View source for Daniel Ellsberg

{{Short description|American whistleblower, political activist (1931–2023)}}
{{Use American English|date=March 2023}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Daniel Ellsberg
| image              = Daniel Ellsberg at 1972 press conference (cropped 3).jpg
| caption            = Ellsberg in 1972
| birth_date         = {{Birth date|1931|04|07}}
| birth_place        = Chicago, Illinois,<!-- DO NOT LINK this, see [[MOS:OVERLINK]]. --> U.S.
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|2023|06|16|1931|04|07}}
| death_place        = [[Kensington, California]], U.S.
| education          = {{ubl|{{nowrap|[[Harvard University]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|AB]], PhD)}}|[[King's College, Cambridge]]}}
| employer           = [[RAND Corporation]]
| known_for          = {{ubl|[[Pentagon Papers]]|[[Ellsberg paradox]]}}
| spouse             = {{ubl|{{marriage|Carol Cummings|1952|1965|end=div}}|{{marriage|Patricia Marx|1970}}}}
| children           = {{hlist|[[Robert Ellsberg|Robert]]|[[Mary Ellsberg|Mary]]|[[Michael Ellsberg|Michael]]}}
| website            = {{URL|ellsberg.net}}
| module             = {{Infobox military person
| embed              = yes
| allegiance         = <!-- United States; obvious -->
| branch             = [[United States Marine Corps]]
| serviceyears       = 1954–1957
| rank               = [[First lieutenant]]
| unit               = [[2nd Marine Division]]
}}
}}

'''Daniel Ellsberg''' (April 7, 1931{{Snd}}June 16, 2023) was an American political activist, economist, and [[United States military]] analyst. While employed by the [[RAND Corporation]], he precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released the ''[[Pentagon Papers]]'', a top-secret [[The Pentagon|Pentagon]] study of [[Federal government of the United States|U.S. government]] decision-making in relation to the [[Vietnam War]], to ''[[The New York Times]]'', ''[[The Washington Post]]'', and other newspapers.

In January 1973, Ellsberg was charged under the [[Espionage Act of 1917]] along with other charges of theft and conspiracy, carrying a maximum sentence of 115 years. Because of governmental misconduct and illegal evidence-gathering (committed by the same people who later would be involved in the [[Watergate scandal]]), and his defense by [[Leonard Boudin]] and Harvard Law School professor [[Charles Nesson]], Judge [[William Matthew Byrne Jr.]] dismissed all charges against Ellsberg in May 1973.

Ellsberg was awarded the [[Right Livelihood Award]] in 2006. He was also known for having formulated an important example in [[decision theory]], the [[Ellsberg paradox]]; for his extensive studies on [[nuclear weapon]]s and [[Nuclear weapons of the United States|nuclear policy]]; and for voicing support for [[WikiLeaks]], [[Chelsea Manning]], and [[Edward Snowden]]. Ellsberg was awarded the 2018 [[Olof Palme Prize]] for his "profound humanism and exceptional moral courage".<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.palmefonden.se/2018-daniel-ellsberg-2/|title=2018 – Daniel Ellsberg {{!}} Olof Palmes Minnesfond |language=sv-SE|access-date=January 9, 2019}}</ref>  He was a   founding member of [[Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity]].

==Early life and career==
Ellsberg was born in Chicago, Illinois, on April 7, 1931, the son of Harry and Adele (Charsky) Ellsberg. His parents were [[Ashkenazi Jews]] who had converted to [[Christian Science]], and he was raised as a Christian Scientist. In 2008, Ellsberg told a journalist that his parents considered the family Jewish, "but not in religion."<ref>Jewish Telegraphic Agency June 16, 2023</ref>

Ellsberg grew up in Detroit and attended the [[Cranbrook Schools|Cranbrook School]] in nearby [[Bloomfield Hills, Michigan|Bloomfield Hills]]. His mother wanted him to be a [[Pianist#Classical pianists|concert pianist]], but he stopped playing in July 1948, two years after both his mother and sister were killed when his father fell asleep at the wheel and crashed the family car into a bridge [[abutment]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ml_ZepYWGdkC&pg=PA36|title=Wild Man: The Life and Times of Daniel Ellsberg|first=Tom|last=Wells|year=2001|pages=36, 39, 70–95, 267|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|via=Google Books|isbn=9780312177195}}</ref>

Ellsberg entered [[Harvard College]] on a scholarship, graduating ''[[Latin honors#Distinctions|summa cum laude]]'' with an [[Bachelor of Arts|A.B.]] in economics in 1952. He studied at [[King's College, Cambridge]], for a year through funding from the [[The Institute for Citizens & Scholars|Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation]], initially for a diploma in economics and then changed his credits toward a PhD in the subject, before returning to Harvard.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.umass.edu/ellsberg/document/letter-from-cambridge-university-general-board-of-faculties-to-daniel-ellsberg-february-5-1953/ | title=Letter from Cambridge University General Board of Faculties to Daniel Ellsberg, February 5, 1953 &#124; }}</ref> In 1954, he enlisted in the [[United States Marine Corps]] and earned a commission.<ref name=bookragsbio/> He served as a platoon leader and company commander in the [[2nd Marine Division]], and was discharged in 1957 as a [[first lieutenant]].<ref name=bookragsbio/> Ellsberg returned to Harvard as a Junior Fellow in the [[Harvard Society of Fellows|Society of Fellows]] for two years.<ref name=bookragsbio/>

==RAND Corporation and PhD==
Ellsberg began working as a strategic analyst at the [[RAND Corporation]] for the summer of 1958 and then permanently in 1959.<ref>{{cite episode
 | title = Daniel Ellsberg Explains Why He Leaked The Pentagon Papers
 | url = https://www.npr.org/2018/01/19/579101965/daniel-ellsberg-explains-why-he-leaked-the-pentagon-papers | series = Fresh Air | series-link = Fresh Air
 | credits = Host: Dave Davies | network = National Public Radio
 | station = WHYY-FM | air-date = December 4, 2017 }}</ref> He concentrated on [[nuclear strategy]], working with leading strategists such as [[Herman Kahn]] and challenging the existing plans of the [[United States National Security Council]] and [[Strategic Air Command]].<ref name=Anderson>{{citation |last=Anderson |first=David L. |page=201 |title=The Human Tradition in the Vietnam Era |year=2000 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-0-8420-2763-2 |chapter=Daniel Ellsberg}}</ref>

Ellsberg completed a PhD in economics from Harvard in 1962.<ref name=bookragsbio>Daniel Ellsberg Biography @ Encyclopedia of World Biography, via [http://www.bookrags.com/biography/daniel-ellsberg BookRags.com]</ref> His dissertation on [[decision theory]] was based on a set of thought experiments that showed that decisions under conditions of [[uncertainty]] or [[ambiguity]] generally may not be consistent with well-defined subjective probabilities. Now known as the [[Ellsberg paradox]],<ref name=Ellsberg1961>{{Cite journal |last=Ellsberg|first=Daniel|author-link=Daniel Ellsberg|journal=[[Quarterly Journal of Economics]]|volume=75|title=Risk, Ambiguity, and the Savage Axioms|year=1961|pages=643–669 |doi=10.2307/1884324|issue=4 |jstor=1884324 |url=http://www.dklevine.com/archive/refs47605.pdf}}</ref> it formed the basis of a large literature that has developed since the 1980s, including approaches such as [[Choquet expected utility]] and [[info-gap decision theory]].<ref>{{citation |url=https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/sds/docs/golman/information-gaps-for-risk-and-ambiguity-golman_gurney_loewenstein-final-june-2020.pdf |title=Information Gaps for Risk and Ambiguity |publisher=Carnegie Mellon University |year=2020 |author1=Russell Golman |author2=Nikolos Gurney |author3=George Loewenstein}}</ref>

Ellsberg worked in [[the Pentagon]] from August 1964<ref name=BBC4>[[BBC Four]] ''[[Storyville (television series)|Storyville]] – 2009–2010 – 14. The Most Dangerous Man in America''</ref> under [[United States Secretary of Defense|Secretary of Defense]] [[Robert McNamara]] as special assistant to Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs [[John McNaughton (government official)|John McNaughton]]. He then went to [[South Vietnam]] for two years, working for General [[Edward Lansdale]] as a member of the [[United States Department of State|State Department]].<ref>{{citation |url=https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKellsberg.htm |title=Daniel Ellsberg |publisher=Spartacus Educational |author=John Simkin |year=1997}}</ref>

On his return from South Vietnam, Ellsberg resumed working at RAND. In 1967, he contributed with 33 other analysts to a top-secret 47-volume study of [[Classified information|classified]] documents on the conduct of the Vietnam War, commissioned by Defense Secretary McNamara and supervised by [[Leslie H. Gelb]] and [[Morton Halperin]].<ref name=upi1971yearinreview>{{cite web|title=The Pentagon Papers|work=1971 Year in Review|agency=United Press International|year=1971|url=http://www.upi.com/Audio/Year_in_Review/Events-of-1971/The-Pentagon-Papers/12295509436546-7|access-date=July 2, 2010}}</ref><ref name="Sheehan on authors 1971"/><ref name="Goldsmith 2011"/> These 7,000 pages of documents, completed in late 1968 and presented to McNamara and [[Clark Clifford]] early in the following year, later became known collectively as the "Pentagon Papers".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.movieweb.com/movie/FIjiysnlYYSwnm/REqtSvvuifNltz |title=The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (2010) |publisher=Movieweb.com |access-date=December 2, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100125071147/http://www.movieweb.com/movie/FIjiysnlYYSwnm/REqtSvvuifNltz |archive-date=January 25, 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Goldsmith 2011">{{cite web |last=Goldsmith|first=Rick |title=Opinion - Tale of the Pentagon Papers | website=The New York Times | date=June 11, 2011 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/opinion/l12pentagon.html | access-date=June 27, 2023}}</ref><ref name="Sheehan on authors 1971 ">{{cite web |last=Sheehan|first=Neil| title=Most Authors Were Given A Promise of Anonymity | website=The New York Times | date=June 18, 1971 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/06/18/archives/most-authors-were-given-a-promise-of-anonymity-pledge-was-given.html | access-date=June 27, 2023}}</ref>

