Michael Johns (executive)
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{{Infobox Celebrity
| image = MichaelJohns1.jpg
| image_size = 150px |
| name = Michael Johns
| imagesize =
| caption = '''Michael Johns exiting [[Tavern on the Green]], New York City, April 4, 2008.'''
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1964|09|8}}
| birth_place = {{flagicon|USA}} [[Allentown, Pennsylvania]], [[United States|U.S.]]
| death_date =
| death_place =
| occupation = Health care executive, former federal government official, public policy analyst, author and writer
| spouse =
| children =
| website = [http://michaeljohnsonfreedomandprosperity.blogspot.com/ Michael Johns]
| footnotes = <ref>[http://www.nndb.com/people/884/000049737/ Michael Johns at Notable Names Database, accessed September 7, 2007.]</ref>
}}
'''Michael Johns''' (born [[September 8]], [[1964]] in [[Allentown, Pennsylvania]]) is an [[United States|American]] [[health care]] executive, former [[federal government of the United States]] official and [[Conservatism in the United States|conservative]] policy analyst and writer.
==Biography==
Johns was born in Allentown and graduated from [[Emmaus High School]] in [[Emmaus, Pennsylvania]] in [[1982]]. He received a [[Bachelor of Business Administration]] from the [[University of Miami]] in [[Coral Gables, Florida]], where he majored in [[economics]] and graduated with honors in [[1986]]. While there, Johns was inducted into the [[Iron Arrow Honor Society]], the University of Miami's highest attainable honor. He also attended [[Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge|Gonville and Caius College]], [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge University]] in [[Cambridge]], [[England]].<ref>[http://www.nndb.com/people/884/000049737/ Michael Johns at Notable Names Database, accessed September 7, 2007.]</ref>
Johns resides currently in [[Deptford Township, New Jersey|Deptford, New Jersey]] and [[Emmaus, Pennsylvania]].
===Health care industry===
A major force in corporate health care, Johns has served with global [[Pharmacology|pharmaceutical]] powerhouse [[Eli Lilly and Company|Eli Lilly]], in the health care practice of a leading [[Philadelphia]] consulting firm and as vice president of [[Gentiva Health Services]], a [[Long Island]]-based [[Fortune 1000]] corporation.<ref>[http://www.crm-daily.com/perl/story/13481.html "Customer Concerns Mount in Tragedy Aftermath," by Kimberly Hill, ''Customer Relations Management'', September 12, 2001.]</ref> As part of Gentiva senior management, Johns helped lead a quintupling of the company's [[market capitalization]] and one of the largest health care acquisitions in recent years.<ref>[http://www.highbeam.com/doc.aspx?DOCID=1P1:49300425&num=37&ctrlInfo=Round20%3AMode20e%3ADocG%3AResult&ao= "Gentiva Makes $415 Million Deal," ''Newsday'', January 3, 2002.]</ref> Subsequently, since 2003, he has managed the [[health insurance|Insurance Department]] of Electric Mobility Corporation, a [[New Jersey]]-based global medical device company.<ref>[http://www.prleap.com/pr/1324/ "Rascal Insurance Services Profiled in October Edition of ''Rehab Management'' Magazine, ''Healthcare and Hospital News," September 29, 2004.]</ref>
He also was one of several influential proponents of the [[Presidency of George W. Bush|Bush administration]]'s 2006 launch of [[Medicare Part D]], which expanded the federal [[Medicare (United States)|Medicare]] program to cover pharmaceuticals for the [[old age|elderly]] and [[disability|chronically disabled]], arguing that Medicare was spending too much on preventable [[hospital]]izations and [[surgery|surgeries]] and too little on disease prevention and management.
In his health care roles, Johns has advocated a moderate course on American health care policy, supporting increased [[biopharmaceutical]] and [[free market]] health care [[innovation]], while simultaneously defending the need to protect Medicare, [[Medicaid]] and other governmental health programs for the nation's elderly, poor and disabled.<ref>[http://www.rampcoalition.org/CMS_Forum_9_13_05.pdf United States Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Washington, D.C., September 13, 2005, with Michael Johns challenging unclear HHS clinical qualifications and medical documentation requirements required by Medicare for Medicare patients requiring power wheelchairs for ambulation, pp. 30-31 of 57.]</ref>
Johns also is a current member of the [[board of directors]] for InvesTrend, a global [[investment management|equity research firm]].<ref>[http://www.investrendresearch.com/articles/article.asp?analystId=0&id=6715&topicId=270&level=270 Michael Johns at Advisory Board Members, InvesTrend.]</ref>
===Government and public policy===
====Cold War efforts====
A versatile and influential advocate for many of the prominent themes of mainstream [[Conservatism in the United States|conservatism]], Johns also has held high-level posts in American government and public policy. His writings on American foreign policy in the 1980s helped shape and promote the foreign policy of the [[Presidency of Ronald Reagan|Reagan administration]]. He was one of the original advocates of the so-called "[[Reagan Doctrine]]," successfully urging the United States to support forces opposing Soviet-backed states and one of the first Reagan Doctrine advocates to actually visit the front lines of these hot spots ([[Angola]], [[Cambodia]], [[Nicaragua]], and the former [[Republics of the Soviet Union|Soviet Republics]]) with regularity. Johns also was a close advisor to Angola's [[Jonas Savimbi]], whose [[Cold War]] conflict with Soviet-aligned Angola became a central Cold War sub-plot.
