Remembering Chalmers Johnson, 1931-2010

"Imperialism is a form of tyranny," Johnson said. "It never rules through consent of the governed. …We talk about the spread of democracy, but we talk about the spread of democracy at the point of an assault rifle."

"The last days of the American Republic." I am here concerned with the very real, concrete problem in political analysis, namely that the political system of the United States today, history tells us, is one of the most unstable combination there is. That is, domestic democracy and foreign empire. The choices are stark, a nation can be one or the other, a democracy or an imperialist, but it can’t be both. If it sticks to imperialism, it will, like the old Roman Republic, on which so much of our system was modeled, like the old Roman Republic it will lose its democracy to a domestic dictatorship.


The distinguished scholar and best-selling author Chalmers Johnson has died. He passed away in California on Saturday afternoon at the age of 79. During the Cold War, he served as a consultant to the Central Intelligence Agency and was a supporter of the Vietnam War, however, later became a leading critic of U.S. militarism and imperialism. He wrote the book, Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire in 2000, which became a bestseller after the 9/11 attacks. He went on to complete what would become a trilogy about American empire.

Transcript at

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/11/22/chalmers_johnson_1931_2010_on_the

Scott Horton

http://antiwar.com/radio/2010/11/22/tom-engelhardt-6/