==Disaffection with Vietnam War==
By 1969, Ellsberg began attending [[anti-war]] events while still remaining in his position at RAND. In April 1968, Ellsberg attended a [[Princeton University]] conference on "Revolution in a Changing World", where he met [[Mahatma Gandhi|Gandhian]] peace activist [[Janaki Natarajan Tschannerl]] from India, who had a profound influence on him, and [[Eqbal Ahmed]], a Pakistani fellow at the Adlai Stevenson Institute later to be indicted with Rev. [[Philip Berrigan]] for anti-war activism.  Ellsberg particularly recalled Tschannerl saying "In my world, there are no enemies", and that "she gave me a vision, as a Gandhian, of a different way of living and resistance, of exercising power nonviolently."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Lukas |first1=J. Anthony |title=After the Pentagon Papers |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/12/12/archives/a-month-in-the-new-life-of-daniel-ellsberg-the-new-life-of-daniel.html |access-date=July 5, 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=December 12, 1971}}</ref>

Ellsberg experienced an [[epiphany (feeling)|epiphany]] attending a [[War Resisters International]] conference at [[Haverford College]] in August 1969, listening to a talk given by [[Randy Kehler]], a [[draft resister]], who said he was "very excited" that he would soon be able to join his friends in prison.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://hyp.is/M4GAugGYEei1At-CibjmnQ/janksreviews.com/post-indepth-review/|title=The Post – In-Depth Review|last=Farrow|first=Chas|access-date=January 24, 2018}}</ref>
Decades later, Ellsberg described his reaction to hearing Kehler speak:{{blockquote|And he said this very calmly. I hadn't known that he was about to be sentenced for draft resistance. It hit me as a total surprise and shock, because I heard his words in the midst of actually feeling proud of my country listening to him. And then I heard he was going to prison. It wasn't what he said exactly that changed my worldview. It was the example he was setting with his life. How his words in general showed that he was a stellar American, and that he was going to jail as a very deliberate choice{{snd}}because he thought it was the right thing to do. There was no question in my mind that my government was involved in an unjust war that was going to continue and get larger. Thousands of young men were dying each year. I left the auditorium and found a deserted men's room. I sat on the floor and cried for over an hour, just sobbing. The only time in my life I've reacted to something like that.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Thomas |first1=Marlo |title=The Right Words at the Right Time |date=2002 |publisher=Atria Books |location=New York |isbn=0-7434-4649-6 |pages=101–102}}</ref>}}

Reflecting on Kehler's decision, Ellsberg added:{{blockquote|Randy Kehler never thought his going to prison would end the war. If I hadn't met Randy Kehler it wouldn't have occurred to me to copy [the Pentagon Papers]. His actions spoke to me as no mere words would have done. He put the right question in my mind at the right time.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Thomas |first1=Marlo |title=The Right Words at the Right Time |date=2002 |publisher=Atria Books |location=New York |isbn=0-7434-4649-6 |page=103}}</ref>}}

After leaving RAND, Ellsberg was employed as a senior research associate at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]'s Center for International Studies from 1970 to 1972.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/08/09/archives/daniel-ellsberg-of-mit-marries-patricia-marx.html|title=Daniel Ellsberg of M.I.T. Marries Patricia Marx|newspaper=The New York Times|date=August 9, 1970}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://search.marquiswhoswho.com/profile/100003623445|title = Marquis Biographies Online}}</ref>

In a 2002 memoir, Ellsberg wrote about the Vietnam War, stating that:<ref>Stone, Oliver and Kuznick, Peter, "The Untold History of the United States" (New York: Gallery Books, 2012) p. 384 ''citing'' Daniel Ellsberg, "Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers" (New York: Viking, 2002), pp. 258–260</ref>
<blockquote>It was no more a "civil war" after 1955 or 1960 than it had been during the U.S.–supported French attempt at colonial reconquest. A war in which one side was {{em|entirely}} equipped and paid by a foreign power{{Snd}}which dictated the nature of the local regime in its own interest{{Snd}}was not a civil war. To say that we had "interfered" in what is "really a civil war," as most American academic writers and even liberal critics of the war do to this day, simply screened a more painful reality and was as much a myth as the earlier official one of "aggression from the North." In terms of the [[Charter of the United Nations|UN Charter]] and of our own avowed ideals, it was a war of foreign aggression, American aggression.
</blockquote>

==The ''Pentagon Papers''==
[[File:Daniel Ellsberg at 1972 press conference (cropped).jpg|thumb|Ellsberg, speaking at a press conference, New York City, 1972]]
{{Main|Pentagon Papers}}
In late 1969, with the assistance of his former RAND Corporation colleague [[Anthony Russo (whistleblower)|Anthony Russo]], Ellsberg secretly made several sets of photocopies of the classified documents to which he had access; these later became known as the ''Pentagon Papers''. They revealed that, early on, the government had knowledge that the war as then resourced could most likely not be won. Further, as an editor of ''The New York Times'' was to write much later, these documents "demonstrated, among other things, that the [[Lyndon B. Johnson#Presidency (1963–1969)|Johnson Administration]] had systematically lied, not only to the public but also to [[U.S. Congress|Congress]], about a subject of transcendent national interest and significance".<ref name="Apple">{{Cite news|last=Apple|first=R.W.|author-link=R. W. Apple, Jr.|title=Pentagon Papers|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|location=New York|date=June 23, 1996|url=http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/p/pentagon_papers/index.html?scp=1-spot&sq=pentagon%20papers&st=cse|quote=Johnson Administration had systematically lied, not only to the public but also to Congress|access-date=July 2, 2010}}</ref>

Shortly after Ellsberg copied the documents, he resolved to meet some of the people who had influenced both his change of heart on the war and his decision to act. One of them was Randy Kehler. Another was the poet [[Gary Snyder]], whom he had met in Kyoto in 1960, and with whom he had argued about U.S. foreign policy; Ellsberg was finally prepared to concede that Snyder had been right, about both the situation and the need for action against it.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Halper|first=Jon|title=Gary Snyder: dimensions of a life|publisher=Sierra Club Books|year=1991|isbn=978-0-87156-636-2|url=https://archive.org/details/garysnyderdimens00halp}}</ref>

===Release and publication===
Throughout 1970, Ellsberg covertly attempted to persuade a few sympathetic [[United States Senate|U.S. Senators]]{{Snd}}among them [[J. William Fulbright]], chair of the [[United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations|Senate Foreign Relations Committee]], and [[George McGovern]], a leading opponent of the war{{Snd}}to release the papers on the Senate floor, because a Senator could not be prosecuted for anything he said on the record before the Senate.<ref>Sanford J. Ungar, The Papers & The Papers, An Account of the Legal and Political Battle Over the Pentagon Papers, 1972, E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., New York; p. 127</ref>

Ellsberg allowed some copies of the documents to circulate privately, including among scholars at the [[Institute for Policy Studies]] (IPS), [[Marcus Raskin]] and [[Ralph Stavins]].<ref name="AP obituary 2023">{{cite web|last=Italie|first=Hillel|url=https://apnews.com/article/daniel-ellsberg-vietnam-war-pentagon-papers-12f57b417c372c1b8760a21d447cb502|title=Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked Pentagon Papers exposing Vietnam War secrets, dies at 92|website=Associated Press of New York (AP)|date=June 16, 2023|access-date=June 26, 2023}}</ref><ref name="Secrets"/> Ellsberg also shared the documents with ''The New York Times'' correspondent and former Vietnam-era acquaintance [[Neil Sheehan]], who wrote a story based on what he had received both directly from Ellsberg and from contacts at IPS.<ref name=wildmanreviewinreason>{{Cite news|last=Young |first=Michael |title=The devil and Daniel Ellsberg: From archetype to anachronism (review of ''Wild Man: The Life and Times of Daniel Ellsberg'') |newspaper=[[Reason (magazine)|Reason]] |page=2 |date=June 2002 |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1568/is_2_34/ai_85701104 |access-date=July 2, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090830070005/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1568/is_2_34/ai_85701104/ |archive-date=August 30, 2009 }}</ref><ref name="Secrets"/><ref name="Scott 2021">{{cite web | title=How Neil Sheehan Got the Pentagon Papers |last=Scott|first=Janny| website=The New York Times | date=January 7, 2021 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/07/us/pentagon-papers-neil-sheehan.html | access-date=June 25, 2023}}</ref> While Ellsberg had asked him to only take notes of the documents in his apartment, Sheehan defied Ellsberg's wishes on March 2,<ref name="Secrets"/><ref name="Chokshi 2017">{{cite web | title=Behind the Race to Publish the Top-Secret Pentagon Papers|last=Chokshi|first=Niraj | website=The New York Times | date=December 20, 2017 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/20/us/pentagon-papers-post.html | access-date=June 26, 2023}}</ref> by frantically copying them in various Boston-area shops while Ellsberg was vacationing in the West Indies. Sheehan then flew the copies to his home in Washington and then New York.<ref name="Scott 2021"/><ref name="Sanger Scott 2021">{{cite web | last1=Sanger | first1=David E. |last2=Scott|first2=Janny|last3=Harlan|first3=Jennifer|last4=Gallagher|first4=Brian|title='We're Going to Publish': An Oral History of the Pentagon Papers | website=The New York Times | date=June 9, 2021 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/06/09/us/pentagon-papers-oral-history.html|archive-date=June 13, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210613071158/https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/06/09/us/pentagon-papers-oral-history.html| access-date=June 26, 2023}}</ref>