He is credited with helping shift [[Washington, D.C.|Washington's]] intellectual tide away from [[containment]] of the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics|Soviet Union]] (as advocated by post-[[World War II|war]] American leaders, such as [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] and [[Harry S. Truman]]) and toward a more aggressive approach dedicated to the "[[rollback]]" of global [[communism]]. Many historians now credit this latter approach with leading to, or at least accelerating, the collapse of the former Soviet Union.
Johns was one of the most vocal U.S. conservatives in defending [[Ronald Reagan]]'s controversial description of the former Soviet Union as an "[[evil empire]]." In a lengthy ''[[Policy Review]]'' article, "Seventy Years of Evil: Soviet Crimes from Lenin to Gorbachev," for instance, Johns labeled the Soviet system "history's most sophisticated apparatus of rule by terror" and lambasted its "crushing of the human spirit." He offered 208 examples, dating back to the 1917 [[October Revolution|Bolshevik Revolution]], that, he argued, warranted the labeling of the Soviet system as [[evil]].<ref>[http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-6284431.html "Report Card: Civil Rights in Soviet Union," ''National Review'', January 22, 1988.]</ref> The article reinforced with some that Reagan's use of the phrase, while criticized as inflammatory by some world leaders, was warranted, with ''[[National Review]]'' praising the Johns article as "the tale of a state as brutal as it is petty; as unnatural as it is brutal; as enduring as it is unnatural."<ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n1_v40/ai_6284431 "Report Card: Civil Rights in Soviet Union," ''National Review'', January 22, 1988.]</ref>
In the final years of the Cold War, Johns and other conservatives helped develop, implement and sustain a vastly more aggressive U.S. foreign policy, in which the U.S. consciously and pro-actively challenged the Soviet Union's global military engagements and alliances in [[Africa]], [[Asia]] and [[Latin America]] in what columnist [[Charles Krauthammer]], in a ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine column, first labeled the "Reagan Doctrine." The doctrine, espoused by Johns and other conservative foreign policy experts, was rooted in a belief that Soviet [[nuclear weapon|nuclear capabilities]], combined with Soviet global aggression, represented a serious, growing threat to U.S. security that needed to be confronted. Unlike earlier proponents of containment, however, the doctrine's advocates also held that the Soviet Union was overextended globally, beginning to face major opposition at home and abroad and that even one high-profile victory for these anti-communist forces was likely to expose these vulnerabilities, inspiring [[democracy|democratic]] rebellion against Soviet-supported governments around the world and within the Soviet Union itself. Reagan Doctrine advocates argued that this offered the best opportunity to inspire the emergence of global democracies, or at least non-hostile governments, and end the Cold War without a need for direct U.S. engagement.
Johns maintained close relationships with the leaderships of resistance movements challenging Soviet-backed governments in [[Afghanistan]], [[Angola]], [[Cambodia]], [[Ethiopia]], [[Laos]]<ref>[http://www.worldandi.com/specialreport/1995/september/Sa14025.htm "Let's Not Forget Laos," by Michael Johns, ''The World and I'' magazine, September 1995.]</ref>, [[Mozambique]], [[Nicaragua]] and other nations, sometimes mitigating these resistance movements' concerns with [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]], sometimes carrying their messages to key Reagan administration officials, and almost always raising the profile of these conflicts as new and critical front lines in the overall Cold War conflict.
