Daniel Ellsberg, noted by history as the person who copied what became known as the Pentagon Papers. The entire affair consumed many a news cycle in the first half of the 1970s, and would continue to be covered periodically ever since. It led to a landmark SCOTUS decision on the 1st Amendment and freedom of the press, seemingly endless discussion (at the time) from the Nixon White House down to water coolers in offices and even in classrooms. (I was in high school during the height of the frenzy). It also led to one of the more notable manhunts in our history, and yet more precedent regarding what we now know as “whistleblowers” and a notable, failed prosecution under the terms of the Espionage Act thanks to Nixon’s obsession with “getting” Ellsberg which included turning the infamous “Plumbers” group on him.
Those abuses of Presidential power were one of the factors that led to Nixon’s downfall.
That’s an awful lot of history for one man, who never himself held elective office much less a national one to have been at the center of. Much will be said and written (again!) about Daniel Ellsberg in the days, weeks and months to come to be sure. I have no doubt I’ll be doing some of it myself. You’ll be hearing and reading plenty, and my suggestion is to take it all with a grain of salt because a lot of information about Ellsberg is as I write this being re-evaluated and edited. Hell, the Wikipedia link I included notes at the very top that the entry is undergoing “heavy editing.” (That’s an exact quote by the way.) I’m sure many other, and more solid as in limited as to who can edit entries/profiles of online information about the man will be doing some editing of their own.
But some facts are long established and can’t be altered. At least truthfully. You can bet the farm that all kinds of UN-truthful things will be said about Daniel Ellsberg, both to bolster him and to discredit him. And, as I say in the title of this given the actions of Ellsberg sneaking out volumes of that Rand Study we know as the Pentagon Papers, copying them and then giving copies of parts of it to media outlets is going to be distorted by Trump, his lawyers and the GOP as part of Team Trump’s defense against the charges he’s facing down in FL.
So who was Ellsberg? I’ll note a few things as well as my opinion on what led him to do what he did. And I will right here and now note it was widely known to his confidants and even the government prosecutors that he fully expected he’d wind up spending the rest of his life in prison. He knew it. If not for the actions of Nixon and his henchmen which tainted the evidence Ellsberg would have in fact gone to prison, if not for the rest of his life then for an awful lot of decades. His “getting off on a technicality” infuriated conservatives, many of whom even when confronted with the evidence of Nixon’s crimes and abuses of power still supported him.
So let’s delve into some of my opinions. I can recall when it was all happening in real time Ellsberg was celebrated by the left. Embraced as “one of them.” Yet I’d learn over time he was never comfortable with that. And if fact didn’t care for so much of the protests against Vietnam or the people who advocated and organized them. Did he want us out of that war? Absolutely. But the social upheaval those anti war protests that so often turned into riots bother him to no end. He was, rightly I believe when I look back concerned about the long term impacts it all would have on this country.
For such a brilliant man, his hope that the Pentagon Papers would galvanize Congress into forcing a quick treaty and withdrawal from Vietnam was hopelessly naive. So why did he do what he did? Why was it so important to him to choose a course of action he believed in his heart would cost him his freedom for the rest of his life?
It’s just my opinion mind you, but as a fellow jarhead I think the roots of it go back to the fact Ellsberg was the product of a different time. He wasn’t born into a wealthy, connected family but was brilliant and talented. His love in fact at one time was the piano and he was quite accomplished but after the death of his parents in an auto accident his passion for it diminished. He did earn an academic scholarship to Harvard, quite the change from the upper midwest environment he’d known till then. However Ellsberg as I noted wasn’t just smart but brilliant and more than held his own with the sons of elite families.
It WAS however a different time, and post WWII the culture of even Ivy League Schools encouraged those with elite educations include some sort of public service, if only for a while. A duty. Because they were destined for lives of privilege most would never have. Ellsberg was hardly the only such person who chose military service, which in his case was a stint in the Marines. He was commissioned as an officer and in the service when the French were driven from what was then called Indochina – Vietnam. He left military service in 1957 and completed his higher education at Harvard and had a stint at Cambridge on a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship during his graduate studies.
In 1959 he took a job at Rand and continued work towards his PhD. His dissertation was on decision making in ambiguous circumstances to put it in plain words. Then in 1964 he went to work at DOD as an assistant to John McNaughton. He would go on to spend two years in Vietnam working for General Edward Landsdale as part of the State Department.
It’s my belief that his time as a Platoon Commander in the Marines and during the time period he held that post whether during those years working for Landsdale or on junkets with McNaughton and others he actually got out there with the troops at times to see things for himself. “A$$ in the grass” as the expression went. His reports, that all was not in fact going well and the gaps between what was being told not just to high elected leaders back in DC (by the people he reported to) but the American public became something he could no longer abide. Enormous sums of money were being spent, tens of thousands of Americans had died or would die and even more Vietnamese in an unwinnable (particularly by American standards) required someone to do something to do what LBJ considered doing years earlier. Find a way that at least partially saved face to get us the hell out of that mess.