On Sunday, June 13, 1971, ''[[The New York Times]]'' published the first of nine excerpts from, and commentaries on, the 7,000-page collection. For 15 days, ''The New York Times'' was prevented from publishing its articles by court order requested by the [[Nixon administration]]. Meanwhile, while eluding an [[FBI]] manhunt for thirteen days, Ellsberg gave the documents to [[Ben Bagdikian]], then-national editor of ''[[The Washington Post]]'' and former RAND Corporation colleague, in a Boston-area motel.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers|journal=The Nation|author=H. Bruce Franklin|date=July 9, 2001|url=http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~hbf/ELLSBERG.htm|access-date=July 15, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509054438/http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~hbf/ELLSBERG.htm|archive-date=May 9, 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Secrets"/> On June 30, the [[U.S. Supreme Court]] allowed the resumption of publication by ''The New York Times'' (''[[New York Times Co. v. United States]]''). Two days prior to the Supreme Court's decision, Ellsberg publicly admitted his role in releasing the Pentagon Papers to the press, and surrendered to federal authorities at the U.S. Attorney's office in Boston.<ref name="Secrets">{{Cite book|last=Ellsberg|first=Daniel|author-link=Daniel Ellsberg|title=Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers|publisher=Viking Press|location=New York|year=2002|isbn=978-0-670-03030-9|url=https://archive.org/details/secretsmemoirofv02ells}}</ref>

On June 29, 1971, U.S. Senator [[Mike Gravel]] of Alaska entered 4,100 pages of the Papers into the record of his Subcommittee on Public Buildings and Grounds{{Snd}}pages which he had received from Ellsberg via Ben Bagdikian on June 26.<ref>{{citation |url=https://freedom.press/news/fifty-years-ago-today-senator-mike-gravel-read-the-pentagon-papers-into-the-official-record-more-lawmakers-should-follow-his-lead/ |title=Fifty years ago today, Senator Mike Gravel read the Pentagon Papers into the official record. |author=Parker Higgins |date=June 29, 2021 |publisher=Freedom of the Press Foundation}}</ref><ref name="Secrets"/>

===Fallout===
The release of these papers was politically embarrassing not only to those involved in the [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]] and [[Lyndon Johnson|Johnson]] administrations, but also to the incumbent Nixon administration. Nixon's [[Watergate tapes|Oval Office tape]] from June 14, 1971, shows [[H. R. Haldeman]] describing the situation to Nixon:<ref>{{Cite news |last=Meadows |first=Eddie |date=June 14, 1971 |title=Oval office meeting with Bob Haldelman, Nixon Presidential Materials Project, Oval-519, Cassette 747 |url=http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB48/nixon.html |newspaper=audio tape}}</ref>

[[File:Nixon Oval Office meeting with H.R. Haldeman, Monday, 14 June 1971, 309 p.m.wav|thumb|Nixon Oval Office meeting with H.R. Haldeman, Monday, June 14, 1971, 3:09&nbsp;pm (Quote begins at about 7:30 into the recording.)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB48/oval.pdf|title=Transcript <!-- here -->}}</ref>]]
{{blockquote|[[Donald Rumsfeld|Rumsfeld]] was making this point this morning... To the ordinary guy, all this is a bunch of gobbledygook. But out of the gobbledygook comes a very clear thing.... You can't trust the government; you can't believe what they say; and you can't rely on their judgment; and the{{snd}}the implicit infallibility of presidents, which has been an accepted thing in America, is badly hurt by this, because It shows that people do things the president wants to do even though it's wrong, and the president can be wrong.}}

[[John N. Mitchell|John Mitchell]], Nixon's [[United States Attorney General|Attorney General]], almost immediately issued a telegram to ''The New York Times'' ordering that it halt publication. ''The New York Times'' refused, and the government brought suit against it.

Although ''The New York Times'' eventually won the case before the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]], prior to that, an [[appellate court]] ordered that the ''New York Times'' temporarily halt further publication. This was the first time the federal government was able to restrain the publication of a major newspaper since the presidency of [[Abraham Lincoln]] during the [[U.S. Civil War]]. Ellsberg released the Pentagon Papers to seventeen other newspapers in rapid succession.<ref>''The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers''</ref> The right of the press to publish the papers was upheld in ''[[New York Times Co. v. United States]]''. The Supreme Court ruling has been called one of the "modern pillars" of [[First Amendment to the United States Constitution|First Amendment]] rights with respect to freedom of the press.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110318192603/http://www.america.gov/st/democracyhr-english/2008/June/20080630215145eaifas0.6333842.html U.S. Department of State (June 23, 2008) Freedom of the Press]. Retrieved July 15, 2019.</ref>

In response to the leaks, Nixon White House staffers began a campaign against further leaks and against Ellsberg personally.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/12-9-2002-31884.asp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041128031733/http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/12-9-2002-31884.asp |url-status=usurped |archive-date=November 28, 2004 |title=Portrait: Daniel Ellsberg |publisher=Buzzle.com |date=December 9, 2002 |access-date=July 21, 2021 }}</ref> Aides [[Egil Krogh]] and [[David Young (Watergate)|David Young]], under the supervision of [[John Ehrlichman]], created the "[[White House Plumbers]]", which would later lead to the Watergate burglaries. [[Richard Holbrooke]], a friend of Ellsberg, came to see him as "one of those accidental characters of history who show the pattern of a whole era" and thought that he was the "triggering mechanism for events which would link Vietnam and [[Watergate]] in one continuous 1961-to-1975 story."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century|last=Packer|first=George|publisher=Knopf|year=2019|isbn=9780307958037|location=NY|pages=145|oclc=1043051114}}</ref>

==Fielding break-in==
[[File:Daniel Ellsberg psychiatrist filing cabinet.jpg|thumb|Fielding's filing cabinet, with break-in marks, on display at the [[Smithsonian National Museum of American History]]]]
In August 1971, Krogh and Young met with [[G. Gordon Liddy]] and [[E. Howard Hunt]] in a basement office in the [[Old Executive Office Building]]. Hunt and Liddy recommended a "covert operation" to get a "mother lode" of information about Ellsberg's mental state to discredit him. Krogh and Young sent a memo to Ehrlichman seeking his approval for a "covert operation [to] be undertaken to examine all of the medical files still held by Ellsberg's psychiatrist", Lewis Fielding. Ehrlichman approved under the condition that it be "done under your assurance that it is not traceable."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/30/opinion/30krogh.html|first=Egil|last=Krogh|author-link=Egil Krogh|title=The Break-In That History Forgot|journal=The New York Times|date=June 30, 2007}}</ref>

On September 3, 1971, the burglary of Fielding's office{{Snd}}titled "Hunt/Liddy Special Project No. 1" in Ehrlichman's notes{{Snd}}was carried out by [[White House Plumbers]] Hunt, Liddy, [[Eugenio Martínez]], Felipe de Diego, and [[Bernard Barker]] (the latter three were, or had been, recruited CIA agents).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/325566/united-states-v-felipe-de-diego/ |title=United States v. Felipe de Diego, 511 F.2d 818 |website=CourtListener.com |publisher=[[Free Law Project]] |year=1975 |access-date=December 5, 2017}}</ref> The Plumbers found Ellsberg's file, but it apparently did not contain the potentially embarrassing information they sought, as they left it discarded on the floor of Fielding's office.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hougan|first=Jim |title=Secret Agenda |publisher=[[Random House]] |year=1984 |isbn=978-0-394-51428-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/secretagendawate00houg |author-link=Jim Hougan }}</ref> Hunt and Liddy subsequently planned to break into Fielding's home, but Ehrlichman did not approve the second burglary. The break-in was not known to Ellsberg or to the public until it came to light during Ellsberg's and Russo's trial in April 1973.<ref name=Smithsonian>{{citation |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-worlds-most-famous-filing-cabinet-36568830/ |title=The World's Most Famous Filing Cabinet |author=Owen Edwards |year=2012 |work=Smithsonian Magazine}}</ref>

==Trial and dismissal==
On June 28, 1971, two days before a Supreme Court ruling saying that a federal judge had ruled incorrectly about the right of ''The New York Times'' to publish the Pentagon Papers,<ref name=upi1971yearinreview/> Ellsberg publicly surrendered to the [[United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts|United States Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts]] in [[Boston]]. In admitting to giving the documents to the press, Ellsberg said:
{{blockquote|I felt that as an [[Citizenship of the United States|American citizen]], as a responsible citizen, I could no longer cooperate in concealing this information from the American public. I did this clearly at my own jeopardy and I am prepared to answer to all the consequences of this decision.<ref name=upi1971yearinreview/>}}
He and Russo faced charges under the [[Espionage Act of 1917]] and other charges including theft and conspiracy, carrying a total maximum sentence of 115 years for Ellsberg and 35 years for Russo. Their trial commenced in Los Angeles on January 3, 1973, presided over by U.S. District Judge [[William Matthew Byrne Jr.]] Ellsberg tried to claim that the documents were "illegally" classified to keep them not from an enemy, but from the American public. However, that argument was ruled "irrelevant", and Ellsberg was silenced before he could begin. In a 2014 interview, Ellsberg stated that his "lawyer, exasperated, said he 'had never heard of a case where a defendant was not permitted to tell the jury why he did what he did.' The judge responded: 'Well, you're hearing one now'. And so it has been with every subsequent whistleblower under indictment".<ref>{{Citation | last = Ellsberg | first = Daniel
| author-link = Daniel Ellsberg | date = May 30, 2014
| title = Daniel Ellsberg: Snowden would not get a fair trial – and Kerry is wrong
| newspaper = The Guardian
| url = https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/30/daniel-ellsberg-snowden-fair-trial-kerry-espionage-act
| access-date = June 23, 2015}}</ref>

