BOOK REVIEW
Diana Johnstone's "Circle in the Darkness" Gives an Insider's View Into
Media Manipulation
A pillar of the antiwar movement, Diana Johnstone provides critical insights
from her time working in Associated Press and AFP newsrooms in the US and
Europe and much more.
by Rick Sterling
August 24th, 2020
By Rick Sterling
Diana Johnstone has written a compelling and insightful book. It is mostly a
review and analysis of significant events from the past 55 years and
concludes with her assessment of different trends that are being debated on
the Left today, including "identity politics," Antifa, and censorship. This
is a book to be read, enjoyed, and discussed
The book, "Circle in the Darkness: Memoir of a World Watcher," gives
glimpses into Johnstone's personal life. Born in St. Paul, Minnesota,
Johnstone grew up there and in Washington DC. She studied and taught at the
University of Minnesota before moving to Europe where she spent most of her
life - mostly in France with stints in Germany and Italy.
Her parents divorced when she was young and she had a special love and
connection with her father who, somewhat ironically, was a Pentagon analyst.
Evidently, he also had an open and critical mind, writing the memoir "From
MAD to Madness: Inside Pentagon Nuclear War Planning."
Johnstone had a daughter at a young age and raised her largely on her own.
She finished her Ph.D. in French literature and then worked as a teacher,
translator, photographer, and journalist.
As Johnstone and her daughter moved between Minnesota and France, she
compared their educational systems and notes, "There is a tendency in
American grade schools for the kids to gang up against whichever unfortunate
schoolmate has been selected by class bullies for tormenting ... from my
observation it is not like this in France." She also describes the
difficulties of being a single mother before it was more common.
Johnstone's book is full of insights based on her first-hand experience
living in Yugoslavia as a young exchange student, working as a photographer
for the Associated Press, translating news reports for Agence France Presse,
reporting on the end of the Cold War for In These Times and working as a
press officer for the coalition of Green Parties in the newly formed
European Union.
Grassroots activism
One theme that runs through the book is the need to reach out and engage
with regular people. Johnstone recounts her experiences opposing the U.S.
war on Vietnam. She and her allies launched a campaign to educate and engage
with regular Minnesotans, to explain what was happening in Vietnam and why
the war should be opposed. She helped organize teams of students and
teachers who went door to door in Minneapolis. Later, they sent a citizen
delegation to Paris to meet with, and hear from, Vietnamese representatives.
Afterward, they reported back to communities throughout the state and
country. Johnstone recalls how these actions did not get media attention yet
were able to deepen opposition to the war in profound ways. The students and
teachers going into the neighborhoods had to educate themselves in advance;
they learned from the questions (and sometimes opposition) from community
members; the delegation, which met the Vietnamese representatives in Paris,
was deeply impressed and conveyed their experience on their return.
Johnstone is an unusually perceptive analyst. Her analyses of the Watergate
scandal and Nixon's resignation, for example, raise important but overlooked
issues. Rather than seeing them as the hallmark of investigative journalism,
she notes that they established a model of journalism that relies on
unidentified government sources. Looking back, Watergate effectively
deflected attention from the ongoing slaughter in Southeast Asia.
Getting rid of Nixon was a brilliant coup that united generations, torn
asunder by opposing attitudes toward the war ...Watergate washed away the
national sins. It prepared America to be 'born again' first as the innocent
Gerald Ford and then as the good Christian Jimmy Carter, champion of human
rights..
Moreover, she writes,
The shenanigans around Watergate were a distraction from the most
significant acts of the Nixon administration, in particular the shakeup of
the world economy by the August 1971 decision to suspend (meaning to end)
the convertibility of the dollar into gold. This was a direct result of the
huge U.S. debt resulting from the cost of the Vietnam War."