Johns was influential and heavily engaged in securing U.S. assistance for resistance forces in Angola. After Soviet and [[Cuba]]n military forces were deployed to Angola with the goal of eliminating Jonas Savimbi and his [[UNITA]] resistance forces, a [[Vietnam War]]-era statute that had prevented the Reagan administration from coming to the aid of Savimbi and UNITA was repealed and Johns and other conservatives quickly made a successful case that the U.S. had a moral and strategic obligation to promptly come to Savimbi's defense. Johns visited with Savimbi in his [[anti-aircraft warfare|anti-aircraft]]-protected compound in [[Jamba, Angola]], where he provided private counsel to the Angolan rebel leader<ref>[http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r101:E26OC9-320: "Savimbi's Elusive Victory in Angola," by Michael Johns, ''Congressional Record'', United States House of Representatives, October 26, 1989.]</ref>, and while U.S. military aid for Savimbi was kept covert, presumably to protect third party countries such as [[South Africa]], [[Zaire]] and others involved in delivery of it, U.S. aid to Savimbi's forces quickly bolstered UNITA as a major military and political opposition force in the country.<ref>[http://www.heritage.org/Research/Africa/EM276.cfm. "With Freedom Near in Angola, This is No Time to Curtail UNITA Assistance," by Michael Johns, Heritage Foundation Executive Memorandum #276, July 31, 1990.]</ref><ref>[http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r101:E16OC0-475: "With Freedom Near in Angola, This is No Time to Curtail UNITA Assistance," by Michael Johns, as entered in ''Congressional Record'', United States House of Representatives, October 16, 1990.]</ref> In addition to visiting Savimbi in Angola, Johns also was influential in organizing visits by Savimbi to the U.S. As Savimbi's importance as a U.S. ally in the Cold War gained broader recognition, Reagan invited Savimbi to meet him in the [[Oval Office]] during one such visit. Following the meeting, Reagan spoke supportively of Savimbi "winning a victory that electrifies the world," suggesting that a UNITA victory in Angola would raise the spirits and prospects of other anti-communist movements around the world, and possibly within the Soviet Union itself, that were engaged in resisting the [[Moscow Kremlin|Kremlin]].<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1233816,00.html "The Terrible Legacy of the Reagan Years," ''The (London) Guardian'', June 8, 2004.]</ref>
As the Angolan conflict escalated, Soviet [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|General Secretary]] [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] responded by urging Reagan and then President [[George H.W. Bush]] to cease U.S. support for Savimbi. But Johns returned from Angola to argue that Gorbachev's promises of "[[glasnost|new thinking]]" in Soviet foreign policy, designed to end such proxy Third World conflicts, were absent in Angola where, Johns argued, Gorbachev was actually increasing Soviet military commitments in the Soviet-supported war against Savmibi and UNITA. "If Mikhail Gorbachev cannot be trusted in Angola," Johns asked in 1990, "can he be trusted anywhere?"<ref>[http://www.heritage.org/Research/Africa/EM259.cfm "Angola: Testing Gorbachev's New Thinking," by Michael Johns, Heritage Foundation Executive Memorandum #259, February 5, 1990.]</ref>
The Angolan conflict was ultimately subjected to multi-party international negotiations, which provided for the removal of Cuban troops from the country. Johns wrote from Angola that Savimbi told him that he had not felt sufficiently consulted on the negotiations.<ref>[http://www.worldandi.com/specialreport/1989/february/Sa15634.htm "Filling the Holes in the Deal," by Michael Johns, ''The World and I'' magazine, February 1989.]</ref> But the negotiations did ultimately lead to an agreement to meet UNITA's long-standing demand for national elections in the country, and Johns and other Savimbi supporters strongly urged Savimbi to run for President, which he did. In the primary election, neither Savimbi nor Angolan President [[José Eduardo dos Santos]] obtained the 50 percent of total votes necessary to win the election, and a run-off election was scheduled. Savimbi, however, alleged that the primary election had been tainted by substantial Angolan governmental fraud. In a controversial Savimbi decision, the Angolan resistance leader withdrew from the election process and returned to war, which continued until February 22, 2002, when Savimbi was killed in action in an Angolan military ambush.
Johns also was a strong advocate for U.S. support to other resistance movements confronting Soviet-backed governments. In Nicaragua, Johns visited regularly with the Nicaraguan [[contras]], and he vocalized several ultimately successful arguments in support of U.S. aid to the contras, including that Soviet military support for the Marxist [[Sandinista National Liberation Front|Sandinista]] government and a neighboring Marxist insurgency in [[El Salvador]] (the [[Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front]], or FMLN) represented Soviet violations of the [[Monroe Doctrine]] and that U.S. support for the contras was justified under the doctrine's self-defense provisions.<ref>[http://www.worldandi.com/specialreport/1988/july/Sa14220.htm "Honduras Sleeps with One Eye Open," by Michael Johns, ''The World and I'' magazine, July 1988.]