighted as having taking over the government of the USA and its foreign policies."
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