Covert operations produce consequences publics cannot trace to their causes

Evidence

Honduras provides a telling example of what the CIA would call “blowback” from U.S. support for repressive regimes during Central America’s civil wars. Popularized by the onetime CIA analyst Chalmers Johnson, the term “blowback” refers to the unintended consequences of covert operations whose causes the public cannot understand precisely because the precipitating operations were covert. Put simply, the United States reaps what it secretly sows. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 311

Categorization

Category: Definitional Content

• DEFINE: Defines the term blowback as developed by Chalmers Johnson.
• XREF: Chalmers Johnson’s Blowback concept connects to the reader’s broader interest in unintended consequences of U.S. foreign policy.

Related

• Supporting dictators harms the United States as much as host nations (similarity 0.87)