</ref> U.S. aid for the contras was authorized and the Sandinista government, under contra military and global political pressure, ultimately agreed to hold the free and fair elections the contras sought, which the Sandinistas then lost in one of several global indications that the Cold War was dissolving. Two years before his assassination by the Sandinistas in [[Managua]], contra military commander [[Enrique Bermúdez]], during a meeting in [[Tegucigalpa]], asked Johns to author his [[autobiography|autobiographical]] essay, "The Contras' Valley Forge," which is based on extensive discussions between the two and received substantial global media coverage in ''[[The New York Times]]'', ''[[The Washington Post]]'' and elsewhere.<ref>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE1D61730F93AA25755C0A96E948260 "Shultz to Visit Central America on Faltering Talks," ''The New York Times'', June 19, 1988.]</ref><ref>[http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1271550.html "For the Record," ''The Washington Post'', August 4, 1988.]</ref> It is one of the few first-person contra accounts of the war, and turned out to be Bermúdez's last major commentary on the conflict before his death.<ref>[http://www.mpr.co.uk/scripts/sweb.dll/li_archive_item?method=GET&object=POLR_1988_45_SUMMER "The Contras' Valley Forge: How I View the Nicaraguan Crisis," by Enrique Bermúdez (with Michael Johns), ''Policy Review'' magazine, Summer 1988.]</ref>
Johns also assisted the U.S. in other Cold War conflicts, including in Soviet-backed Cambodia, where the U.S. wished to apply the Reagan Doctrine but was understandably reluctant to support Cambodia's primary opposition movement, which was run by former leaders and members of the former [[Khmer Rouge]] government. Johns denounced both the government and the Khmer Rouge resistance, and instead urged U.S. support for yet a third Cambodian political and military force, a coalition of the [[Khmer People's National Liberation Front]], known as the KPNLF and then run by [[Son Sann]], and the [[Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea]], known as the CGDK and run by [[Norodom Sihanouk]]. Johns was one of the few Americans permitted to visit the Cambodian front lines of the CGDK/KPNLF resistance, and he wrote supportively of the coalition, urging the U.S. to aid it in an effort to build a political and national security foundation that could ultimately provide Cambodia with a non-communist, democratic political alternative.<ref>[http://www.worldandi.com/specialreport/1988/february/Sa13957.htm "Cambodia at a Crossroads," by Michael Johns, ''The World and I'' magazine, February 1988.]</ref>
====Post-Cold War efforts====
Breaking ranks with many fellow conservatives, Johns has advocated expanded U.S. humanitarian engagement in Africa, claiming that the magnitude of the crises facing that continent warrant U.S. assistance and [[humanitarian aid]]. He was an influential critic of [[Mengistu Haile Mariam]]'s handling of the [[1984 - 1985 famine in Ethiopia|Ethiopian famine]], alleging that the [[famine]], which took over a million Ethiopian lives, was almost entirely a product of Mengistu's government-controlled [[agriculture|agricultural]] policies and the Ethiopian leader's refusal to permit the free flow of foreign assistance.<ref>[http://www.heritage.org/research/MiddleEast/bg692.cfm "A U.S. Strategy to Foster Human Rights in Ethiopia," by Michael Johns, Heritage Foundation Backgrounder #692, Washington, D.C., February 23, 1989.]</ref><ref>[http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.african/msg/46678ec0cc12b1e?output=gplain Michael Johns cited in "Ethiopian Regime Looks West for Helping Hand," ''The Christian Science Monitor'', May 16, 1989.]</ref>
Less than a year before [[Saddam Hussein]]'s 1990 invasion of [[Kuwait]] and the ensuing [[Gulf War]], Johns warned that the likelihood for strategically threatening [[Persian Gulf]] conflict made it important for the U.S. to encourage political stability in [[Somalia]] and to maintain U.S. access to the [[airbase]]s and [[port|seaports]] of [[Berbera]] and [[Mogadishu]].<ref>[http://www.netnomad.com/heritage.html "Preserving American Security Ties to Somalia," by Michael Johns, Heritage Foundation Backgrounder #745, December 26, 1989.]</ref> In [[Sudan]], immediately following [[Omar al-Bashir]]'s rise to power, Johns strongly urged the U.S. government to work with al-Bashir on regional [[national security|security]] issues and to end the [[Second Sudanese Civil War|Sudanese Civil War]] by granting [[southern Sudan]] greater autonomy so that the region's predominantly [[Christian]] population could be granted exemption from Sudan's [[Islam|Islamic]] [[Sharia]] laws in a step toward ending the war.<ref>[http://www.heritage.org/Research/MiddleEast/EM245.cfm "A Cautious Welcome for Sudan's New Government," by Michael Johns, Heritage Foundation Executive Memorandum #245, July 28, 1989.]</ref> Al-Bashir's relationship with the U.S. later became a focus of the investigation into the [[September 11, 2001 attacks]] when the Sudanese leader alleged that he offered the [[Presidency of Bill Clinton|Clinton administration]] intelligence information that could have led to the capture of [[Osama bin Laden]] in 1996, when bin Laden was living in Sudan, but that the Clinton administration failed to act on the information.<ref>[http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/08/16/news/osama.php "U.S. Was Warned of bin Laden Threat in 1996, Documents Show," ''International Herald Tribune'', August 17, 2005.]</ref> In southern Sudan, al-Bashir ultimately upheld the Sharia laws and enhanced the persecution of the region's Christian population, which culminated in the [[War in Darfur|Darfur conflict]].