In spite of being effectively denied a defense, Ellsberg began to see events turn in his favor when the break-in of Fielding's office was revealed to Judge Byrne in a memo on April 26; Byrne ordered that it be shared with the defense.<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,907160,00.html|magazine=Time|date=May 7, 1973|title=Practicing on Ellsberg}}</ref><ref name=byrneobit>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/14/AR2006011401165.html|title=Judge William Byrne; Ended Trial Over Pentagon Papers|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=January 15, 2006|pages=C09}}</ref>

On May 9, further evidence of illegal [[wiretapping]] against Ellsberg was revealed in court. The [[FBI]] had recorded numerous conversations between [[Morton Halperin]] and Ellsberg without a [[court order]], and furthermore the prosecution had failed to share this evidence with the defense.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.airandspaceforces.com/article/0207pentagon/|title=The Pentagon Papers|last=Correll|first=John T.|date=February 2007|access-date=July 16, 2008|magazine=[[Air & Space Forces Magazine]]|volume=90|issue=2|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250720082326/https://www.airandspaceforces.com/article/0207pentagon/|archive-date=July 20, 2025|url-status=live}}</ref> During the trial, Byrne also revealed that he personally met twice with John Ehrlichman, who offered him directorship of the FBI. Byrne said he refused to consider the offer while the Ellsberg case was pending, though he was criticized for even agreeing to meet with Ehrlichman during the case.<ref name=byrneobit/>
Because of the gross governmental misconduct and illegal evidence gathering, and the defense by [[Leonard Boudin]] and [[Harvard Law School]] professor [[Charles Nesson]], Judge Byrne dismissed all charges against Ellsberg and Russo on May 11, 1973, after the government claimed it had lost records of wiretapping against Ellsberg. Byrne ruled: "The totality of the circumstances of this case which I have only briefly sketched offend a sense of justice. The bizarre events have incurably infected the prosecution of this case."<ref name=byrneobit/>

As a result of the revelations involving the Watergate scandal, [[John Ehrlichman]], [[H. R. Haldeman]], [[Richard Kleindienst]], and [[John Dean]] were forced out of office on April 30, and all would later be convicted of crimes related to [[Watergate]]. [[Egil Krogh]] later pleaded guilty to conspiracy, and [[White House counsel]] [[Charles Colson]] pleaded no contest for obstruction of justice in the burglary.<ref>{{citation |url=https://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre1974061400 |title=Plea Bargaining |author=S. Stencel, S. |year=1974 | work=Editorial research reports 1974 |series=CQ Researcher Online |volume=1 |pages=427–446 |publisher=CQ Researcher|doi=10.4135/cqresrre1974061400 |s2cid=267330835 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

===Halperin case===
It was also revealed in 1973, during Ellsberg's trial, that the telephone calls of [[Morton Halperin]], a member of the [[U.S. National Security Council]] staff suspected of leaking information about the secret U.S. bombing of [[Khmer Republic|Cambodia]] to ''The New York Times'', were being recorded by the FBI at the request of [[Henry Kissinger]] to [[J. Edgar Hoover]].<ref>{{citation |last=Hosansky |first=David |page=89 |title=Eyewitness to Watergate |date=December 1, 2006 |publisher=CQ Press |isbn=978-1-4522-6731-9 |language=en}}</ref>

Halperin and his family sued several federal officials, claiming the wiretap violated their [[Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourth Amendment]] rights and Title III of the [[Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968]]. The court agreed that Richard Nixon, John Mitchell, and H. R. Haldeman had violated the Halperins' Fourth Amendment rights and awarded them $1 in nominal damages.<ref>[http://openjurist.org/606/f2d/1192#fn4_ref Halperin v. Kissinger] 1977</ref>

===Plumbers' Ellsberg neutralization proposal===
Ellsberg later claimed that after his trial ended, Watergate prosecutor [[William H. Merrill]] informed him of an aborted plot by Liddy and the "[[White House Plumbers|Plumbers]]" to have 12 [[Cuban American]]s who had previously worked for the [[CIA]] "totally incapacitate" Ellsberg when he appeared at a public rally. It is unclear whether they were meant to assassinate Ellsberg or merely to hospitalize him.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.democracynow.org/2006/4/27/exclusive_nixon_white_house_counsel_john|title=Nixon White House Counsel John Dean and Pentagon Papers Leaker Daniel Ellsberg on Watergate and the Abuse of Presidential Power from Nixon to Bush|date=April 27, 2006|journal=Democracy Now!}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/guides/debate/chats/ellsberg/ |title=COLD WAR Chat: Daniel Ellsberg, Anti-war activist |date=January 10, 1999 |journal=Cold War |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081219071852/http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/guides/debate/chats/ellsberg/ |archive-date=December 19, 2008 }}</ref> In his autobiography, Liddy describes an "Ellsberg neutralization proposal" originating from Howard Hunt, which involved drugging Ellsberg with [[LSD]], by dissolving it in his soup, at a fund-raising dinner in Washington to "have Ellsberg incoherent by the time he was to speak" and thus "make him appear a near burnt-out drug case" and "discredit him". The plot involved waiters from the [[Cuban migration to Miami|Miami Cuban]] community. According to Liddy, when the plan was finally approved, "there was no longer enough lead time to get the Cuban waiters up from their Miami hotels and into place in the Washington Hotel where the dinner was to take place" and the plan was "put into abeyance pending another opportunity."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Will: The Autobiography of G. Gordon Liddy|url=https://archive.org/details/willautobiograp00lidd|url-access=limited|last=Liddy|first=G. Gordon|author-link=G. Gordon Liddy|year=1980|publisher=St. Martin's Press|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/willautobiograp00lidd/page/170 170]–171|isbn=978-0-312-88014-9}}</ref>

==Activism and views==
Ellsberg's first published book was ''Papers on the War'' (New York: [[Simon and Schuster]], 1972). The book included a revised version of Ellsberg's earlier award-winning "The Quagmire Myth and the Stalemate Machine", originally published in ''Public Policy'', and ends with "The Responsibility of Officials in a Criminal War".<ref>{{citation |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1972/9/18/going-public-in-america-pbtbhe-pentagon/ |journal=[[The Harvard Crimson]] |title=Going Public in America |author=Dwight Cramer |date=September 18, 1972}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Ellsberg |first1=Daniel |title=Papers on the War |date=1972 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |location=New York |isbn=9781439193761 |url=https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Papers-on-the-War/Daniel-Ellsberg/9781439193761}}</ref>
[[File:Ellsberghq.webm|thumb|Video interview with Daniel Ellsberg at [[Roskilde Universitets Center]], Denmark, October 26, 2004 (unedited; the first 10 seconds are black)]]
After the Vietnam War, Ellsberg continued his political activism, giving lecture tours and speaking out about current events. Reflecting on his time in government, Ellsberg said the following, based on his extensive access to classified material:<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y2wmpxM2VQ "Presidential Decisions and Public Dissent"], ''Conversations with History'', July 29, 1998</ref>

{{blockquote|The public is lied to every day by the President, by his spokespeople, by his officers. If you can't handle the thought that the President lies to the public for all kinds of reasons, you couldn't stay in the government at that level, or you're made aware of it, a week.&nbsp;... The fact is Presidents rarely say the whole truth{{snd}}essentially, never say the whole truth{{snd}}of what they expect and what they're doing and what they believe and why they're doing it and rarely refrain from lying, actually, about these matters.}}

=== Release of classified documents proposing 1958 nuclear attack on China ===
On May 22, 2021, during the [[Presidency of Joe Biden|Biden administration]], ''The New York Times'' reported Ellsberg had released classified documents revealing the Pentagon in 1958 drew up plans to launch a nuclear attack on China amid tensions over the [[Taiwan Strait]]. According to the documents, US military leaders supported a first-use nuclear strike even though they believed China's ally, the Soviet Union, would retaliate and millions of people would perish. Ellsberg told ''The New York Times'' he copied the classified documents about the [[Taiwan Strait crisis of 1958|Taiwan Strait crisis]] fifty years earlier when he copied the Pentagon Papers, but chose not to release the documents then. Instead, Ellsberg released the documents in the spring of 2021 because he said he was concerned about mounting tensions between the U.S. and China over the fate of [[Taiwan]]. He assumed the Pentagon was involved again in contingency planning for a nuclear strike on China should a military conflict with conventional weapons fail to deliver a decisive victory. "I do not believe the participants were more stupid or thoughtless than those in between or in the current cabinet", said Ellsberg, who urged President Biden, Congress and the public to take notice.<ref name=Savage>{{citation |last=Savage |first=Charlie |date=November 3, 2021 |publication-date=May 22, 2021 |title=Risk of Nuclear War Over Taiwan in 1958 Said to Be Greater Than Publicly Known |language=en-US |newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/22/us/politics/nuclear-war-risk-1958-us-china.html |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

