![]() ![]() 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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