“The term blowback, which officials of the Central Intelligent Agency first invented for their own internal use, . . . refers to the unintended consequences of policies that were kept secret from the American people. What the daily press reports as the malign act of terrorists or drug lords or rogue states or illegal arms merchants often turn out to be blowback from earlier American operations.” PeopleFirstsStatesUseTurnsTermSecretLordPolicyArmsDrugConsequenceIntelligentPressesTerroristOperationsAgencyOfficialsReportsInternalsIllegalMerchantsRoguesKept SecretsUnintended Consequences Book:Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire Source: Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire
“None of the people's wars of the sixties did very well, including the one in Vietnam. Vo Nguyen Giap himself has admitted a loss of 600,000 men between 1965 and 1968...Moreover, by about 1970 at least 80% of the day-to-day combat in South Vietnam was being carried on by regular NVA troops...Genuine black-pajama southern guerrillas had been decimated and amounted to no more than 20% of the communist fighting forces.” PeopleMenWellsWarFightingForceBlackLossSouthIncludingGenuineCommunistCombatSouthernVietnamTroopsSixtyDay To DayVietnam WarGuerrillas Author:Chalmers Johnson
