April 15, 2009
This book is remarkable. The guy is one of the United State’s foremost experts on China and Japan. The main thesis of the book is that because the US has not really adjusted its foreign policy to account for the collapse of the Soviet Union it is still essentially fighting the cold war. But fighting the cold war isn’t really a good idea, particularly for the US, as it effectively gives an unfair economic advantage to East Asia. He claims that the US needs to better integrate both its foreign policy objectives and economic objectives – both of which come most clearly into conflict in its dealings with countries like South Korea and Japan which it gives economic preference to, at the expense of US industry, companies and jobs.
There are a number of predictions made in this book, most of them dire and many of them have pretty well come true over the last few years. The current economic crisis being just one of these, as was 9/11 – this book was written 18 months prior to 9/11 and said something of the kind was virtually inevitable due to US imperial ambitions and actions. Given that most Americans don’t accept that they have an empire, much of the book will probably only annoy US readers. This will particularly be the case with the extensive comparisons he makes between the US and the USSR throughout the cold war – many of which are anything but flattering to the US.
He makes a fascinating point that the US concept of freedom is basically an 18th century conception of individual freedom, whilst the Soviet (and Chinese) conceptions were 19th century collective notions. He uses this to explain the differences in views about ‘human rights’ violations, and I think he is right. I remember the old Soviet commentators who would be accused by us of doing bad things to individuals and them responding by talking about unemployment rates in the US.
One of the speculations in this book is that it is possible (perhaps even likely) that in a hundred years time people will not look back and say, “The US won the cold war” – but rather that the building of mirror empires helped to destroy both the US and the USSR. We are just yet to see the US tumble just yet.
I’ve very limited knowledge or understanding of the history of East Asia – that is much less the case now. This book provides detailed and disturbing information on the history of US involvement in Korea, Japan and China. It puts quite a different spin on what I had taken for granted. There are interesting facts you just don’t think about – for example, a US president visited China before one visited Japan. Now, isn’t that interesting and quite unexpected? The Presidents were Nixon for China and then Ford for Japan. He is anything but complimentary about how the US built ‘democracy’ in Japan. He claims that their political system is so badly rigged and seen as such in Japan, that the average Japanese citizen feels totally alienated from the political system. He talks about coups in South Korea that virtually organised by the US. It reads like a huge conspiracy theory, until you realise that this guy had worked for the CIA and is clearly a respected US intellectual. The chapters on China, particularly China’s movement towards nationalism as the core ‘faith’ in China are fascinating.
Part of his concern is that Nixon abandoned the Bretton Woods Agreement and that this was one of the worst decisions of the century and something we will pay very dearly for. Essentially, he is quite fond of capitalism, but completely opposed to finance capitalism. He claims the 30s depression was deepened and prolonged due to currency speculation. He says that this was the main reason for Bretton Woods pegging currencies against the US dollar and fixing the US dollar at $35 per ounce of gold. This made it impossible to speculate on currencies and added stability to the world economy. However, Nixon (faced with a budget deficit due to the Vietnam war) decoupled the US dollar from the gold standard and floated it. Now, currency speculation is rife and was a major cause of the Asian financial crisis and likewise with the world financial crisis we are facing.
The parts of this book dealing with Okinawa are very disturbing. I remember the rape case of the twelve year old girl by the three US servicemen, but had never really thought about it at the time. You know, unfortunately, man rapes child is hardly an exceptional headline. I had no idea this was basically the last straw in Okinawa and that Okinawa has very many reasons to be utterly pissed off with the US bases it is forced to accommodate and to financially support.
The title of this book refers to a CIA term about US foreign policy that sometimes US policy has consequences that ‘blowback’ on US citizens and harms the US. For example, having US military bases in Saudi Arabia seriously annoys Arab nationalists who then fly planes into US buildings. He questions why it is still necessary to have US bases in some of these places. For example, why it is necessary to keep so many US troops and forces in Okinawa. There is no real ‘threat’ that these forces are containing anymore. What are they doing there? His view is that the US has not finished fighting the cold war, even if the USSR no longer exists to be fought against. After the cold war the US could have adjusted to the new world reality and adjusted its foreign policy accordingly. However, it did not do this and instead created increasingly bizarre ‘threats’ such as Saddam Hussein and North Korea so as to justify retaining and increasing US miliary presence and military budget.
