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

13. See Antiwar.com’s continuously updated tally of casualties in Iraq, http://www.antiwar.com/ewens/casualties.html.

Prologue: A Spear-Carrier for Empire

  1. Stanford University Press, 1962.

  2. See Chalmers Johnson, “Civilian Loyalties and Guerrilla Conflict,” World Politics 14.4 (July 1962), pp. 646–61.

  3. “Lin Piao’s Army and Its Role in Chinese Society,” Parts I and II, Current Scene (American Consulate General, Hong Kong) 4.13 and 4.14 (July 1 and 15, 1966).

1: Blowback

  1. “Some Aid Canceled for Gondola Deaths,” Los Angeles Times, May 15, 1999.

  2. Department of Defense, “U.S. Military Installations” (updated to July 17, 1998), DefenseLINK, on-line at http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/installations/foreignsummary.html; and John Lindsay-Poland and Nick Morgan, “Overseas Military Bases and Environment,” Foreign Policy in Focus 3.15 (June 1998), on-line at http://www.foreignpolicy-infocus.org/briefs/voll3/v3n15mil.html. According to one report, when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the United States had 375 military bases scattered around the globe staffed by more than a half million personnel. Joel Brinkley, “U.S. Looking for a New Path as Superpower Conflict Ends,” New York Times, February 2, 1992.

  3. Charles Krauthammer, “What Caused Our Economic Boom?” San Diego Union-Tribune, January 5, 1998.

  4. For documentary evidence, including Oliver North’s notebooks, see “The Contras, Cocaine, and Covert Operations,” National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book, no. 2, on-line at http://www.seas.gwu.edu/nsarchive. Also see James Risen, “C.I.A. Said to Ignore Charges of Contra Drug Dealing in ‘80’s,” New York Times, October 10, 1998.

  5. Quoted in Ivan Eland, “Protecting the Homeland: The Best Defense Is to Give No Offense,” Policy Analysis (Cato Institute), no. 306 (May 5, 1998), P. 3.

  6. Tim Weiner, “U.S. Spied on Iraq Under U.N. Cover, Officials Now Say,” New York Times, January 7, 1999; Philip Shenon, “C.I.A. Was with U.N. in Iraq for Years, Ex-Inspector Says,” February 23, 1999; and Seymour M. Hersh, “Saddam’s Best Friend,” New Yorker, April 5, 1999.

  7. Tim Weiner and James Risen, “Decision to Strike Factory in Sudan Based on Surmise,” New York Times, September 21, 1998; and Seymour M. Hersh, “The Missiles of August,” New Yorker, October 12, 1998.

  8. Mireya Navarro, “Guatemala Study Accuses the Army and Cites U.S. Role,” New York Times, February 26, 1999; Larry Rohter, “Searing Indictment,” New York Times, February 27, 1999; Michael Shifter, “Can Genocide End in Forgiveness?” Los Angeles Times, March 7, 1999; “Coming Clean on Guatemala,” editorial, Los Angeles Times, March 10, 1999; and Michael Stetz, “Clinton’s Words on Guatemala Called ‘Too Little, Too Late,’ ” San Diego Union-Tribune, March 16, 1999.

  9. José Pertierra, “For Guatemala, Words Are Not Enough,” San Diego Union-Tribune, March 5, 1999.

10. John M. Broder, “Clinton Offers His Apologies to Guatemala,” New York Times, March 11, 1999. Also see Broder, “Clinton Visit in Honduras Dramatizes New Attitude,” New York Times, March 10, 1999; and Francisco Goldman, “Murder Comes for the Bishop,” New Yorker, March 15, 1999.

11. Peter W. Galbraith, “How the Turks Helped Their Enemies,” New York Times, February 20, 1999.

12. John Tirman, Spoils of War: The Human Cost of America’s Arms Trade (New York: Free Press, 1997), p. 236.

13. John Diamond, “CIA Thwarts Terrorists with ‘Disruption’; It’s Prevention by Proxy,” San Diego Union-Tribune, March 5, 1999; and Tim Weiner, “U.S. Helped Turkey Find and Capture Kurd Rebel,” New York Times, February 20, 1999.

14. Jon Lee Anderson, “The Dictator,” New Yorker, October 19, 1998; Peter Kronbluth, “Chile and the United States: Declassified Documents Relating to the Military Coup,” National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book, no. 8, on-line at http://www.seas.gwu.edu/nsarchive; and Philip Shenon, “U.S. Releases Files on Abuses in Pinochet Era,” New York Times, July 1, 1999.

15. Michael Ratner, “The Pinochet Precedent,” Progressive Response 3.3 (January 28, 1999).

16. Milovan Djilas, Conversations with Stalin (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1962), p. 105.