Johns was in [[Windhoek]], [[Namibia]] for that country's first independent election, and was highly supportive of expanded economic and political liberalization on the continent.<ref>[http://www.worldandi.com/specialreport/1990/august/Sa17049.htm "The Winds of Democracy," by Michael Johns, ''The World and I'' magazine, August 1990.]</ref> He wrote for the ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'' that a stable and [[democracy|democratic]] Namibia was "critical for the strategic and economic composition of the region."<ref>[http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r101:E11DE9-213: "Namibian Voters Deny Total Power to SWAPO," by Michael Johns, ''The Wall Street Journal'', November 21, 1989, as entered in ''Congressional Record'', United States House of Representatives, December 11, 1989.]</ref>
Johns also gained global notoriety for his willingness to urge an end to [[South Africa]]'s since disbanded policy of racial segregation, known as [[South Africa under apartheid|apartheid]], at a time when other U.S. and European conservatives, fearing the rise of the [[South African Communist Party]] in a post-apartheid South Africa, were being widely criticized in the early 1990s for their silence on the issue. After Johns spoke on South Africa at the [[United Nations]] in [[New York City]] on November 27, 1990, during which he criticized the world body openly for continuing [[economic sanctions]] in ways that he said were hurting South Africa's black majority under the auspices of helping them, [[William F. Buckley, Jr.]] wrote in his December 27, 1990 [[Universal Press Syndicate]] column that Johns' appearance at the U.N. was influential and "did not meet with critical reception because Johns has for many years been a voluble critic of apartheid, so that it was not thought necessary to pass much time on the disavowalist rituals." Buckley wrote that "Johns recited statistics that were not effectively challenged by the U.N. committee. He said that 'combined [[unemployment]] and [[underemployment]] figures for South Africa's black majority now stand at 47 percent, largely because South Africa--an export-driven economy--has been denied access to foreign markets.' He then went on to cite the latest [[Gallup poll]] addressed to South Africa's black majority: Do you oppose sanctions as a means for ending apartheid? Opposed: 82 percent."<ref>[http://cumulus.hillsdale.edu/buckley/Standard/downloads/showoriginal/wheretogoinsouthafricadotpdf_2852_buckleybuckleyarchivepublicationsbyyear1990columns/WhereToGoInSouthAfrica.pdf "Where to Go in South Africa,"] by [[William F. Buckley, Jr.]], [[Universal Press Syndicate]], December 27, 1990.</ref>
Following the Cold War's end, Johns helped advance pro-active American engagement in the post-Cold War world, running U.S. government-funded international economic and political development programs in post-[[Gulf War]] [[Kuwait]], [[Turkey]] and other nations.<ref>[http://www.nndb.com/org/683/000051530/ Michael Johns and International Republican Institute at Notable Names Database.]</ref> While Johns was one of the first and most adamant American advocates for U.S. aid to anti-communist resistance movements in their military uprisings against Soviet-backed governments during the Cold War, he also was quick to encourage U.S. restraint once they ceased being [[superpower]] conflicts. In March 1991, with the Cold War nearly over, Johns told ''[[The New York Times]]'' that the [[United States Department of State|U.S. State Department]]'s repeated denunciations of [[Muammar al-Gaddafi]] and threats of military conflict with the [[Libya]]n leader were becoming monotonous and counterproductive and the U.S. would be better served by simply developing "policies to curb his power projection."<ref>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE7D91F3AF934A25750C0A967958260 "Qaddafi Plays Quietly, but He's Still in the Game," ''The New York Times'', March 17, 1991.]</ref>
Throughout the 1990s, he was a prominent critic of several components of the [[Bill Clinton|Clinton administration's]] foreign policy. As the [[United Nations]], with support from the Clinton administration, began [[repatriation|repatriating]] [[Thailand]]-based [[Hmong people|Hmong]] veterans from [[Laotian Civil War|Vietnam's "Secret War"]] to [[Laos]], Johns was one of several influential opponents of the policy, labeling the repatriation a "betrayal."<ref>[http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n20_v47/ai_17443642 "Acts of Betrayal," by Michael Johns, ''National Review'', October 23, 1995.]</ref> Johns' position on the issue drew support, and the U.N. repatriation ultimately was halted. Tens of thousands of Hmong refugees at [[Wat Tham Krabok]] and various Thailand [[refugee]] camps subsequently were afforded expedited United States immigration rights.<ref>[http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/34813.pdf "Long Wait is Over: Hmong from Wat Tham Krabok Begin Arriving in U.S.," United States Department of State, Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, July 23, 2004.]</ref> However, when Clinton's decision to participate in a [[NATO]] intervention in [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]] drew criticism, Johns defended the Clinton decision, arguing that the conflict was a defining moment for U.S. engagement in [[Europe]] and that ignoring [[Serbs|Serbian]] ethnic genocide against [[Muslim]] [[Bosniaks]] would prove permanently damaging to U.S. human rights credibility in the [[Arab World|Arab world]].<ref>[http://www.worldandi.com/specialreport/1994/july/Sa11954.htm "How to Save Bosnia," by Michael Johns, ''The World and I'' magazine, July 1994.]</ref>
In the late 1990s, Johns was one of several U.S. conservatives who successfully urged the Clinton administration to reverse the U.S. government's long-standing policy of officially denying the existence of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]-supported covert "Secret War" in Laos and to honor the thousands of Hmong who provided support to U.S. air and ground combat operations against the [[Vietnam People's Army|North Vietnamese Army]] and [[National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam|Việt Cộng ]] during the [[Vietnam War]]. On [[May 15]], [[1997]], in a major reversal of the long-standing U.S. policy of denying the Secret War's existence, the U.S. government officially acknowledged it, recognizing the Hmong's contributions to the U.S. war effort with the opening of the [[Laos Memorial]], which was dedicated and opened in [[Arlington National Cemetery]] between the [[John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame]] and the [[Tomb of the Unknowns]].<ref>[http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n20_v47/ai_17443642 "Acts of Betrayal," by Michael Johns, ''National Review'', October 23, 1995.]</ref>
Johns has proven an influential proponent of many of the policies of President [[George W. Bush]], and has defended the Bush administration's military engagement in [[Iraq]]. "The [[Iraq War]] has become the [[epicenter]] in the [[War on Terrorism|global war against terrorism]], and the outcome in Iraq will ultimately be a key factor in determining whether [[September 11, 2001 attacks|September 11, 2001]] was the beginning of the end for [[al-Qaeda]], or whether, conversely, it was just the beginning of an era of global terror that grows in both scope and duration," Johns wrote in a widely-cited May 4, 2007 essay opposing a timetable for the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq.<ref name="may4">"[http://michaeljohnsonfreedomandprosperity.blogspot.com/2007/05/iraq-options-victory-or-what-exactly.html One Iraq Option Only: Victory]", by Michael Johns, May 4, 2007.</ref>
Johns also has challenged the allegations of some of Bush's harshest critics that the Bush administration consciously misrepresented U.S. intelligence findings on [[Saddam Hussein]]'s [[weapons of mass destruction]] to justify the [[2003 invasion of Iraq]]. Johns has responded that numerous [[Presidency of Bill Clinton|Clinton administration]] officials, including Vice President [[Al Gore]] and National Security Advisor [[Sandy Berger]], cited nearly identical intelligence conclusions regarding Saddam's possession of weapons of mass destruction in justifying Clinton's four-day 1998 bombing of Iraq, known as "[[Bombing of Iraq (December 1998)|Operation Desert Fox]]." Johns represents that the Clinton administration's nearly identical intelligence findings regarding Saddam's harboring of chemical and biological weapons is evidence that the Bush administration acted in good faith, and probably was technically correct, in alleging that Saddam was in possession of these weapons when the war was launched in 2003.
