Talk:Chalmers Johnson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article must adhere to the policy on biographies of living persons. Controversial material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libellous. If such material is repeatedly inserted or if there are other concerns relative to this policy, report it on the living persons biographies noticeboard.

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page.	Biography Portal
Start	This article has been rated as start-Class on the project's quality scale. [FAQ]

Contents 1 Television Career 2 Who wrote Blowback? 3 other 4 problematic changes 5 Edit by Nbauman

[edit] Television Career

I remember watching Prof. Johnson regularly in the mid/late 1960s on a PBS show produced by KQED, Berkeley. The program was a roundtable called something like "world press review" and Chalmers Johnson was the China expert. Hope someone might document this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.203.119.254 (talk) 07:31, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Who wrote Blowback?

There seems to be some online confusion as to whether Blowback was written by Chalmers Johnson, or Christopher Simpson. Who wrote it? Roidroid 04:14, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

I believe there are two separate books, on by Chalmers Johnson and one by Christopher Simpson from much earlier, but someone should research this. The Print copy of Blowback I have is very specifically Johnson. (StarkeRealm 08:07, 14 October 2007 (UTC))

[edit] other

I recently discovered the works of Dr. Chalmers Johnson and find them fascinating. His last two books dealing with American militarism ring true with my experiences in other cultures. I have seen first hand the destructive power of jingoism in other countries and how easy it is for self serving and power hungry individuals to stoke its fire among the ill informed but well meaning populace. 'The Sorrows of Empire', Dr. Johnson's last book describes in great detail how that is being done here in this country. That has me concerned about the future of this great experiment called USA. Surely, there are other Americans out there on the Net who share my fears about the Republic? If yes, I would like to invite them to a honest discourse on current trends in our government and their future impacts on not just America, but the world at large. Thank you.68.156.178.113 14:42, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I removed the following "discussionesque" material from the article for being non-encyclpedic: [Some time between 1953 and 1955 Mr. Johnson served as a naval officer; according to the Prologue in his book "The Sorrows of Empire" he was released from active duty (RAD) in 1955. Question, did he possibly attend the Navy OCS at Newport, RI? I was a member of the first class. WR] http://cal.berkeley.edu]207.69.137.11 18:51, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] problematic changes

Per WP:BLP, I removed this:

Johnson made several outlandish statements during an appearance at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Berkeley, California on March 3rd, 2007. Among the falsehoods he promoted was a statement that military service was a requirement for citizenship during his time in service during the Korean War

and this:

and became a Marxist who advocates the overthrow of the US govt.

with an associated edit summary that he is "very frank" about his socialist views. Okay, but Marxism != Socialism or desire to overthrow the US government. I have no problem reinserting a neutral version of the above sentence, provided it follows the WP:ATT and WP:BLP guidelines. --Otheus 06:42, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for removing that Otheus. Only in America is anyone who criticizes corporate state capitalism and a permanent military buildup decried as "commie" who wants to "overthrow the govt." Inoculatedcities 16:52, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

Only in America are those who attempt to tell the truth about the constant assault of the radical left on our rights, our nation and institutions routinely silenced and derided as you have done here.

As for the first quote, it's possible someone misconstrued him talking about the draft, which IIRC was still in effect at that time. As for the second quote, it's possible that he's talked about the destruction of the industrial military complex. But, that's not the same thing as trying to overthrow the government itself. (StarkeRealm 08:02, 14 October 2007 (UTC))

[edit] Edit by Nbauman

I removed the following paragraph awkwardly appended to the "Themes..." section.

Most Americans don't understand how America is perceived by the rest of the world, said Johnson. For example, Osama bin Laden gave three "rational" reasons for the attack on the World Trade Center: First, the presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia; second, Zionist expansion against the Palestinians; third, the death of half a million Iraqi children as a result of the American-led sanctions.

While Johnson has cited these reasons for anti-Americanism abroad, this section needs to be put into the context of the previous paragraph. One might as well pick any of a number of startling observations from his books and append them to the article. I'm not saying this paragraph isn't relevant to the "Themes..." section, it's just poorly written. Inoculatedcities 16:54, 15 April 2007 (UTC)