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“Even an empire cannot control the long-term effects of its policies. That is the essence of blowback.”
― Chalmers Johnson, Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire
Chalmers Johnson’s theories nominally emerged following a period of political and social upheaval across the global stage during one of the many periods of acceleration in regard to the Cold War. On top of the many global revolutionary situations to have emerged following the First World War, the Cold War saw a new breakout of both political discourses, with Marxist-Leninism’s ideologies taking the forefront of much of the social and political overturns. The nations representing these ideologies and their offshoots became the primary focus of NATO nations’ defense and foreign policies.
While not the first socialist revolutionary movement, the October Revolution within Russia, led to the creation of the Soviet Republic, later known as it was consolidated before, during, and following the Second World War as the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics (USSR). In this capacity, the USSR represented perhaps the greatest existential threat to the western powers of Europe and the Americas. This threat led to the creation of the Warsaw Pact and NATO, existing both as opposing political forces in terms of influence and control. The Cold War represented perhaps the most significant single period of military spending and arms buildup in human history. As the Soviet Union was formed on the ideology of the revolution, and not only internally, but a revolution which was to be exported and brought to the world. Therefore, it is natural that many revolutions characterized the Cold War period.
The Chinese Civil War, having been put on a temporary hold on account of the Second Sino-Japanese War, came to a decisive end in 1949, with the communist leader, Mao Zedong, becoming the leader of the newly formed People’s Republic of China (PRC), and continuing the wartime connection with the Soviet Union which had been in place since before the war with Japan. For as long as Stalin was alive, this relationship was relatively stable, and the two powers were seen as the two principal communist states in the world. On this, China similarly aided in global revolutionary situations, for a time, with Soviet backing. The Korean War arose out of multiple revolutionary situations in the Korean peninsula, which in turn, had their roots in both pre-Japanese occupation strife, as well as post-war insurgency and civil strife.
When reunification became an impossibility, the Korean Peninsula became two nations: the US-aligned Republic of Korea (ROK) and the Soviet-allied Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). With the separation of the Korean Peninsula and the DPRK, the invasion ROK came perhaps the single most explicit example of direct conflict with the PRC and USSR. Having supported the DPRK logistically before, China became directly involved in the conflict in 1950, with forces from the People’s Libe