Johnstone gives a stark assessment of what happened to the Left. "As for the
American antiwar movement, half a century later, it has vanished almost
without a trace as an influential political force. There are perhaps more
intelligent critics of war than ever before, but they are largely confined
to the virtual world of the web, without significant impact on a political
system which is totally integrated into a military industrial complex that
relies on endless conflicts.
Critical international events
Through her work at the Associated Press and Agence France Presse, Johnstone
saw how stories are selected and prioritized depending on establishment
bias. She also witnessed how the media promotes certain types of protest
leaders. In her book, she offers critical assessments of protest leaders who
became famous, including Daniel Cohn Bendit. She gives a scathing critique
of celebrity French philosopher Bernard Henri Levy.
Johnson has valuable insights on many events over the 1970s and '80s. These
include among others, the assassination of Swedish Prime Minister Olaf
Palme, who was likely behind it, and how it has led to Swedish subservience
to the U.S. The causes and consequences of the assassination of Aldo Moro by
ultra-leftists in Italy. The murder of Palestinian moderate Dr. Issa Sartawi
at a Socialist Party conference. The attempted assassination of Pope John
Paul II by a Turkish militant and the propaganda campaign trying to link him
to Bulgaria and the Soviet Union, and the growing influence of Israel in
western foreign policy.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, Johnstone watched closely, interviewed key
players, and reported on the rise of detente between the U.S. and Soviet
Union, concluding, that "Not enough credit is given to Mikhail Gorbachev and
to the 1980s peace movement."
The book, subtitled "Memoirs of a World Watcher," describes how radical
Islamists were used to undermine the socialist Afghanistan government
beginning 1979. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the U.S. had no restraints,
Johnstone recalls. She summarizes "Mikhail Gorbachev was a naive negotiator,
outfoxed by the Americans" and "The total surrender of 'real existing'
communism in the East contributed to the defeat of the Western Left."
In 1991, the U.S. seemingly invited Saddam Hussein to go into Kuwait, then
built up a huge force to expel and then massacre thousands of retreating
Iraqi soldiers. With operation "Desert Storm" viewed as a military success,
President Bush declared: "The Vietnam syndrome is over!"
Yugoslavia and "humanitarian imperialism"
With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, neoliberal economic policies
quickly dominated the globe and the European Union was formed in 1992.
Johnstone describes how the EU imposed rules and requirements that favored
private banks and institutions and restricted or prevented state
intervention and solutions. Yugoslavia, as the sole remaining socialist
holdout, was under increasing pressure and media attack.
Johnstone describes how "humanitarian imperialism" emerged at this time.
With the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact in 1991, the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) needed a new mandate and reason for existing. They found
this new purpose in media distortion and demonization of Serbia and
Yugoslavia. NATO promoted the "Kosovo Liberation Army" and other divisive
elements and then bombed Serbia for 78 consecutive days. Yugoslavia was
broken into pieces.
In 2002, Johnstone wrote a book about the NATO attack, western propaganda,
and show trial. Following the publication of that book, titled "Fool's
Crusade: Yugoslavia, NATO and Western Delusions," she was attacked in the
media for challenging the dominant assumptions about the conflict. Johnstone
responded to the attacks saying," I do not deny atrocities, but unlike
others, I give them a political context." Others strongly defended her.
Canadian law professor Michael Mandel wrote, "Fools Crusade is not only the
definitive work on the Balkans Wars, it is also an inspiring example of how
to rescue truth from the battlefield when it has become war's first
casualty."
Western media distortion and intervention in Yugoslavia went almost
unopposed. The antiwar movement was widely confused and silent. This was
followed by the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and then Iraq.
Along with media distortions and comparisons to Hitler and the Holocaust,
there emerged the justification for violating national sovereignty based on
the "Right to Protect" (R2P). This was the pretext for overthrowing the
Libyan government of Moammar Gadhafi. Johnstone discusses how R2P has been
used to confuse and silence antiwar forces, even some prominent traditional
antiwar analysts. She has interacted with Noam Chomsky many times over the
decades and is overall very positive, but notes that "even he might get
something wrong." She documents how the coauthor of Chomsky's seminal work,
"Manufacturing Consent" was evidently fooled into believing media reports
from Benghazi, Libya. Chomsky said the western sponsored uprising was
"wonderful." It has since been made clear that media reports and NGO
accusations from Benghazi were false. They were the pretense to launch the
NATO campaign to overthrow the government.
