ead, the 1997 defense department report concluded that the attack had, in fact, led to a ôrevenge campaignö by the Libyans (Windrem, 2003).
Johnson also describes more indirect forms of blowback. In the 1980s, the U.S. government trained and supported Central and South American military officers and corrupt politicians and then installed them in key positions in Latin American governments, apparently in an attempt to gain control over those governments and their policies. For example, the U.S. government supported the opposition-movement Contras in Nicaragua against the socialist-oriented Sandinista government. Johnson argues that the epidemic of cocaine and heroin use in American cities during and since the 1980s was in part fueled by deals the Contras made to sell cocaine in American cities to obtain money to buy arms and supplies with which to fight the Sandinistas (Johnson, 2000, p. 8). JohnsonÆs argument here, too, is supported by news reports. In 1996, the San Jose Mercury News reported that
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