China, where the media is openly controlledrnby the state, is an example of “softrntotalitarianism”; Johnson contrasts thernChinese system with the Japanese modelrnof speech control, wherernsuch freedoms exist on paper butrnare attenuated in part by cartelizationrnof the news media—pressrnclubs in Japan can impose collectivernor individual penalties on journalistsrnwho report news that irritatesrnthe state.rnElections are formally held under bothrnsystems, with China’s soft totalitarians usingrnpolice methods to ensure the outcomernand Japan’s soft authoritarianrnregime achieving its ends “through peerrnpressure, bullying, fear of ostracism, givingrnpriority to group norms, and elicitingrnconformity through social sanctions ofrnvarious kinds.”rnUnder both types of government, elecdonsrnare mere formalities; economic reformsrnin China have further blurred therndifferences between the “socialist” andrn”capitalist” wings of developing .^sia. Beneathrnthe thin veneer of ideology-, the underlyingrncharacter of the various nationalrncultures shapes the social and politicalrnevolution of the Asian tigers, and also ofrnthat giant mastodon, China. Johnson arguesrnthat “the real economic model forrnmainland China, although never mendonedrnfor all the obvious reasons, is undoubtedlyrnneither Japan nor South Korearnbut Taiwan” under the Nationalists,rnwhere thriving state-party enterprisesrngenerate half the nation’s wealth. Left tornthemselves, Johnson suggests, China andrnTaiwan could achieve a peaceful conclusionrnto their family feud — a possibilit)’rnthat once seemed more likely than thernprospect of Korean reunification.rnThe Cold War ended, but the Ameri-rnVisit Chroniclesrnon the Webrnwww.chroniclesmagazine.orgrnand send your lettersrnto the editorrntornPolemics @ chroniclesmagazine.rnorgrncans did not go home; instead, theyrnstayed to guard the frontiers of empirernagainst an enems’ that has long since vanished.rnMore than that, they launched arnnew holy war—actually, a series of “humanitarian”rninterventions in tandemrnwith an ideological campaign to imposern”free market democracy” on the rest ofrnthe world.rnWith American hegemony in thernmilitary realm assured, and thernpublic largely unaware of its government’srnmachinadons,rngovernment officials, economicrntheorists, and members of the WallrnStreet-Treasur}’ Complex launchedrnan astonishingly ambitious, evenrnmegalomaniaeal attempt to makernthe rest of the world adopt Americanrneconomic institutions andrnnorms. One could argue that thernproject reflected the last great expressionrnof eighteenth-centurv’ Enlightenmentrnradonalism, as idealisticrnand Utopian as the paradise ofrnpure communism that Marx envisioned.rnThis megalomania is reflected in whatrnSrdja Trifkovic has called the ClintonrnDoctrine, which commits the UnitedrnStates to the global eradication ofrn”racism” and “ethnic intolerance,” evenrnif it means invading every coimtry onrnearth to do so —militarily, as in Kosovo,rnbut also by launching coordinated economicrnattacks on the currencies of targetedrnnadons, such as hidonesia, Thailand,rnand Malaysia. “Alfliough there is no evidencernthat Washington hatched a conspiracyrnto extend the scope of its globalrnhegemony,” writes Johnson, “a sense ofrnmoral superiority’ on the part of some andrnof opportunism on the part of othersrnmore than sufficed to create a similar effect.”rnNot all of Johnson’s policy prescriptionsrnare sound —”managed trade” isrnwhat we have now—but it is hard to takernissue with his analysis of militarizedrnstate capitalism as the logical outcome ofrnan imperialistic foreign policy. His critiquernof Western capitalism as no lessrncartelized than the zaihatsu of Japan isrnsharp at times, as when Johnson notesrndisdainfully the “crony capitalism” thatrnenabled the government bailout ofrnLong-Term Capital Management, arnhuge hedge fund headed bv former P’ederalrnReserve Vice Chairman David W.rnMullins. As the Internadonal MonetaryrnFund goes on the rampage in the FarrnEast, destroying national economies andrnturning crises into catastrophes, Johnsonrnacerbically notes that “globalizationrnseems to boil down to the spread of povertyrnto every country except the UnitedrnStates.”rnWhile there is much talk these days ofrn”rogue states” and what to do aboutrnthem, the real problem, as Johnsonrnshows, is that the world is currently afflictedrnby a “rogue superpower” —thernUnited States of America. Lecturing,rnthreatening, and overtly seeking to overthrowrnany regime that fails to bow beforernAmerican hegemony, Secretary of StaternMadeleine Albright travels the worldrnbraying about the virtues of “democracy”rnand “free markets.” In February 1998,rnexplaining why it was necessary to launchrncruise missiles against Iraq, she went intornone of her trademark tirades. “If we havernto use force, it is because we are America,”rnshe bawled. “We are the indispensablernnadon. We stand tall. We see fartherrninto the fuhire.”rnIn reality, lAlbright & Company see nornfurther than the next elecdon, the nextrnindictment, or the next big campaignrncontribution from a major weapons contractor.rnLike such Old Right cridcs of thernwarfare state as John T. Flynn, Johnsonrnregards the arms lobby and an ever-growingrnmilitary establishment as “the indispensablerninstrument for maintaining thernAmerican empire.” We have won a post-rnCold War arms race with “no other participants”rnfor the purpose of appeasingrnthe voracious appetite of an Americanrnmilitary machine that has become autonomous:rnan imperial Praetorian Guardrnarmed with thermonuclear weapons andrnawaiting its Caesar.rnThe consequences of the Cold War,rnJohnson predicts, will linger well into thern21st century, the history of which willrnamount in large part to blowback fromrnthe 20th. Only an awareness amongrnAmerican citizens of the crisis of empirerncan hope to avert or at least ameliorate it.rnOur leaders believe that,rnif so much as one overseas Americanrnbase is closed or one smallrncountry is allowed to manage itsrnown economy, the world will collapse.rn. . . [T]hey might better ponderrnthe creativity and growth thatrnwould be unleashed if only thernUnited States would relax its suffocatingrnembrace, crn24/CHRONICLESrnrnrn