"It's certainly an extremely reasonable conclusion that Saddam's political maneuvering around [[Iraq and weapons of mass destruction|United Nations-ordered inspections]], which ultimately invited this war, were not designed to hide nothing," Johns argued in May 2007.<ref name="may4"/>
Johns is one of a handful of prominent U.S. conservatives and other political leaders who, since the September 11, 2001 attacks, have strongly criticized the [[United States television news|U.S. news media]]'s decision not to rebroadcast footage of the September 11 attack on the [[World Trade Center]] because some viewers purportedly found the footage unsettling. Johns has countered that the U.S. runs the risk of forgetting the magnitude of the September 11 attacks "because some components of our modern culture seem to want us to forget." And "we should be unsettled. We need to be unsettled."<ref name="may4"/>
Johns has been a strong advocate for revisions to current U.S. [[energy policy]], arguing that, while [[energy development|alternative energy]] sources such as [[ethanol]] may hold long-term usefulness in meeting some or all U.S. energy needs, U.S. access to [[petroleum]] is essential in the meantime and too little is being done to address this need, especially given vastly increased petroleum consumption in [[China]] and [[India]]. Johns has supported the relaxation of some U.S. energy [[regulation]]s, including simplifying federal and state regulations that currently govern [[gasoline]]'s formulated and unformulated contents, which the petroleum industry has said raises the cost of gasoline's production. Like other conservatives, Johns also has advocated expanding the U.S. [[oil reserves|oil supply]] by eliminating several federal and state regulations that currently prohibit [[well drilling|petroleum drilling]] in various U.S. coastal waters and in the oil-rich portion of [[Alaska]]'s [[Arctic National Wildlife Refuge]], known as ANWR.<ref>[http://michaeljohnsonfreedomandprosperity.blogspot.com/2007/04/its-still-about-oil.html "It's Still About Oil," by Michael Johns, April 30, 2007.]</ref>
====Federal government roles====
Johns has been a leading national public policy voice while at the conservative [[Heritage Foundation]] and has worked closely with leading American conservatives and moderates in support of numerous domestic and foreign policy initiatives. He also has served in several senior U.S. federal governmental capacities, including both houses of the [[United States Congress]] and the [[White House]]. In the [[United States Capitol|U.S. Congress]], Johns began his career in the [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. House of Representatives]] as a [[Lyndon B. Johnson|Lyndon Baines Johnson]] fellow with Congressman [[Donald L. Ritter]], a [[Conservatism in the United States|conservative]] Republican from [[Pennsylvania]]. He later served in the [[United States Senate|U.S. Senate]] as a senior aide to U.S. Senator [[Olympia Snowe]], an influential [[moderate]] Republican from [[Maine]], who ''Time'' magazine named one of the top 10 U.S. Senators in 2006.<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1183967,00.html "Olympia J. Snowe: The Caretaker," ''Time magazine'', April 14, 2006.]</ref>
Johns was a senior aide to [[Governor of New Jersey|New Jersey Governor]] [[Thomas Kean]] prior to Kean's appointment by President [[George W. Bush]] as Chairman of the [[9/11 Commission]]. He also was a White House speechwriter to [[President of the United States]] [[George H. W. Bush]].<ref>[http://www.nndb.com/people/884/000049737/ Michael Johns at the Notable Names Database]</ref>
In the George H. W. Bush White House, Johns was one of several senior Bush aides who helped define and advocate some of the policies that have come to be known as "compassionate conservatism," focusing on outreach to low and middle-income Americans and non-traditional Republican constituencies.<ref>[http://www.nndb.com/people/884/000049737/ Michael Johns at the Notable Names Database, accessed August 27, 2007.]</ref> In a June 2007 interview, he echoed a similar theme, saying: "the American dream is a great concept, but it's just that--a dream--if it doesn't touch people's lives in tangible ways."<ref>[http://www.crossandcrescent.com/2007/06/former-white-house-speechwriter/ "Michael Johns: Former White House Speechwriter," by Tad Lichtenauer, ''Cross & Crescent'', June 2007.]</ref> In his federal and state government capacities, Johns has worked exclusively with [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]s, but he also has been a staunch critic of what he sees as excessive [[Partisan (political)|partisanship]] in American politics, which he says is precluding greater national unity on critical national issues.<ref>[http://www.bottomlineryan.com/index-3.html Michael Johns national radio interview with ''The Bottom Line'', Episode 8, 2007].</ref> He has been praised for his ability to "position conservative ideas in ways that appeal to American moderates and sometimes even liberals."<ref>[http://www.crossandcrescent.com/2007/06/former-white-house-speechwriter/ "Michael Johns: Former White House Speechwriter," by Tad Lichtenauer, ''Cross & Crescent'', June 2007.]</ref>
====Author and writer====
Johns is the author of one book, ''U.S. and Africa Statistical Handbook'' ([[Heritage Foundation]], 1990, second edition, 1991), and a contributing author to two others, ''Freedom in the World: The Annual Guide of Political Rights and Civil Liberties'' ([[Freedom House]], 1993), and ''Finding Our Roots, Facing Our Future: America in the 21st Century'' (Madison Books, 1997).