In releasing the classified documents, Ellsberg offered himself as a defendant in a test case challenging the U.S. Justice Department's use of the [[Espionage Act of 1917]] to punish whistleblowers. Ellsberg noted the Act applies to everyone, not just spies, and prohibits a defendant from explaining the reasons for revealing classified information in the public interest.{{r|Savage}}

===Anti-war activism===
In an interview with ''[[Democracy Now]]'' on May 18, 2018, Ellsberg was critical of U.S. intervention overseas especially in the Middle East, stating, "I think, in Iraq, America has never faced up to the number of people who have died because of [[United States invasion of Iraq|our invasion]], our aggression against Iraq, and Afghanistan over the last 30 years, since we first inspired a [[Operation Cyclone|CIA-sponsored]] [[jihad]] against the Soviets there, and led to the [[Soviet–Afghan War|invasion by the Soviets]]. What we've done to the Middle East has been hell."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.democracynow.org/2018/5/18/whistleblower_daniel_ellsberg_civil_disobedience_against|title=Whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg: Civil Disobedience Against Vietnam War Led Me to Leak Pentagon Papers|website=[[Democracy Now!]]}}</ref>

====Activism against US-led war against Iraq====
[[File:DanielEllsberg.THF.WH.WDC.3jul06.jpg|thumb|Protesting with anti-war group [[Code Pink]] in 2006]]
During the runup to the [[2003 invasion of Iraq]] he warned of a possible "[[Gulf of Tonkin incident|Tonkin Gulf scenario]]" that could be used to justify going to war, and called on government "insiders" to go public with information to counter the [[George W. Bush administration|Bush administration's]] [[Public relations preparations for 2003 invasion of Iraq|pro-war propaganda campaign]], praising [[Scott Ritter]] for his efforts in that regard.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://logosonline.home.igc.org/ellsberg.pdf|title=IGC.org|access-date=December 8, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081218011104/http://logosonline.home.igc.org/ellsberg.pdf|archive-date=December 18, 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Jacobsen|first=Kurt|date=Fall 2002|title=Discussing Secrets: An Interview with Daniel Ellsberg|url=http://www.logosjournal.com}}</ref> He later supported the whistleblowing efforts of British [[Government Communications Headquarters|GCHQ]] translator [[Katharine Gun]] and called on others to leak any papers that reveal government deception about the invasion.<ref name="expertwitnessradio.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.expertwitnessradio.org/archives/ellsberg.html |title=The Expert Witness Radio Show with Michael Levine |publisher=Expertwitnessradio.org |access-date=December 2, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724162842/http://www.expertwitnessradio.org/archives/ellsberg.html |archive-date=July 24, 2011 }}</ref> Ellsberg also testified at the 2004 [[conscientious objector]] hearing of [[Camilo Mejia]] at [[Fort Sill|Fort Sill, Oklahoma]].<ref name="expertwitnessradio.org"/>

Ellsberg was arrested, in November 2005, for violating a county ordinance for trespassing while protesting against [[George W. Bush]]'s conduct of the [[Iraq War]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/23/AR2005112302185.html |title=Antiwar Protesters Arrested Near Bush Ranch |newspaper=The Washington Post |date= November 24, 2005|access-date=December 2, 2010 |first=Rosalind S. |last=Helderman}}</ref>

Ellsberg criticized the arrest of [[WikiLeaks]] founder [[Julian Assange]], who had exposed U.S. war crimes in Iraq.<ref>{{cite news |title=Daniel Ellsberg On Assange Arrest: The Beginning of the End For Press Freedom |url=https://therealnews.com/stories/daniel-ellsberg-on-assange-arrest-the-beginning-of-the-end-for-press-freedom |publisher=[[The Real News]] |date=April 11, 2019}}</ref>

====Activism against US military action against Iran====
In September 2006, Ellsberg wrote in ''[[Harper's Magazine]]'' that he hoped someone would leak information about a potential U.S. invasion of Iran before the invasion happened, to stop the war.<ref>{{Citation | title =The Next War | magazine =Harper's Magazine
 | date =October 2006 | volume =October 2006
 | url =http://harpers.org/archive/2006/10/the-next-war/ | access-date=July 9, 2013| last1 =Ellsberg
 | first1 =Daniel
 }}</ref>
 
In a speech on March 30, 2008, in San Francisco's [[Unitarian Universalism|Unitarian Universalist]] church, Ellsberg observed that [[Speaker of the United States House of Representatives|House Speaker]] [[Nancy Pelosi]] does not have the authority to declare [[Federal impeachment in the United States|impeachment]] "off the table", as she had done with respect to George W. Bush. The oath of office taken by members of congress requires them to "defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic". He also pointed out that under [[Article Six of the United States Constitution|Article VI]] of the [[U.S. Constitution]], treaties, including the [[United Nations Charter]] and international labor rights accords that the United States has signed, become the supreme law of the land that neither the states, the president, nor the congress have the power to break. For example, if the Congress votes to authorize an unprovoked attack on a sovereign nation, that authorization would not make the attack legal. A president citing the authorization as just cause could be prosecuted in the [[International Criminal Court]] for [[war crime]]s.<ref>{{cite web|author=Saryl Weinstein |url=http://warandlaw.homestead.com/files/Ellsnews.htm |title=Congress should probe Bush's Iran attack plan, says Ellsberg, warning of supreme war crime |publisher=Warandlaw.homestead.com |access-date=December 2, 2010}}</ref>{{Self-published inline|date=January 2023}}

====Russian invasion of Ukraine====
In April 2022, Ellsberg said that Russian President [[Vladimir Putin]] "is a bad guy, very clearly. His aggression is murderous and as illegitimate as the [[Soviet invasion of Afghanistan]]. Or the [[US invasion of Afghanistan]] or [[U.S. Invasion of Iraq|Iraq]]. Or [[Hitler]]'s [[German Invasion of Poland|invasion of Poland]]." He compared Putin's [[Nuclear threats during the Russian invasion of Ukraine|nuclear threats]] to [[Richard Nixon]]'s self-proclaimed "[[Madman theory|madman strategy]]". He expressed concern that global cooperation among major powers on [[climate change]] and [[Nuclear disarmament|nuclear arms reduction]] would be impossible.<ref>{{cite news |title=Daniel Ellsberg on the Existential Threat of Global Conflict |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/world/daniel-ellsberg-ukraine/ |work=The Nation |date=April 22, 2022}}</ref>

In April 2022, during the [[Russian invasion of Ukraine]], Ellsberg appeared on [[Al Jazeera English|Al Jazeera]]'s ''Upfront'' and stated that major [[Arms industry|arms manufacturers]], such as [[Boeing]], [[Lockheed Martin]] or [[General Electric]], were [[War profiteering#War in Ukraine|profiting from the war in Ukraine]] and from the [[Saudi Arabian–led intervention in Yemen]], saying that "A failing war is just as profitable as a winning one," "It's the old Latin slogan, ''Cui Bono'', who benefits?", "We're not after all a European nation and we have no particular role in the [[European Union]]. But in [[NATO]]{{Snd}}that's as the [[Mafia]] says [[Cosa Nostra]], our thing{{Snd}}we control NATO pretty much and NATO gives us an excuse and a reason to sell enormous amounts of arms to now to the formerly [[Warsaw Pact]] nations," and, "Russia is an indispensable enemy." He said both the United States and Russia have their [[Military–industrial complex|military-industrial complexes]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Who really benefits from war? |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/program/upfront/2022/4/29/who-really-benefits-from-war |access-date=January 15, 2023 |publisher=Al Jazeera |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |title=Who really benefits from war? {{!}} UpFront | date=April 29, 2022 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPSGNwv1ptc |language=en |access-date=January 15, 2023}}</ref>

In June 2022, he said that "The Russian invasion of Ukraine has made the world far more dangerous, not only in the short run, but in ways that may be irreversible. It is a tragic and criminal attack. We are seeing humanity at its almost worst, but not quite the worst{{Snd}}so far, since 1945 we haven't seen [[nuclear war]]."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Siemaszko |first1=Corky |title=Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistleblower, dies at 92 |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/daniel-ellsberg-pentagon-papers-whistleblower-dies-92-rcna73171 |publisher=NBC News |date=June 16, 2023}}</ref>

[[File:Daniel Ellsberg Speaking (2545923457).jpg|thumb|Ellsberg speaking in 2008]]
[[File:Daniel Ellsberg, Mike Myatt, & Robert Rosenthal (15180381714).jpg|thumb|Ellsberg with [[Robert Jon Rosenthal|Robert Rosenthal]] in 2008]]
[[File:Daniel Ellsberg at San Francisco Pride Parade 2013..JPG|thumb|At San Francisco Pride Parade 2013]]

===Support for American whistleblowers===
Ellsberg said that in regard to former FBI translator turned whistleblower [[Sibel Edmonds]], what she has is  "far more explosive than the Pentagon Papers".<ref>{{cite news|last1=Friedman|first1=Brad|author-link=Brad Friedman|title=Sibel Edmonds: The Traitors Among Us|url=https://www.larryflynt.com/?p=693|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100224061838/https://www.larryflynt.com/?p=693|archive-date=February 24, 2010|access-date=June 20, 2023|work=Hustler}}</ref> He also participated in the [[National Security Whistleblowers Coalition]] founded by Edmonds,<ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Rose|first1=David|author-link=David Rose (journalist)|title=An Inconvenient Patriot|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2005/09/edmonds200509|access-date=March 20, 2023|magazine=Vanity Fair|date=October 1, 2005}}</ref> and in 2008, he condemned many U.S. media outlets for purportedly ignoring articles about Edmonds's allegations regarding [[nuclear proliferation]] published in ''[[The Sunday Times]]''.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Greenslade|first1=Roy|author-link=Roy Greenslade|title=US Journalists Ignore Sunday Times Scoop on FBI Nuclear Scandal|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2008/jan/22/usjournalistsignoresundayt|access-date=March 20, 2023|work=The Guardian|date=January 22, 2008}}</ref>

