Chalmers Johnson
This book came out in 2000, post-cold-war era. Johnson gets his information from 1940s-1950s era service overseas mostly in Japan and China. He learned their languages, history and culture, using this knowledge freely in his writing. He transferred from Japan to China because of more money to be made. Due to time served overseas, Johnson admits his shortcomings about American domestic affairs, being overseas most of his military career. He follows the American definitions of both countries in his analysis, having nothing else to go by. Japan is viewed as a democracy and China with its cultural revoluton is of the Communist bloc. Johnson's father and two cousins served. The Johnsons took it for granted their men would serve in the navy. Viet Nam-era colleges were hotbeds for radical politics. Students read and quoted Mao's Little Red Book and others like it. China sought to avoid conflict with the Soviet Union by opening relations with the devil himself - imperialist United States.
Nixon's 1972 visit turned the public on to Chinese acupuncture, the Great Wall, pandas and other icons of Chinese culture. At this time the U S was at war with Viet Nam. Students everywhere dissatisfied with the present state of things idealized Communism and its revolutionary culture.
Okinawa, just south of Japan, is mostly paid for by Japan, hoping to keep U S servicemen out of Japan. in 1995 two U S marines and a sailor abducted and raped a 12 year old Okinawan girl. Little was done. It soon became common knowledge that such incidents were typical, unreported for cultural reasons. The servicemen got off with a minor payent to the gitl's family and returned home. The commanding officer for Okinawa's bases was allowed to retire after his comment that a girl could be bought for what they paid to rent the car they used. Venereal disease is widespread among readily available prostitutes who haunt U S military bases. Johnson wonders why U S troops remain in Japan 50 years after World War II, leaving its refuse behind when troops leave. U S personnel are by forced agreement immune to prosecution for their crimes at overseas bases.
Indonesia. Chinese women and girls raped and unreported because of cultural constraints. Protest marches do little to halt these unreported incidents, which occur almost daily on Okinawa. General Suharto with U S blessing, eliminated thousands of Muslim dissenters as a scorched earth policy became the rule.
East Timor when offered the vote chose independence while army-incited murders became the rule, not the exception. Like the Phillipine government, firms were stolen by General Suharto's family but unlike the Philipines they were worth billions.
Korea. The USSR demanded both North and South industriallize and adopt collective agriculture. Korea, long occupied by Japan, Nazi Germany, then the USSR, was free at last when the U S government let up on them and made life easier. U S troops were now stationed in South Korea to contain the North. Many of those involved in brutal attacks on Korean dissidnts still remain, profiting from Korea's many tourist resorts.
China. Friendship during the Cold War's closing years was seen as protection for Chinese forces in ambiguous new agreements.made to destabilize Eastern Asia. Agreements between the U S and China come from their common oposition to that of the USSR. Mao's Great Leap Forward served to industrialize China.
China, ever the world's largest economy, is now third, behind only the U S and Japan. In a couple of decqades, China is expect to surpass the U S as the world's largest economy. China expects to once again become a world superpower. China no longer calls itself Communist China, but just China.
Both China and its foreign investors hqate union agitators although for different reasons. Their economic view doesn't include Japan and other democracies in the region. Poor people, especially rural, live in the same poverty they did years ago, their rights still ignored. China still depends on foreign trade for its survival. For this reason Taiwan and Hong Kong are allowed to retain their democratic environments and free enterprise. In order to continue trade China had to improve its stand on human rights to please Western investors.
Japan. The closest nation to democracy in East Asia due to U S occupation following World War II. Industrialized Japan emerged as the world's second largest economy with its manufactured goods sold worldwide, including to the U S. Japan became a true capitalist society because of its modernization along western lines, stemming from Admiral Perry's visit in 1857. Today, thousands of U S troops are stationed in Japan and South Korea. These two countries fall all ovr theselves trying to export the most sophisticated manufactured goods to Western markets.
Meltdown, the "end of history", means the collapse of democratic economies and world banks gone bankrupt. The dollar iws inflated among Asian currencies and capital disappears. The International Money Fund (IMF) is hard put to solve this crisis with conventional methods. This crisis was prevented by U S shop till we drop philosphy of excessive consumption of consumer goods. Can this be sustained indefinitely?
Empire's consequence. America considers itself indispensible. The words "capitalism" and "imperialism" and other "isms" appear frequently throughout this book. It gets rather old. All emprires eventually fall, I still believe the U S will outlast many other empires throughout history as the "great experiment" based on the concept of liberty and rule by laws, not men, rather than merely exchange one regime for another. Chalmers was on the right track but he let it go with all the "isms" repeated throughout. Why do we keep hearing about the good our servicepeople do worldwide? Why is the American G I twice voted as "Man of the Century"? Is it manufactured like all othernews lately?
The study of economics once was about theory but is now about math. Dollars and cents, gross national product (GNP), the whole schmeer. Mere theories don't get things done. Math and statistics are what's needed to clearly show ntional and international progress. Johnson says East Asia and the world will eventually tire of American bullying and rally behind a strong, capable antiAmerican leader. He also says salaries must be increased competitively for people to afford American goods. Most Third World people are too poor to even afford food, let alone luxuries like shoes or TVs. If other countries can make things cheaper than we can so people can afford them, our empire will surely fall. I'm not looking forward. Blowback in the form of terrorist attacks is expected from smaller countries "exploited" by the U S despite huge numbers of people worldwide wanting to move here. Most Americans are unaware of what the U S sows overseas, let alone understands it. Little of what goes on is reported here. Most of our reporters are unable to read Asian languages. The U S with its wealth and power will be a prime target by people with no other way to acquire what we have here and live affluently like we do. A U N conference in 1944 at Bretton Woods NH sought to improve financial conditions worldwide. Nixon discarded this agreement when it failed to bring a New World Order to East Asia after Nixon's historic visit. Americans will gain by the meltdown of Asian economies. Prices, including real estate, would be lower and more Americans could afford it.
