Feedback on Blowback

I am very proud of being a Cal grad at this moment. I have just finished reading Russell Schoch’s “Conversation with Chalmers Johnson” in the September issue. I am proud of Schoch for writing the article and of Johnson for changing his mind and writing his book, Blowback. Perhaps this article and this book will help to stimulate our beloved Cal into shifting its talents and resources away from nurturing the bomb of 1945 to nurturing the “balm” of 1945, the United Nations and its family of agencies and activities. Thank you for letting there be some light on the “military-industrial-university complex,” including our University’s shameful participation. Bill Trampleasure ’50 Berkeley

I have just had the enlightening, but unpleasant, experience of reading the Q&A with Chalmers Johnson. I am sure I have read greater bullshit than that put forth as scholarship by Johnson; I just can’t remember where or when. I don’t know whether he has, as his critics say, descended into strident and unbalanced vitriol, full of cranky one-sidedness, or was always there; but there he certainly is. Marc Monheimer ’52, Boalt ’57 Arlington, Virginia

Terrific interview. The articles in the Cal alumni magazine are usually quite bland and not very interesting. This was an exception. Let’s have more like it! Tom Risser, Ph.D. ’70, MBA ’76 San Mateo In your fascinating Q&A with Chalmers Johnson, he blames the style of campus protesters for his inability to hear the opposition. What I don’t understand is why people like Johnson and Robert McNamara apparently were entirely ignorant of the arguments of critical thinkers like political scientist Hans Morgenthau and journalist Bernard Fall, who had started publishing before protesters became visible or audible. I am not trying to be sarcastic—one welcomes the continued thinking and writing of Mr. Johnson and others. Most disturbing is that they become aware of this widely known information only in retirement. Judy Bertelsen, M.D., Ph.D. ’61 Berkeley

Your interview with Johnson was one of the very best and most thought-provoking articles I have read in any publication recently. I am in awe of anyone who uses new information to examine, evaluate, and change their minds about something important. So few of us are able to do any of the three, much less all three together. I have been disappointed in my alma mater in large part due to the fact that the University, to a great extent, has failed to maintain its independence from the corporate world and government. Chalmers Johnson is a wonderful reminder that excellence and independence in academia still exist, if only in retirement. Thank you for demonstrating (not for the first time) that excellence and independent thought exist at California Monthly. Susan Reed Clark ’70 Mill Valley

According to Chalmers Johnson, the United States is now the evil empire. It wants a cold war with China and it is therefore “inconceivable” that we did not deliberately bomb the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. The New York Times is our Pravda. The University of California has given up moral leadership for money. Johnson’s book will reach only the lunatic fringe of the hate-America set. It is shameful that the alumni association of a great University should inflict upon a larger audience the incoherent, vengeful bile of a man in the downward spiral of a failed career. Richard Jencks ’42 Mill Valley

Reading the interview was like a breath of fresh air. At last, one of the Cold War pundits has acknowledged the error of our government’s foreign policies and, like the little boy who called out “The emperor has no clothes!,” recognizes our bully tactics in Latin America and Asia for what they are—raw imperialism. Carol Jean Newman ’50 Santa Cruz

It is with sadness that I read the interview. The University has had a distinguished roster of East Asia specialists, and a balanced appraisal of U.S. policies in Asia could have been obtained from a number of individuals. Instead, you chose to help perpetuate the image of Berkeley as the progenitor of extremists. Richard Johnson Chalmers Johnson is provocative in his assessment of America’s role in the world. His views irritate, but also force deeper evaluation of our nation’s foreign policy and its eastern establishment, for which my thanks. On one point he is wrong, when he states that UC’s “greatest contribution…to the world has been the atom bomb.” Its greatest contribution is its alumni and their vigorous civic involvement, demonstrated here by alumnus Johnson. Dick Hafner ’50 Alexander Valley