# Daniel Ellsberg

Daniel Ellsberg (April 7, 1931 – June 16, 2023) was a United States military analyst who, while employed by the RAND Corporation, released in 1971 the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret Pentagon study of US government decision-making about the Vietnam War, to The New York Times and other newspapers.
On January 3, 1973, Ellsberg was charged under the Espionage Act of 1917 along with other charges of theft and conspiracy, carrying a total maximum sentence of 115 years. Because of governmental misconduct and illegal evidence-gathering, and the defense by Leonard Boudin and Harvard Law School professor Charles Nesson, Judge William Matthew Byrne Jr., dismissed all charges against Ellsberg on May 11, 1973.

## Quotes

* That was a documentary!
** An exclamation Ellsberg made to a fellow government official, after they both watched the film Dr. Strangelove in 1964 recounted c. 2004.
* We weren't on the wrong side. We are the wrong side.
** Hearts and Minds (1974), a documentary of the Vietnam War
* The American public was lied to [about the Vietnam War] month by month by each of these five administrations [Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon]. It's a tribute to the American public that their leaders perceived that they had to be lied to. It's no tribute to us that it was so easy to fool the public.
** Hearts and Minds (1974), a documentary of the Vietnam War [1:17:35 onward]
* I took that opportunity to tell him something that, er, I had long thought of telling somebody that was about to enter the world of really high secrecy. And I said, 'Henry, you're about to get a lot of clearance higher than top secret that you did not know existed. That's going to have a sequence of effects on you. First, a great exhilaration that you're getting all this amazing information that you didn't know even existed. And the next phase is you'll feel like a fool for not having known about any of this. but that won't last long. Fairly soon, you'll come to think that everyone else is foolish. What would this expert be telling me if he knew what I knew? So in the end, you stop listening to them.
** On talking to Henry Kissinger about the effects of gaining high security clearance after Kissinger's first National Security Council with then president Richard Nixon. 'The Most Dangerous Man in America - Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers' 2009 Documentary.
* EVERY attack now made on WikiLeaks and Julian Assange was made against me and the release of the Pentagon Papers at the time.
* The question really arises is it a republic if you can keep it, question have we kept it? And the answer is no! No we have not kept it. Since 2001 we have in effect an elected monarchy. And ah, meaning a country which Nixon's view 'when a president does it, it is legal'. The president says it's not illegal. That is the attitude long after Nixon of John Yoo, who was the advisor to George W. Bush, of David Addington, Bush Cheney's legal advisor. Essentially there are no limits on presidential power except those which he chooses to put on himself. Obama following on, has in effect decriminalized torture which is as illegal and criminal as anything can be under international law and domestic law, a number of domestic laws and international laws, which we have ratified to investigate, and follow-up if there is any credible charge. Obama has chosen not to investigate or indict any higher up for that process of torture.
** THE WHISTLEBLOWER TOUR! Daniel Ellsberg, Jesselyn Radack & Thomas Drake, April 8, 2014, found at 1:48:08 - 1:49:31
* Chelsea Manning is again acting heroically in the name of press freedom, and it’s a travesty that she has been sent back to jail for refusing to testify to a grand jury. An investigation into WikiLeaks for publishing is a grave threat to all journalists’ rights, and Chelsea is doing us all a service for fighting it. She has already been tortured, spent years in jail, and has suffered more than enough. She should be released immediately.
** Ellsberg: Manning Acting Heroically for Press Freedom in WikiLeaks Case (8 March 2019)

## Quotes about

* I've always been with the one who rebels against false values. My heroes now are Ralph Nader and Daniel Ellsberg.
** 1971 interview included in Conversations with Anaïs Nin Edited by Wendy DuBow (2011)

## External links

* Official website