Chalmers Johnson
1931 – 2010 American Scholar and author
Scholar who popularized the modern meaning of 'blowback'.
- Affiliations
- Political scientist and former CIA consultant who popularized the term 'blowback' to describe the unintended consequences of covert operations.
Chalmers Johnson was a political scientist who once consulted for the CIA and later became a sharp critic of American foreign policy. His 2000 book 'Blowback' brought the intelligence term into wide public use to describe the unintended costs of covert operations and overseas intervention. He wrote a trilogy on what he called American empire.
In the timeline
- 2000 The concept of blowback enters public debate mentioned