Along with [[Jim Cramer]] and other prominent financial analysts, Johns is also a global market and stock columnist for the [[Wall Street]] newsletter ''[[Seeking Alpha]]''. In his May 7, 2007 column, Johns correctly predicted that global demand for petroleum was increasing at such a rate that the price per barrel, then selling at $65 per barrel, was likely to reach $100 per barrel before the end of 2007. In the column, Johns wrote: "With light sweet crude futures for June currently priced at roughly $65 a barrel, an ambitious short and long-term energy policy that enhances supply becomes important if, for no other reason, than the fact that, at $100 a barrel, the impact on this economy and the American people would be hugely painful. And in such a scenario, which could yet emerge this year or next, ethanol will not be this nation's salvation."<ref>"[http://seekingalpha.com/article/34720-america-s-energy-policy-it-s-still-all-about-oil America's 'Energy Policy': It's Still About Oil"], by Michael Johns, ''Seeking Alpha'', May 7, 2007.</ref> U.S. [[Futures exchange|oil futures]] increased steadily from there, surpassing the $100 a barrel mark eight months later, on January 2, 2008.<ref>[http://money.cnn.com/2008/01/02/markets/oil/index.htm "Oil Kicks Off Year By Hitting $100: Violence in Nigeria, supply disruption in Mexico and the prospect of another drop in U.S. inventories and more rate cuts drive crude to triple digits," CNN, January 2, 2008.]</ref>
Johns appears frequently on national and local television and radio, usually representing conservative and Republican-leaning views on public policy and politics. He is a regular guest on several [[Sirius Satellite Radio]] shows, including [[Ron Silver]]'s Indie Talk show.<ref>[http://michaeljohnsonfreedomandprosperity.blogspot.com/2008/04/michael-johns-to-discuss-his-support.html "Michael Johns to Discuss His Support for McCain Economic Plan," April 16, 2008.]</ref><ref>[http://michaeljohnsonfreedomandprosperity.blogspot.com/2008/05/michael-johns-to-speak-on-america-2013.html "Michael Johns to Speak on 'America, 2013'," May 19, 2008.]</ref>
In addition to his industry, government and public policy roles, Johns is also one of several prominent U.S.-based conservative blog authors. As of August 2007, his blog ranked highly, among the top 0.5 percent of all blogs on the World Wide Web in terms of total readership, according to the blog index [[Technorati]].<ref>[http://www.technorati.com/blogs/michaeljohnsonfreedomandprosperity.blogspot.com Michael Johns at Technorati, accessed August 27, 2007.]</ref>
==Career==
*Divisional head and corporate vice president, Electric Mobility Corporation, Sewell, New Jersey.<ref>[http://www.rascalinsurance.com/051205ms_society.shtml "Rascal Insurance Services Presents at National Multiple Sclerosis Society Annual Meeting," November 29, 2005.]</ref>
*Vice president, [[Gentiva Health Services]] (NASDAQ: GTIV), Long Island, New York.<ref>[http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=gtiv, Gentiva Health Services, Long Island, New York, at Yahoo Finance.]</ref>
*Senior associate, health care practice, S. R. Wojdak & Associates, Philadelphia.
*Manager, [[Eli Lilly and Company]] (NYSE: LLY), Indianapolis, Indiana.<ref>[http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=LLY Eli Lilly and Company, Indianapolis, at Yahoo Finance.]</ref>
*Director of research, International Republican Institute, Washington, D.C.<ref>[http://www.nndb.com/org/683/000051530/ International Republican Institute at Notable Names Database.]</ref>
*[[White House]] speechwriter to [[President of the United States]] [[George H. W. Bush]].
