New Delhi: Tributes from activists, public figures and journalists alike poured in on Friday for Pentagon Papers whistleblower and military analyst-turned-political activist Daniel Ellsberg who died Friday at the age of 92.
Whistleblower Edward Snowden shared an Ellsberg interview with The New York Times on the idea of classified documents, which Ellsberg had termed as “a system of control”.
The late Daniel Ellsberg on classified documents: "the secrecy system is predominantly to protect from embarrassment and accountability;" that it is a political "system for control," not protection of the public.
(via https://t.co/AxxlhP0Ebk) pic.twitter.com/ya06fwm0ua
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) June 16, 2023
Journalist Glenn Greenwald, who had in 2013 reported exclusive stories on classified documents leaked by Snowden, referred to Ellsberg as “a true American hero” and penned an article on his legacy for the Rolling Stone magazine.
Dan Ellsberg was a true American hero, one of my childhood heroes. He became the most vocal defender of Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, and others who followed in his brave footsteps.
I'll have an article in @RollingStone up shortly.https://t.co/vV6XXttkti
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 16, 2023
Human rights attorney and activist Steven Donziger paid tribute to Ellsberg, saying that the former US military analyst was a “singularly brave voice”.
Today the world lost a singularly brave voice who spoke truth about the US military machine in Vietnam and risked his life in the process. I drew deep inspiration from the courage of Daniel Ellsberg and was deeply honored to have his support.https://t.co/nXlxBUHSqq
— Steven Donziger (@SDonziger) June 16, 2023
The Pentagon Papers and fallout
“The main ball is Ellsberg. We’ve gotta get this son of a b****,” United States President Richard Nixon told Attorney General John Mitchell on 29 June 1971, as per White House archival tape recordings.
President Nixon’s bone of contention with military analyst Daniel Ellsberg that risked raising “holy hell” with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was Ellsberg’s leaking of the Pentagon Papers.
The Papers were a set of classified documents, revealed the extent of the US government’s systemic “lies” related to the country’s involvement in the Vietnam War.
Having been personally disaffected with the Vietnam War, Ellsberg used his designation to make photocopies of the documents and leaked them to academic scholars and journalists, starting with Neil Sheehan of The New York Times.
The leak came after Ellsberg’s experience with the US State Department in South Vietnam during Robert Macnamara’s tenure as Secretary of Defense, and the contributions he had made to the classified documents that made up the Pentagon Papers and years of working in the think tank RAND Corporation since the late 1950s.
The Times published Sheehan’s exclusive on the front page on 13 June 1971 with the headline “Vietnam Archive: Pentagon Study Traces 3 Decades of Growing U. S. Involvement”, which led to a snowball effect of far-reaching media coverage while Ellsberg was evading a FBI manhunt due to the leak.
Featuring 47 volumes that detailed the US’ role in the rise and subsequent overthrow of Vietnamese head of state Ngo Dinh Diem among other revelations, the Papers were subsequently covered extensively by the media across the country, particularly the Washington Post led by owner Katharine Graham.
The Nixon administration unsuccessfully tried to contain coverage by suing The New York Times, before targeting Ellsberg personally by setting up the White House Plumbers investigations unit.
Ellsberg surrendered by the end of June 1971 and, alongside his RAND colleague and confidant Anthony Russo, faced charges under the Espionage Act of 1917 alongside theft and conspiracy, carrying a combined maximum sentence of 115 years for Ellsberg and 35 years for Russo.
But the case proceedings itself revealed overreach from the Nixon administration, particularly illegal wiretapping of Ellsberg and by May 1973, with the Nixon administration mired in the Watergate scandal, all charges against Ellsberg and Russo were dismissed.
Ellsberg’s leak, The Washington Post’s coverage and the legacy of the Pentagon Papers scandal have all since been immortalised in popular culture, most recently in Steven Spielberg’s 2017 film ‘The Post’.
The veteran activist dedicated the rest of his life to supporting anti-war causes as well as subsequent whistleblowers, including Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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