Frequent use of the term Cold War keeps perspectives of this book rooted in Cold War times despite its obsolescence. We must strive to look forard instead of backward and work to prevent another world war, cold or otherwise, is what Johnson is actually saying. With more and more nations adopting nuclear weapons our G Is must be ever vigilant so we can maintain our way of life.
Chalmers Johnson
Post Cold War era. Other than Japan and China, Johnson here relies mostly on books and articles instead of actual travel and live interviewing, making the whole project useless. It takes more than logic, scholarship and prose to put forth the ideas presented here. but since I too made no effort to travel to these areas or do live interviews I'll do my best to give a good review of Johnson's new book.
Johnson again begins his story in 1898, the Spanish-American War. Fast forward again to the Cold War era, the time Johnson served in the military, but not stay there as long as in Blowback. This story continues mostly where the Cold War left off, to today's era.
For all the talk about imperialism in Japan and other countries it must be remembered that in Japan and France women were not allowed to vote until post war American occupation of these countries and the rebuilding of their economies. There are still countries, mostly Muslim, where women still can't vote. However this is not the scope of this book. It's not about women's rights or even human rights, but about extracting Middle-Eastern and other oil supplies to meet America's growing demands. Insteasd of researching alternative energy and using public transit, corporations sell us SUVs and other gas guzzlers as a way of life in order to make money. With little or no understanding of world cultures or foreign languages our military is prepared to barge in at all costs and take charge, thinking to convert the world to democracy at all costs.
Our troops give their lives so we at home can be punished at the whim of whatever mean people are in authority. Library and bus go without because it's the judges' job to see that we're punished instead of dismissed. Government funding should be contingent on quality of service, making it easier to get rid of unfit employees. San Francisco judges refuse to hear petty cases, thrwoing them out of court dismissed and you don't even have to bother showing up. However here we put up with it and go through it ever time as if the world will end if we're not dragged through it to please that kind. They holler about their right to privacy and safety and still punish us. Voter turnout is low because of poor service while honest people, including me, jump at the chance to become permanent absentee voters question-free. However these things too are beyond the scope of this book.
Johnson's qualifications. Based on earelier military service in Japan and than China, Johnson was a Pentagon consultant in Washington DC and now lives near San Diego where there's a big navy base. Since then he wrote many books on the subject of worldwide U S imperialism and militarism and about Japan and China, as if issuing the world a warning about what will come of our attempted worldwide military takeover. Our bases spread permanently everywhere, their stated purpose to spread democracy and prosperity.
AIDS still spreads rapidly in poorer countries, literacy rates are lower than in Western industrialized countries, and annual personal incomes are lower. We, including the working poor, make more money in a month than many third-world country citizens make in a year, but we pay more for food and housing and other basic needs. Our health care and other amenities are more advanced and more people here own cars. Ours is definitely a car-based culture in which those employed by them make huge profits and use most of the world's oil. Alternative energy is only sought because of the strong possibility of world supplies running out in the near future since these resources are not renewable.
Empire's sorrows begin with the huge expense of maintaining permanent garrisons of military personnel worldwide, without regarding other things needing our financial attention. It continues with having enough servicepeople to provide us with military manpower and expertise to operate these facilities. Next we need friends and allies to help out and share expenses and manpower, while more and more we're forced to pick up the tab without international friendship and assistance.
Third is our growing trade deficit, in which we import more trade goods than we export. More and more production and service jobs are outsourced to other countries every year, while our national debt grows exponentially without our realizing it except that jobs here are scarcer. We still see well-stocked grocery shelves and streets filled with cars. Fewer students, especially girls, are encouraged to study science and math until our edge is lost forever and most of the world's scientists and engineers are from overseas. Already most custromer servicepeople are overseas at cheaper wages than those paid to American workers with their higher basic living expenses.
As all empires end sooner or later, ours too will end someday. Ancient Rome's decline took centuries while ours today will decline much faster. Other countries will no longer pay attention to us as we spend all our money and use up all our reserves in manpower and natural resources. Meantime everybody who can must grab all he can for himself to survive coming hard times. Elected officials since Year 1 go into office poor and come out rich, providing themselves and their families with a hedge against hard times ahead.
There's always the possibility of our troops fired on and killed by "friendly" fire and of innocent civilians also caught in crossfire. Congress nowadays votes almost 80% in favor of war after the need is over and refuses to talk about it to the general public as if ashamed of their vote, yet most of us would gladly have toppled Saddam Hussein and we're all glad that Hitler is dead. Good riddance, we all say emphatically. Never again!
However this book may seem artificial because it's mostly theory gleaned from library documents, it could stand as a warning of times to come, like something H G Wells or Jules Verne wrote or else American authors like John Steinbeck. Perhaps this theme could become a timeless novel or a blockbuster movie, a textboook classic, catching forever the attention of the general public.