*Special assistant to former [[New Jersey]] Governor and [[9/11 Commission]] Chairman [[Thomas Kean]].
*Policy analyst, The [[Heritage Foundation]], Washington, D.C.
*Assistant editor, ''[[Policy Review]]'' magazine, Washington, D.C.<ref>[http://www.nndb.com/magazine/978/000050828/ ''Policy Review'' magazine at Notable Names Database.]</ref>
*Advisory board member, InvesTrend (global equity research firm).<ref>[http://financialwire.net/articles/article.asp?analystId=0&id=6715&topicId=270&level=270 Michael Johns at Financial Wire.]</ref>
*Author of ''U.S. and Africa Statistical Handbook'' (The [[Heritage Foundation]], [[1990]]; second ed., [[1991]]).
*Contributing author of ''Finding Our Roots, Facing Our Future: America in the 21st Century'' (Madison Books, Lanham, Maryland, [[1997]])<ref>
[http://www.amazon.com/dp/1568330928 ''Finding Our Roots, Facing Our Future: America in the 21st Century'', with chapter contributions by Michael Johns, et.al., Madison Books, Lanham, Maryland, 1997.]</ref>; and ''Freedom in the World: The Annual Guide of Political Rights and Civil Liberties'' ([[Freedom House]], New York City, [[1993]]).
*He has written for ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'', ''[[The Christian Science Monitor]]'', ''[[National Review]]'', [[Freedom House]]'s ''Freedom Review'' and other publications.
*National television appearances include [[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]]'s ''[[The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer|MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour]]'' and ''[[Nightly Business Report]]'', [[CNBC]], [[C-SPAN]], [[Fox Broadcasting Company|Fox Morning News]] and others.
*Inducted into University of Miami's prestigious [[Iron Arrow Honor Society]], [[1984]].<ref>
[http://www.nndb.com/org/483/000056315/ Iron Arrow Honor Society at Notable Names Database.]</ref>
==External links==
{{wikiquote|Michael Johns}}
*[http://michaeljohnsonfreedomandprosperity.blogspot.com/ Michael Johns articles and essays] from Google syndication, Mountain View, California.
*[http://technorati.com/blogs/michaeljohnsonfreedomandprosperity.blogspot.com Michael Johns at Technorati], San Francisco.
*[http://financialwire.net/articles/article.asp?analystId=0&id=6715&topicId=270&level=270 Michael Johns corporate biography at FinancialWire], New York City.
*[http://sonoranalliance.com/?p=2432 "Conservative Leader Michael Johns: 'We Will Prevail'," Sonoran Alliance, June 22, 2008].
*[http://www.crm-daily.com/perl/story/13481.html "Customer Concerns Mount in Tragedy Aftermath,"] by Kimberly Hill, ''Supply Chain Management'', Woodland Hills, California, September 12, 2001, quoting Michael Johns on [[Gentiva Health Services]]' emergency pharmaceutical delivery actions following [[September 11, 2001 attacks]].
*[http://www.worldandi.com/specialreport/2001/May/Sa21515.htm "Frontiers in Diagnostics,"] by Michael Johns, ''The World and I'' magazine, Washington, D.C., May 2001.
*[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n20_v47/ai_17443642 "Acts of Betrayal,"] by Michael Johns, ''[[National Review]]'', New York City, October 23, 1995.
*[http://cumulus.hillsdale.edu/buckley/Standard/downloads/showoriginal/wheretogoinsouthafricadotpdf_2852_buckleybuckleyarchivepublicationsbyyear1990columns/WhereToGoInSouthAfrica.pdf "Where to Go on South Africa,"] by [[William F. Buckley, Jr.]], [[Universal Press Syndicate]], December 27, 1990, citing Michael Johns' speech to United Nations on South Africa and economic sanctions.
*[http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r101:E16OC0-475: "With Freedom Near in Angola, This is No Time to Curtail UNITA Assistance,"] by Michael Johns, [[Heritage Foundation]] Executive Memorandum #276, Washington, D.C., July 31, 1990; entered in ''[[Congressional Record]]'', Washington, D.C., October 16, 1990.
*[http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r101:E11DE9-213: "Namibian Voters Deny Total Power to SWAPO,"] by Michael Johns, ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'', New York City, November 19, 1989; entered in ''[[Congressional Record]]'', Washington, D.C., November 21, 1989.
*[http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r101:E26OC9-320: "Savimbi's Elusive Victory in Angola,"] by Michael Johns, ''Human Events'' magazine, Washington, D.C.; entered in ''[[Congressional Record]]'', Washington, D.C., October 26, 1989.
==Notes==
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''Adapted from the SourceWatch article, [http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Michael_Johns Michael Johns], licensed under the [[GNU Free Documentation License]].''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johns, Michael}}
[[Category:1964 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:American businesspeople]]
[[Category:American economics writers]]
[[Category:American finance and investment writers]]
[[Category:American political writers]]
[[Category:American Lutherans]]
[[Category:American television personalities]]
[[Category:Financial analysts]]
[[Category:Eli Lilly and Company]]
[[Category:People from the Lehigh Valley]]
[[Category:United States presidential advisors]]
[[Category:University of Miami alumni]]