McNamara’s commissioning of the study of the history of Vietnam (which Ellsberg played a role in, covering a section of the early post WWII history) would wind up giving him his opportunity. Only fifteen copies of the study were printed, and as the “author” the Rand Corporation which Ellsberg had returned to had two of them. And you know what happened.
People will forever debate whether Ellsberg was right to do what he did. The debate on whether he should have gone to prison will also never end.
What matters in the here and now is that with his death, the whole thing about violating the Espionage Act (which was used to prosecute Ellsberg) is going to be twisted and distorted by Trump’s lawyers and all of his enablers. They will try to turn the tables and attack Democrats for support of Ellsberg over the years and now “persecuting” Trump – going so far as to try him under the very same law Ellsberg “got off scot free on.”
Think about it a minute and tell me that’s not going to start. And soon!
But, getting back firmly into opinion territory again I ask you to remember two things, and more importantly keep them in mind when you respond to what Team Trump will do:
- Ellsberg’s motives. He had actual expertise gained from direct experience and knowledge obtained in the thick of the war he was trying to get us out of. Whatever one might think of how right or wrong he was to do what he did his motives were noble and NOT for “leverage over enemies” or financial gain like Trump’s.
- Ellsberg copied and provided journalists with classified information (NOT anywhere near as sensitive as what Trump stole) believing, knowing that it would send him to prison for the rest of his life. If not for the misdeeds of Nixon and his henchmen in going after Ellsberg he might well have died in prison today rather than as a free man. Trump didn’t act out of duty or self-sacrifice to a cause more important than himself. No, Trump stole and held on to all that highly classified National Security information because, as his niece Mary has noted in recent days because he saw a benefit in to so to HIM.
As I said I’m sure I’ll have lots more to say on the man Daniel Ellsberg in the future, especially when as I am certain will be the case his actions will be MIS-used via distortions and outright lies by Donald Trump and his defenders.
Again, while I’ve included some fact in this a good amount of it is opinion and I hope where I’ve gone purely into opinion I’ve made it clear when I’ve done so. And I thank you for reading, and hope you’ll heed my admonition to be careful about accepting at face value what you will see and hear about Daniel Ellsberg moving forward.
Good points. I was close to being drafted for Vietnam, and Ellsberg’s actions ultimately saved my a$$, along with thousands of others. His actions were noble in my view because, as you stated, he fully expected to spend his life in prison, but sacrificed himself to stop an illegal war, justified by a lie, that ultimately killed 58,000 BOYS. Rest in peace Daniel and thank you for saving thousands of us.
Saigon fell just before I graduated from high school. In the late 60s, and even in the first part of high school I fully expected I and many of my friends would wind up in Vietnam, but by the time I was a junior and it was clear we’d turned most of the ground war over to them lower middle class white boys like me that had been fodder for draft boards in the 60s to prove they weren’t just sending minorities could breathe easy. Even in the first part of high school with the draft lottery having been implemented things looked less bleak. But still worrisome. I watched them out of curiosity and one year I had a pretty low number and would have been drafted. The next it was high enough that it was probably high enough I wouldn’t get called up. But growing up six miles from a major university that saw some of the more memorable protests that got out of hand it was a helluva time to live through.
Yes. He is a true American hero. He did the right thing to save others and the country, even though he thought it would come at a high personal cost.
Contrast with Dimwit Donny who NEVER does anything for personal cost, but always for personal profit.
I’m not sure TFG and his “attorneys” will draw the same connection you did. After all, he’s still talking about Hillary and the Biden Crime family. Ellsberg would have been prosecuted and spent most, if not all, of the rest of his life in prison, if not for the criminal actions of Nixon. So, I don’t think this really works in their favor.
The truth of things, as you say wouldn’t work in their favor. But this is Trump and the MAGAs we’re talking about and my point is that they will distort the facts and LIE. Make up a whole version of things that MAGA goobers will swallow whole. Especially with GOPer Congress Critters and Fauz Nooz helping Trump sell a steaming pile of sh*t. More importantly, one or two of the jurors might buy it, at least enough to hold out create a hung jury using it as “reasonable” doubt as in “well, this goy got off so Trump should too.” And I guarantee you that draft dodging sonavabitch Trump will remember that time well, and especially Ellsberg not going to prison. Even if he doesn’t quite make the connection that he can spin the affair in his favor someone will suggest it to him and he’ll have an “aha!” moment & we’re off to the races. For a while now Trump’s been in full blown throw everything from bottles of ketchup to sh*t at the wall to find something, ANYTHING that will stick. That’s why I fully expect this to become yet another but because of the attention Ellsberg’s death will get it might have a chance of sticking on that wall for a while.