Western intervention, including the sponsorship of terrorist armies in
Syria, has been sold to the unwitting public using this model. Wherever the
U.S. and NATO wish to intervene, there is a "humanitarian crisis" and
"responsibility to protect."
Critical current issues
"Circle in the Darkness" analyzes current issues of contention and debate on
the left. In it, Johnstone argues that suppression of debate and free
speech, whether by the Right or the Left, is counter-productive. She argues
that violence and vandalism hurt the progressive cause even when it gives a
spurt of publicity and media attention. She describes many examples over the
past 50 years and how frequently the instigators were government or police
agents.
Johnstone describes the spectacular growth of the "Yellow Vest" movement in
France. She documents how it began, how it was supported and joined by
common people, and how it reached across party lines. She contrasts the
broad support of the Yellow Vest movement with narrow support of the student
protests of May 1968, writing, "Sociologically, this revolt was the opposite
of May '68. Instead of privileged students, imagining a non-existent working
class revolution in a time of prosperity, this was the working class itself,
in hard times."
Johnstone describes how French police attacked the Yellow Vest protesters
with many injuries and even deaths. She writes, "Curiously, all this heavy
handed repression totally failed to prevent masked 'Black Bloc' members from
taking advantage of this opportunity to attack the police, set fires, break
shop windows ... Police did nothing to prevent unidentified intruders from
invading the ground floor of the Arc de Triomphe to smash up a statue of
Marianne.. It is noteworthy that almost all the seriously injured were
peaceful Yellow Vest protesters, whereas the Black Blocs often got away
unscathed. Perhaps the Black Blocs believe they are fighting the system.
Whatever their intentions, they have served as a useful auxiliary to
government repression."
On the massive media effort to control popular thoughts and anger, Johnstone
notes:
The mainstream media have moved farther and farther away from informing the
public and nearer to instructing them in what they should think and do."
She writes in her belief that the Left is infused with dogma. Johnstone
recounts her falling out with Counterpunch magazine after they published a
"barrage of attacks" on analyst and writer Caitlin Johnstone (no relation).
That was indeed the start of Caitlin's rise to great prominence in anti-war
circles and beginning of CounterPunch's decline from 'fearless muckraking'
to snide sniping at the genuine heirs to the independent spirit of the
founder, Alexander Cockburn. The gist of the CounterPunch attacks on the
Australian Johnstone were that she dared say she would join even with
someone on the right against war. That is simple good sense, but it was
picked up by the Antifa purification squad as proof of tendencies toward
fascism. When I saw them coming after Caitlin, I figured they'd be coming
after me, and that my association with CounterPunch was soon coming to an
end."
Johnstone argues in favor of working for peace with all forces which agree
on that issue, whether or not they agree on all issues of "identity
politics." She argues that we should not be distracted from the root causes
of war and social inequality. When the Left focuses on the fringe right, the
establishment is not only happy, they encourage and promote this diversion.
The specialty of the AntiFa is to situate the threat of tyranny on the
powerless margins of society - from isolated groups of costume party
neo-Nazis to outspoken persons on the left accused of 'red-brown'
tendencies. This amounts to keeping the Left herded into its sheep pen,
while the wolves roam freely."
Johnstone is hopeful and encouraged by two things: a new generation of
truthseekers and that life is full of surprises.
This book is full of insights and analysis about where the world is and how
we got here. It includes important ideas and thoughts about what we can do
to resist the drift toward global war and catastrophe. Above all, Diana
Johnstone argues for the importance of discussion, debate, and keeping it
real.