This is a wide ranging and fascinating book. The comparisons he runs of the Soviet invasion of Hungary and the US involvement in South Korea and Indonesia are compelling and disturbing. I really couldn’t recommend this book too highly.
There are a number of predictions made in this book, most of them dire and many of them have pretty well come true over the last few years. The current economic crisis being just one of these, as was 9/11 – this book was written 18 months prior to 9/11 and said something of the kind was virtually inevitable due to US imperial ambitions and actions. Given that most Americans don’t accept that they have an empire, much of the book will probably only annoy US readers. This will particularly be the case with the extensive comparisons he makes between the US and the USSR throughout the cold war – many of which are anything but flattering to the US.
He makes a fascinating point that the US concept of freedom is basically an 18th century conception of individual freedom, whilst the Soviet (and Chinese) conceptions were 19th century collective notions. He uses this to explain the differences in views about ‘human rights’ violations, and I think he is right. I remember the old Soviet commentators who would be accused by us of doing bad things to individuals and them responding by talking about unemployment rates in the US.
One of the speculations in this book is that it is possible (perhaps even likely) that in a hundred years time people will not look back and say, “The US won the cold war” – but rather that the building of mirror empires helped to destroy both the US and the USSR. We are just yet to see the US tumble just yet.
I’ve very limited knowledge or understanding of the history of East Asia – that is much less the case now. This book provides detailed and disturbing information on the history of US involvement in Korea, Japan and China. It puts quite a different spin on what I had taken for granted. There are interesting facts you just don’t think about – for example, a US president visited China before one visited Japan. Now, isn’t that interesting and quite unexpected? The Presidents were Nixon for China and then Ford for Japan. He is anything but complimentary about how the US built ‘democracy’ in Japan. He claims that their political system is so badly rigged and seen as such in Japan, that the average Japanese citizen feels totally alienated from the political system. He talks about coups in South Korea that virtually organised by the US. It reads like a huge conspiracy theory, until you realise that this guy had worked for the CIA and is clearly a respected US intellectual. The chapters on China, particularly China’s movement towards nationalism as the core ‘faith’ in China are fascinating.
Part of his concern is that Nixon abandoned the Bretton Woods Agreement and that this was one of the worst decisions of the century and something we will pay very dearly for. Essentially, he is quite fond of capitalism, but completely opposed to finance capitalism. He claims the 30s depression was deepened and prolonged due to currency speculation. He says that this was the main reason for Bretton Woods pegging currencies against the US dollar and fixing the US dollar at $35 per ounce of gold. This made it impossible to speculate on currencies and added stability to the world economy. However, Nixon (faced with a budget deficit due to the Vietnam war) decoupled the US dollar from the gold standard and floated it. Now, currency speculation is rife and was a major cause of the Asian financial crisis and likewise with the world financial crisis we are facing.
The parts of this book dealing with Okinawa are very disturbing. I remember the rape case of the twelve year old girl by the three US servicemen, but had never really thought about it at the time. You know, unfortunately, man rapes child is hardly an exceptional headline. I had no idea this was basically the last straw in Okinawa and that Okinawa has very many reasons to be utterly pissed off with the US bases it is forced to accommodate and to financially support.
The title of this book refers to a CIA term about US foreign policy that sometimes US policy has consequences that ‘blowback’ on US citizens and harms the US. For example, having US military bases in Saudi Arabia seriously annoys Arab nationalists who then fly planes into US buildings. He questions why it is still necessary to have US bases in some of these places. For example, why it is necessary to keep so many US troops and forces in Okinawa. There is no real ‘threat’ that these forces are containing anymore. What are they doing there? His view is that the US has not finished fighting the cold war, even if the USSR no longer exists to be fought against. After the cold war the US could have adjusted to the new world reality and adjusted its foreign policy accordingly. However, it did not do this and instead created increasingly bizarre ‘threats’ such as Saddam Hussein and North Korea so as to justify retaining and increasing US miliary presence and military budget.
This is a wide ranging and fascinating book. The comparisons he runs of the Soviet invasion of Hungary and the US involvement in South Korea and Indonesia are compelling and disturbing. I really couldn’t recommend this book too highly.
