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Michael Ellsberg

50th Anniversary of the Pentagon Papers Release – 6/13/21

Fifty years ago today, on 6/13/71, the first set of excerpts from the Pentagon Papers was published in the New York Times: Vietnam Archive: Pentagon Study Traces 3 Decades of Growing U. S. Involvement. Leaked by Daniel Ellsberg, the 42-volume top-secret study revealed the history of Vietnam decision-making and the lies that were told by four U.S. presidents to cultivate public support for the war.

Selected Media Coverage

New York Times special report on the 50th anniversary of the Pentagon Papers:

—‘We’re Going to Publish’: An Oral History of the Pentagon Papers, New York Times, 6/9/21

—The Secrets and Lies of the Vietnam War, Exposed in One Epic Document, by Elizabeth Becker, New York Times, 6/9/21

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June 13, 2021 by

Daniel Ellsberg Makes New Unauthorized Disclosure: The Top-Secret 1958 Taiwan Straits Crisis Study

In 1958, a crisis over Quemoy and Matsu in the Taiwan Straits brought the world dangerously close to nuclear war. Morton Halperin’s top-secret 1966 study of the Taiwan Straits Crisis revealed the seriousness with which US military and civilian leaders considered using nuclear weapons against China. RAND’s publicly available version of the study has significant redactions that obscure the nature of the threat. Ellsberg has released an unredacted version of the study.

Main Article:
Risk of Nuclear War Over Taiwan in 1958 Said to Be Greater Than Publicly Known, by Charlie Savage, New York Times, 5/22/21

Follow-On Articles:
Daniel Ellsberg Is 90 Years Old and Still Causing Trouble, by Charles P. Pierce, Esquire, 5/24/21

US Generals Said Nuclear Bomb Would Tame Mao, by Ben Hoyle, The Times (UK), 5/24/21

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June 12, 2021 by

50th Anniversary of the Pentagon Papers: Conference, Course & Podcast at UMass Amherst

Although it is still being processed and is not fully accessible to the public, Daniel Ellsberg’s archive at UMass-Amherst is already in active use. The university’s recent acquisition of the Ellsberg papers, together with the pending Pentagon Papers 50th anniversary, informed the recent Truth and Dissent conference, a yearlong graduate course, a new archive web resource, and a 5-part podcast by GroundTruth.

—The University of Massachusetts-Amherst recently hosted Truth, Dissent & the Legacy of Daniel Ellsberg, a two-day online conference marking the 50th anniversary of the release of the Pentagon Papers. Ellsberg’s keynote address plus seven roundtable discussions explored the major issues that have engaged his life: the Vietnam War, nuclear weapons, antiwar resistance, the Pentagon Papers, Watergate, whistleblowing, and the wars of the 21st century. Videos of all of the sessions can be viewed here.

—In a related project, GroundTruth launched The Whistleblower. This five-part podcast series explores Ellsberg’s life story through exclusive interviews as well as archival materials.

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May 18, 2021 by

Ellsberg’s Archive at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst

Daniel Ellsberg’s papers have been acquired by the University of Massachusetts – Amherst and will be managed by its Special Collections and University Archives at the W.E.B. Du Bois Library. A week of activities at UMass in October 2019 marked the official launch of the archive and brought opportunities to engage the community on subjects of special interest.

In addition to his archive, Ellsberg joins the University of Massachusetts – Amherst community as a Distinguished Researcher at the W.E.B. Du Bois Library and a Distinguished Research Fellow at the university’s Political Economy Research Institute (PERI). Two videos from Ellsberg’s PERI presentations in October 2019:

—A lecture applying economic insights to the psychology of war planning: “The Dollar Auction, Unendable Wars, and Gambling with Catastrophe.”  (10/23/19)

—A panel discussion with Ellsberg, Gar Alperovitz and Janaki Tschanner following a showing of “The Most Dangerous Man in America,” a documentary film about Ellsberg.  (10/28/19)

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April 12, 2020 by

Daniel Ellsberg Interviewed by New York Magazine

Andrew Rice interviewed Daniel Ellsberg for a profile in New York Magazine.

Here are some passages:

“Keeping secrets was my career,” Daniel Ellsberg says. “I didn’t lose the aptitude for that when I put out the Pentagon Papers.” This might come as a shock, considering that the former Defense Department analyst is best known for leaking classified information nearly half a century ago, thus bringing about a landmark legal precedent in favor of press freedom and, indirectly, hastening the end of both the Vietnam War and the Nixon administration. But for many years, even as Ellsberg beat prosecution, became a peace activist, and wrote an autobiography titled Secrets, he still had something remarkable left to disclose….

The Doomsday Machine is being published at an alarmingly relevant moment, as North Korea is seeking the capability to target the United States with nuclear missiles, and an unpredictable president, Donald Trump, has countered with threats of “fire and fury.” Experts on North Korea say that the risk of a nuclear exchange is higher than it has been in recent memory. Ellsberg, as one of the few living members of the generation of theorists who devised our nuclear strike doctrines, has been grappling with such possibilities for much of his life. “It is kind of astonishing,” he says, “that people will put up with a non-zero chance of this happening.”….“It’s like living on Vesuvius — that’s what humans do,” Ellsberg said. “That’s why I think we’re likely to go.”…. Continue Reading

November 29, 2017 by

Documents Referenced in “The Doomsday Machine”

Referenced in: 

Introduction

Chapter 2

Chapter 8

Chapter 20

P. 310: Lecture Series on “The Art of Coercion: A Study of Threats in Economic Conflict and War,” 1959

November 20, 2017 by

“The Doomsday Machine” Reviewed by Greg Mitchell on BillMoyers.com

Greg Mitchell reviewed The Doomsday Machine  on BillMoyer.com:

“At a time when nuclear dangers grow, along with activism to combat them—elevated just this week by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons receiving the Nobel Peace Prize—Ellsberg’s book is a timely reminder of the nuclear threat and essential reading in the Trump era.”

Read the full review via the link above.

October 6, 2017 by

U.S. Nuclear Terrorism

[Daniel’s chapter in Transforming Terror: Remembering the Soul of the World, eds. Susan Griffin and Karin Lofthus Carrington]

Long after the ending of the Cold War, the chance that some nuclear weapons will kill masses of innocent humans somewhere, before very long, may well be higher than it was before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

One phase of the Nuclear Age, the period of superpower arms race and confrontation, has indeed come to a close (though the possibility of all-out, omnicidal exchange of alert forces triggered by a false alarm remains, inexcusably, well above zero).  But another dangerous phase now looms, the era of nuclear proliferation and with it, an increased likelihood of regional nuclear wars, accidents, and nuclear terrorism.  And the latter prospect is posed not just by “rogue” states or sub-state terrorists but by the United States, which has both led by example for sixty years of making nuclear first-use threats that amount to terrorism and may well be the first or among the first to carry out such threats. Continue Reading

August 30, 2009 by

Call to a Fast for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons

[Drafted and issued by Daniel Ellsberg, April, 1995]

The Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review and Extension Conference taking place at the United Nations from April 17 to May 12 offers a unique and historic opportunity for global rededication to the goal – expressed in the Treaty – of a world free of nuclear weapons.

We are asking world political and religious leaders, outstanding figures in the arts and sciences, and concerned citizens in every country to participate, by fasting for one day, or more, wherever they are, in a worldwide Fast for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons during the period of the Conference.

We invite you to join us in this Fast to bring a sense of moral urgency to the decisions being made in our name at the Conference.  They will affect the future of humanity and the fate of the earth. Continue Reading

August 6, 2009 by