Just received my CALIFORNIA MONTHLY today. (Cal Berkeley Alumni rag)
The featured interview was Chalmers Johnson and concerned his new book
"Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire."
Johnson, (whose classes I enjoyed, even if I disagreed with some of his
views of the world) has apparently changed sides. He describes his past
activity as "spear carrier for the empire." Not any longer to paraphrase
the article. According to the article the book has been called
"stunning," "brilliant" and "important" by his new admirers, and
"strident and unbalanced vitriol" by his past admirers.
In the interview Johnson:
Changes his mind on the Vietnam war and says that he was wrong to
support it. "The war in Vietnam was a horrible mistake; and it is worth
studying how and why we deluded ourselves...."
Says "Washington, D.C. is almost surely the most corrupt captial of any
major advanced industrial democracy."
Says "....the electoral process is largely debased by a kind of
entrenched incumbency that is not structurally different from that of
authoritarian regimes such as those in China."
And says "We almost surely killed more people in creatin our satellites
in East Asia than Stalin did in East Europe."
There is more.
I suppose CJ might be characterized now as the opposite and equal
reaction to David Horowitz. :)
-- Jerry West Editor/publisher/janitor ---------------------------------------------------- THE RECORD On line news from Nootka Sound & Canada's West Coast An independent, progressive regional publication http://www.island.net/~record/
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