On December 9, 2010, Ellsberg appeared on ''[[The Colbert Report]]'' where he commented that the existence of [[WikiLeaks]] helps to build a better government.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/368131/december-09-2010/international-manhunt-for-julian-assange---daniel-ellsberg|title=The Colbert Report|website=Comedy Central}}</ref>

On March 21, 2011, Ellsberg, along with 35 other demonstrators, was arrested during a demonstration outside the [[Marine Corps Base Quantico]], in protest of [[Chelsea Manning]]'s current detention at [[Marine Corps Brig, Quantico]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.sky.com/story/843636/arrests-at-wikileaks-marine-base-protest|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120714183731/http://news.sky.com/story/843636/arrests-at-wikileaks-marine-base-protest|url-status=dead|title=Arrests At WikiLeaks Marine Base Protest|date=July 14, 2012|archive-date=July 14, 2012|publisher=Sky News|access-date=November 14, 2017}}</ref>

On June 10, 2013, Ellsberg published an editorial in ''[[The Guardian]]'' newspaper praising the actions of former [[Booz Allen Hamilton|Booz Allen]] worker [[Edward Snowden]] in revealing top-secret surveillance programs of the [[NSA]]. Ellsberg believed that the United States had fallen into an "abyss" of total tyranny, but said that because of Snowden's revelations, "I see the unexpected possibility of a way up and out of the abyss."<ref>{{cite news|author=Daniel Ellsberg |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jun/10/edward-snowden-united-stasi-america |title=Edward Snowden: saving us from the United Stasi of America |work=The Guardian |access-date=June 10, 2013 |location=London |date=June 10, 2013}}</ref>

In June 2013, Ellsberg and numerous celebrities appeared in a video showing support for Chelsea Manning.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/celebrity-bradley-manning-video-93041.html|title=Celeb video: 'I am Bradley Manning'|website=[[Politico]]|date=June 19, 2013 }}</ref><ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/UFFkcCh-pCc Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20130619051931/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFFkcCh-pCc&gl=US&hl=en Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFFkcCh-pCc|title=I am Bradley Manning (full HD)|last=I am Bradley Manning|date=June 18, 2013|via=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

In June 2010, Ellsberg was interviewed regarding the parallels between his actions in releasing the ''Pentagon Papers'' and those of Manning, who was arrested by the U.S. military in Iraq after allegedly providing to [[WikiLeaks]] a classified video showing [[July 12, 2007, Baghdad airstrike|U.S. military helicopter gunships strafing and killing Iraqis]] alleged to be civilians. Ellsberg said that he fears for Manning and for Julian Assange, as he feared for himself after the initial publication of the ''Pentagon Papers''. WikiLeaks initially said it had not received the cables, but did plan to post the video of an [[Garani airstrike|attack that killed 86 to 145 Afghan civilians]] in the village of Garani. Ellsberg expressed hope that either Assange or President Obama would post the video, and expressed his strong support for Assange and Manning, whom he called "two new heroes of mine".<ref>[http://www.democracynow.org/2010/6/17/wikileaks_whistleblowers "With Rumored Manhunt for Wikileaks Founder and Arrest of Alleged Leaker of Video Showing Iraq Killings, Obama Admin Escalates Crackdown on Whistleblowers of Classified Information"] democracynow.org, June 17, 2010</ref><ref>[http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-06-15/wikileaks-founder-has-garani-massacre-video-according-to-new-email/ "WikiLeaks Founder to Release Massacre Video"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100619124459/http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-06-15/wikileaks-founder-has-garani-massacre-video-according-to-new-email/ |date=June 19, 2010 }} http://www.thedailybeast.com, Philip Shenon, June 16, 2010</ref>

''[[Democracy Now!]]'' devoted a substantial portion of its July 4, 2013, program to "How the Pentagon Papers Came to be Published By the Beacon Press Told by Daniel Ellsberg & Others." Ellsberg said there are hundreds of public officials right now who know that the public is being lied to about Iran. If they follow orders, they may become complicit in starting an unnecessary war. If they are faithful to their oath to protect the [[Constitution of the United States]], they could prevent that war. Exposing official lies could however carry a heavy personal cost as they could be imprisoned for unlawful disclosure of classified information.<ref>{{Citation |last=Goodman |first=Amy |author-link=w:Amy Goodman |title=How the Pentagon Papers Came to be Published By the Beacon Press Told by Daniel Ellsberg & Others |publisher=Democracy Now! |date=July 4, 2013 |url=http://www.democracynow.org/2013/7/4/how_the_pentagon_papers_came_to |access-date=July 9, 2013}}</ref>

In 2012, Ellsberg co-founded the [[Freedom of the Press Foundation]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Recording offers rationale of WikiLeaks defendant |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/honolulu-star-advertiser-recording-offer/125308802/ |access-date=May 25, 2023 |work=[[Honolulu Star-Advertiser]] |agency=[[Associated Press]] |date=March 13, 2013 |page=A11 |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref><ref name="eff">{{cite web |url=https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/12/eff-helps-freedom-press-foundation |title=EFF Helps Freedom of the Press Foundation |last=Cohn |first=Cindy |date=December 17, 2012 |publisher=[[Electronic Frontier Foundation]] |access-date=February 4, 2013}}</ref> In September 2015, Ellsberg and 27 members of the [[Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity]] steering group wrote a letter to the president challenging a recently published book that claimed to rebut the report of the [[United States Senate Intelligence Committee]] on the [[Central Intelligence Agency]]'s use of torture.<ref name="AndyWorthington2015-09-15"/>{{Self-published inline|date=January 2023|certain=yes}}

In 2020, Ellsberg testified in defense of Assange during Assange's extradition hearings.<ref>{{Cite web|date=September 16, 2020|title=Pentagon Papers leaker comes to the defense of Assange|url=https://apnews.com/article/julian-assange-daniel-ellsberg-archive-extradition-united-states-2fe79f6b7e3171b3865cdccc3ecce822|access-date=October 7, 2020|website=AP NEWS}}</ref> Ellsberg spoke out vociferously against the threats to press freedom from such whistleblower prosecution.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.truthdig.com/articles/daniel-ellsberg-assanges-arrest-is-the-beginning-of-the-end/|title=Daniel Ellsberg: Assange's Arrest Is the Beginning of the End|last=Pireres|first=Sharmini|date=April 12, 2019|website=Truthdig: Expert Reporting, Current News, Provocative Columnists|access-date=May 24, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://therealnews.com/stories/daniel-ellsberg-on-julian-assanges-espionage-charges|title=Daniel Ellsberg on Julian Assange's Espionage Charges|date=May 23, 2019|website=The Real News Network|language=en-US|access-date=May 24, 2019}}</ref>

In a December 2022 interview with [[BBC News]], Ellsberg said that he was given all of the Manning information before it came out in the press by Assange.<ref>{{cite news |title=Pentagon Papers whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg was Wikileaks' secret back-up |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-63832899 |work=BBC News |access-date=December 7, 2022}}</ref>

===Support for Occupy Movement===
On November 16, 2011, Ellsberg camped on the [[UC Berkeley]] [[Sproul Plaza]] as part of an effort to support the [[Occupy Cal]] movement.<ref>[http://www.sacbee.com/2011/11/16/4059116/daniel-ellsberg-part-of-uc-berkeley.html Daniel Ellsberg part of UC Berkeley Occupy protest]{{dead link|date=October 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

===''The Doomsday Machine''===

In December 2017, Ellsberg published ''The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner''.  He said that his primary job from 1958 until releasing the ''[[Pentagon Papers]]'' in 1971 was as a [[Nuclear warfare|nuclear war]] planner for United States presidents [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower]], [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]], [[Lyndon Baines Johnson|Johnson]], and [[Richard M. Nixon|Nixon]]. He concluded that United States nuclear war policy was completely crazy and he could no longer live with himself without doing what he could to expose it, even if it meant he would spend the rest of his life in prison. However, he also felt that as long as the U.S. was still involved in the Vietnam War, the United States electorate would not likely listen to a discussion of nuclear war policy. He therefore copied two sets of documents, planning to release first the ''Pentagon Papers'' and later documentation of nuclear war plans. However, the nuclear planning materials were hidden in a [[landfill]] and then lost because of the [[Tropical Storm Doria|tropical storm Doria]].<ref>Kevin Canfield, [http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/The-Doomsday-Machine-by-Daniel-Ellsberg-12413956.php 'The Doomsday Machine,' by Daniel Ellsberg] ''San Francisco Chronicle''. Retrieved December 21, 2017.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Davies |first=Dave |date=23 June 2023 |title=Remembering Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers |url=https://www.npr.org/2023/06/23/1183973731/remembering-daniel-ellsberg-who-leaked-the-pentagon-papers |access-date=2024-10-22 |website=[[NPR]]}}</ref>

His overriding concerns were as follows:  
# As long as the world maintains large nuclear arsenals, it is not a matter of if, but when, a nuclear war will occur.  
# The vast majority of the population of an initiator state would likely starve to death during a "nuclear autumn" or "[[nuclear winter]]" if they did not die earlier from retaliation or fallout.  If the nuclear war dropped only roughly 100 nuclear weapons on cities, as in a [[war between India and Pakistan]], the effect would be similar to the "[[Year Without a Summer]]" that followed the [[1815 eruption of Mount Tambora]], except that it would last more like a decade, because soot would not settle out of the [[stratosphere]] as quickly as the volcanic debris, and roughly a third of the people worldwide not killed by the nuclear exchange would starve to death, because of the resulting crop failures.  However, if more than roughly 2 percent of the U.S. nuclear arsenal were used, the results would more likely be a [[nuclear winter]], leading to the deaths from starvation of 98 percent of people worldwide not killed by the nuclear exchange.  
# To preserve the ability of a [[List of states with nuclear weapons|nuclear-weapon state]] to retaliate from a [[Decapitation strike|"decapitation" attack]], every country with nuclear weapons seems to have delegated broadly the authority to respond to an apparent nuclear attack.<ref>{{citation |publisher=Bloomsbury |date=December 5, 2017 |isbn=978-1608196708 |chapter=chapter 3. Delegation |author=Daniel Ellsberg |title=The Doomsday Machine}}</ref>

As an example of the third concern, Ellsberg discussed an interview he had in 1958 with a major, who commanded a squadron of 12 [[North American F-100 Super Sabre|F-100]] fighter-bombers at [[Kunsan Air Base]], South Korea.  His aircraft were equipped with [[B28 nuclear bomb|Mark 28]] [[thermonuclear weapons]] with a yield of 1.1 [[TNT equivalent|megatons]] each, roughly half the explosive power of all the bombs dropped by the U.S. in [[World War II]] both in Europe and the Pacific.  The major said his official orders were to wait for orders from his superiors in [[Osan Air Base]], South Korea, or in Japan before ordering his F-100s into the air.  However, the major also said that standard military doctrine required him to protect his forces.  That meant that if he had reason to believe that a war had already begun when his communications with Osan and Japan were broken, he was required to launch his dozen F-100s with their thermonuclear weapons.  They never practiced that launch, because the risk of an accident was too great.  Ellsberg then asked what might happen if he gave such launch orders and the sixth plane succumbed to a thermonuclear accident on the runway.  After some thought, the major agreed that the five planes already in the air would likely conclude that a nuclear war had begun, and they would likely deliver their [[warhead]]s to their preassigned targets.<ref>{{cite Q|Q63862699}}<!--Doomsday Machine-->, pp. 52ff.</ref>

According to Ellsberg the "[[nuclear football]]" carried by an aide near the U.S. president at all times is primarily a piece of [[Political drama|political theater]], a hoax, to keep the public ignorant of the real problems of nuclear command and control.<ref>{{cite Q|Q63862699}}<!--Doomsday Machine-->, p. 69.</ref>

In Russia, this included a semi-automatic "[[Dead Hand]]" system, whereby a nuclear explosion in Moscow, whether accidental or by a foreign state or terrorists, would induce low-level officers to launch [[ICBM]]s toward targets in the U.S., presumed to be the origin of such attacks.  The first ICBMs launched in this way "would beep a Go signal to any ICBM sites they passed over", which would launch those other ICBMs without further human intervention.<ref>{{cite Q|Q63862699}}<!--Doomsday Machine-->, p. 303</ref>

==== Nuclear threats by the United States ====
Ellsberg wrote in his 1981 essay ''Call to Mutiny'' that, "every president from Truman to Reagan, with the possible exception of Ford, has felt compelled to consider or direct serious preparations for possible imminent U.S. initiation of tactical or strategic nuclear warfare".<ref>{{citation |last=Betts |first=Richard K. |page=7 |title=Nuclear Blackmail and Nuclear Balance |date=December 1, 2010 |publisher=Brookings Institution Press |isbn=978-0-8157-1708-9}}</ref> Some of these threats were implicit; many were explicit.  Many governmental officials and authors claimed that those threats made major contributions to achieving important policy objectives. Ellsberg's examples are summarized in the following table:<ref>For more on this, see especially {{cite Q|Q63874626}}<!--Call to Mutiny-->;  {{cite Q|Q63874634}}<!-- Force without War:  U.S. Armed forces as a political instrument -->;  {{cite Q|Q63874641}}<!--Empire and the bomb:  How the U.S. uses nuclear weapons to dominate the world -->;  {{cite Q|Q63874649}}<!-- U.S. Nuclear Threats:  A documentary history -->;  {{cite Q|Q63874665}}<!-- Nuclear Blackmail and Nuclear Balance -->, cited from {{cite Q|Q63862699}}<!--Doomsday Machine-->, especially the second-to-last chapter.</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
! President !! Target !! Incident
|- 
| rowspan="2" | [[Presidency of Harry S. Truman|Truman (1945–1953)]]
| {{flagu|Soviet Union}}
| [[Berlin Blockade]] (June 24, 1948{{Snd}}May 12, 1949).<ref>At the outset of this incident, Truman deployed B-29s similar to those that dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but not the nuclear-capable [[Silverplate]] version, [[Strategic Air Command in the United Kingdom#Berlin Blockade|to bases in Britain and Germany]] to deter the Soviet Union from officially transferring to East Germany control of the land corridor to Berlin, an explicit part of the Soviet plan. {{cite Q|Q63873810}}<!-- The Winning Weapon -->, pp. 256–274, cited from {{cite Q|Q63862699}}<!--Doomsday Machine-->, pp. 319, 378.</ref>
|- 
| {{flagu|China}}
| [[Korean War#China intervenes (October–December 1950)|Chinese intervention in the Korean War (October 1950)]].
|- 
| rowspan="4" | [[Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower (1953–1961)]] 
| {{flagu|China}}
| Korean War,<ref>For Eisenhower's secret nuclear threats against China to force and maintain a settlement in Korea in 1953, see {{cite Q|Q61945939}}<!-- Mandate for change-->, pp. 178–181, and {{cite Q|Q63874409}}<!-- Deterrence in American Foreign Policy -->, pp. 237–241, cited from {{cite Q|Q63862699}}<!--Doomsday Machine-->, pp. 319, 378.</ref> and Taiwan Strait crises of [[First Taiwan Strait Crisis|1954–55]] and [[Second Taiwan Strait Crisis|1958]].<ref name='Halperin1966'>{{cite Q|Q63874609}}<!-- The 1958 Taiwan Straits Crisis:  A documentary history-->, cited from {{cite Q|Q63862699}}<!--Doomsday Machine-->, pp. 320, 378.</ref>
|-
| {{Flagicon image|Flag of North Vietnam (1945–1955).svg}} [[Viet Minh|Vietnamese communists]]
| U.S. offers nuclear support to the French at [[Battle of Dien Bien Phu|Dien Bien Phu (1954)]].<ref>''[[Hearts and Minds (film)|Hearts and Minds]]'';  {{cite Q|Q63874430}}, pp. 121–122; see also {{cite Q|Q63874435}}<!--Memoirs of Richard Nixon -->, pp. 150–155; cited from {{cite Q|Q63862699}}<!--Doomsday Machine-->, pp. 319, 378.</ref>
|- 
| {{flagu|Soviet Union}}
| 1956 [[Suez Crisis]] and the [[Berlin Crisis of 1958–1959|1958–59 Berlin crisis]].<ref name='Nixon1985'>{{cite Q|Q63885038}}<!-- Nixon:  A nation coming into its own, July 29, 1985-->, cited from {{cite Q|Q63862699}}<!--Doomsday Machine-->, pp. 320, 379.</ref>
|- 
| {{flagcountry|Iraqi Republic (1958–1968)|1958}}
| To deter an invasion of [[Sheikhdom of Kuwait|Kuwait]] during the [[1958 Lebanon crisis]].<ref>{{cite Q|Q63874634}}<!-- Force without War:  U.S. Armed forces as a political instrument -->, pp. 238, 256, cited from {{cite Q|Q63862699}}<!--Doomsday Machine-->, pp. 320, 379.</ref>
|- 
| [[Presidency of John F. Kennedy|Kennedy (1961–1963)]] 
| {{flagu|Soviet Union}}
| [[Berlin Crisis of 1961]]<ref>{{cite Q|Q63862699}}<!--Doomsday Machine-->, ch. 10, "Berlin and the Missile Gap"; also {{cite Q|Q63874634}}<!-- Force without War:  U.S. Armed forces as a political instrument -->, pp. 343–439;  cited from {{cite Q|Q63862699}}<!--Doomsday Machine-->, pp. 320, 379.  Note:  On p. 176, Ellsberg mentioned "ending the Berlin Crisis in 1961".  Later, on p. 321, he mentioned "the 1961–62 Berlin crisis."  There is a Wikipedia article on "Berlin Crisis of 1961".  I therefore decided to ignore the reference to 1962 in this context, as I have not seen other references to Berlin crisis in 1962 and mentioning it would produce an apparent conflict with the title of the existing Wikipedia article on that.</ref> and 1962 [[Cuban Missile Crisis]].<ref>{{cite Q|Q63862699}}<!--Doomsday Machine-->, ch. 12. "My Cuban Missile Crisis" and ch. 13. "Cuba: The real story".</ref>
|- 
| [[Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson|Johnson (1963–1969)]] 
| {{flag|North Vietnam}}
| [[Battle of Khe Sanh]], Vietnam, 1968.<ref>{{cite Q|Q63887635}}<!-- The Unmaking of a President -->, pp. 89–91; also {{cite Q|Q63888313}}<!-- William C. Westmoreland (1976) A Soldier Reports -->, p. 338; cited from {{cite Q|Q63862699}}<!--Doomsday Machine-->, pp. 320, 379.</ref>
|-
| rowspan="3" | [[Presidency of Richard Nixon|Nixon (1969–1974)]] 
| {{flagu|Soviet Union}}
| To deter an attack on Chinese nuclear capability, 1969–70, or a Soviet response to possible Chinese intervention against India in the [[Indo-Pakistan War of 1971]], or an intervention in the [[Yom Kippur War|1973 Arab-Israeli War]].<ref name='Nixon1985'/><!-- Nixon:  A nation coming into its own, July 29, 1985--> 
|-
| {{flagu|North Vietnam}}
| Secret threats of massive escalation of the [[Vietnam War#Vietnamization, 1969–1972|Vietnam War]], including possible use of nuclear weapons, 1969–1972.<ref>{{cite Q|Q63888819}}<!-- H. R. Haldeman, The Ends of Power-->, pp. 81–85, 97–98;  {{cite Q|Q63874435}}<!--Memoirs of Richard Nixon -->, pp. 393–414;  {{cite Q|Q42194571}}<!-- Seymour Hersh, The Price of Power:  Kissinger in the Nixon White House-->;  {{cite Q|Q58522397}}<!--Larry Berman, No Peace, No Honor:  Nixon, Kissinger, and betrayal in Vietnam-->;  {{cite Q|Q63889289}}<!-- John A. Farrell, Richard Nixon:  The Life -->;  cited from {{cite Q|Q63862699}}<!--Doomsday Machine-->, pp. 320, 379.</ref>
|- 
| {{flagu|India}}
| [[Indo-Pakistan War of 1971]]<ref name='Nixon1985'/><!-- Nixon:  A nation coming into its own, July 29, 1985-->
|- 
| [[Presidency of Gerald Ford|Ford (1974–1977)]] 
| {{flagu|North Korea}}
| [[Korean axe murder incident]], in which two US army officers were killed while trying to trim a tree blocking open observation of the [[Korean Demilitarized Zone|Demilitarized Zone]].  Two days later, the tree was cut to a stump 6 meters tall in a massive show of force that included a [[B-52]] nuclear-capable bomber flying straight toward [[Pyongyang]] escorted by high performance fighter aircraft, while a US aircraft carrier task force moved into station just offshore.  Ellsberg noted that it might be more accurate to classify this incident {{em|not}} as  "nuclear threat" but a "show of force".<ref>{{cite Q|Q62111338}}<!-- Norris and Kristensen, U.S. Nuclear Threats-->;  {{cite Q|Q63892384}}<!-- John K. Singlaub, Hazardous Duty:  An American soldier in the twentieth century-->; {{cite Q|Q63893129}}<!-- Richard A. Mobley, Revisiting the Korean Tree-Trimming Incident-->, pp. 110–111, 113–114; consistent with {{cite Q|Q63874634}}<!-- Force without War:  U.S. Armed forces as a political instrument -->;  cited from {{cite Q|Q63862699}}<!--Doomsday Machine-->, pp. 321, 379.</ref>
|- 
| [[Presidency of Jimmy Carter|Carter (1977–1981)]]
| rowspan="2" | {{flagu|Soviet Union}}
| rowspan="2" | The [[Carter Doctrine]] on the Middle East to deter the Soviets, already in [[Democratic Republic of Afghanistan|Afghanistan]], from moving next door into Iran to try to control the [[Persian Gulf]], through which the majority of the world's oil flowed at that time.<ref>This event was virtually unknown at the time outside secret government circles.  It was discussed six years later by {{cite Q|Q63917293}}<!--Schemmer (Sept. 1986) "Was the US ready to resort to nuclear weapons for the Persian Gulf in 1980?", Armed Forces Journal International --> and picked up by {{cite Q|Q63916660}}<!-- Halloran, "Washington Talk;  How leaders think the unthinkable", NYT, Sept 2, 1986-->.  It was described by Carter's Press Secretary Jody Powell as "the most serious nuclear crisis since the Cuban Missile Crisis."  See also {{cite Q|Q63862699}}<!--Doomsday Machine-->, pp. 321, 380.</ref>
|- 
| [[Presidency of Ronald Reagan|Reagan (1981–1989)]] 
|- 
| [[Presidency of George H. W. Bush|G. H. W. Bush (1989–1993)]]
| {{flagcountry|Ba'athist Iraq|1963}}
| [[Gulf War|Operation Desert Storm]].<ref>{{cite Q|Q62111338}}<!-- Norris and Kristensen, U.S. Nuclear Threats-->, p. 71;   {{cite Q|Q63919049}}; cited from {{cite Q|Q63862699}}<!--Doomsday Machine-->, pp. 321, 380.</ref>  
|-
| rowspan="2" | [[Presidency of Bill Clinton|Clinton (1993–2001)]]
| {{flagu|North Korea}}
| Secret threats in 1995 on its nuclear reactor program.<ref>{{cite Q|Q62111338}}<!-- Norris and Kristensen, U.S. Nuclear Threats-->, p. 70, citing testimony by General [[Eugene E. Habiger]] before the [[United States Senate Committee on Armed Services|U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee]], March 13, 1977; cited from {{cite Q|Q63862699}}<!--Doomsday Machine-->, pp. 321, 380.</ref>  
|- 
| {{Flagicon image|Flag of Libya (1977–2011).svg}} [[History of Libya under Muammar Gaddafi|Libya]]
| Public warning of a nuclear option against Libya's underground chemical weapons facility in 1996.<ref>{{cite Q|Q62111338}}<!-- Norris and Kristensen, U.S. Nuclear Threats-->, citing {{cite Q|Q63919240}}; cited from {{cite Q|Q63862699}}<!--Doomsday Machine-->, pp. 322, 380.</ref> 
|- 
| [[Presidency of George W. Bush|G. W. Bush (2001–2009)]] and all presidents and leading candidates since 
| {{flagu|Iran}}
| Threats of a nuclear attack against Iran's nuclear program.<ref>{{cite Q|Q63862699}}<!--Doomsday Machine-->, pp. 327–332, 380–381</ref>
|}

==Personal life and death==
[[File:Daniel Ellsberg 2020 06.jpg|thumb|Ellsberg in 2020]]
Ellsberg was married twice. His first marriage was in 1952 to Carol Cummings, a graduate of [[Radcliffe College|Radcliffe]] (now [[Harvard College]]) whose father was a Marine Corps brigadier general. It lasted 13 years before ending in divorce (at her request, as he stated in his memoir ''Secrets''). They have two children, [[Robert Ellsberg]] and [[Mary Ellsberg]]. In 1970, he married Patricia Marx, daughter of toy maker [[Louis Marx]]. They lived for some time afterward in [[Mill Valley, California]].<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Hogan|first1=Mary Ann|last2=Hogan|first2=Mary|last3=Maggiore|first3=Mary Ann|last4=Ostrom|first4=Mary Anne|date=2018-01-25|title=Mill Valley's counter culture on display|url=https://www.marinij.com/lifestyle/20180125/mill-valleys-counter-culture-on-display/|access-date=2024-01-10|website=Marin Independent Journal|language=en-US}}</ref> They have a son, [[Michael Ellsberg]], who is an author and journalist.<ref name=motherjones1982>{{Cite news|last=Spake|first=Amanda|title=Ellsberg Rising|newspaper=[[Mother Jones (magazine)|Mother Jones]]|location=San Francisco|pages=40–46|date=Sep–Oct 1982|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=duYDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA40 |access-date=July 2, 2010}}</ref><ref>[http://www.ellsberg.com/ Who Is Michael Ellsberg?]. Ellsberg.com.</ref>

In February 2023, Ellsberg was diagnosed with [[pancreatic cancer]] and given three to six months to live; he publicly disclosed his diagnosis the following month.<ref>{{cite press release |last=Ellsberg |first=Daniel |date=March 2, 2023 |title=Living on a Deadline in the Nuclear Age. Some Personal News From Daniel Ellsberg |url=https://original.antiwar.com/daniel-ellsberg/2023/03/02/living-on-a-deadline-in-the-nuclear-age-some-personal-news-from-daniel-ellsberg/ |publisher=[[Antiwar.com]] |access-date=March 4, 2023}}</ref><ref name="Vargas 2023">{{cite web | last=Vargas | first=Ramon Antonio | title=Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg says he has terminal cancer | website=[[The Guardian]] | date=March 3, 2023 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/03/daniel-ellsberg-pentagon-papers-terminal-cancer | access-date=March 31, 2023}}</ref> Ellsberg died at his home in [[Kensington, California]], on June 16, 2023, at the age of 92.<ref>{{cite news|url = https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/16/politics/daniel-ellsberg-dies/index.html|title = Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers leaker and anti-war activist, dies at 92|last = Iyer|first = Kaanita|date = June 16, 2023|accessdate = December 24, 2023|publisher = [[CNN]]}}</ref>

==Awards and honors==
Ellsberg was the recipient of the inaugural [[The Ridenhour Prizes|Ron Ridenhour Courage Prize]], a prize established in 2004 by [[The Nation Institute]] and the [[Fertel Foundation]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ridenhour.org/recipients_01b.shtml |title=Ron Ridenhour Courage Prize |publisher=Ridenhour.org |access-date=December 2, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101130193949/http://www.ridenhour.org/recipients_01b.shtml |archive-date=November 30, 2010 }}</ref> In 1978, he accepted the [[Gandhi Peace Award]] from [[Promoting Enduring Peace]]. On September 28, 2006, he was awarded the [[Right Livelihood Award]] for "putting peace and truth first, at considerable personal risk, and dedicating his life to inspiring others to follow his example".<ref>[http://www.rightlivelihood.org/daniel-ellsberg.html Right Livelihood Award] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100620102101/http://rightlivelihood.org/daniel-ellsberg.html |date=June 20, 2010}} Daniel Ellsberg 2006</ref> He received the Dresden Peace Prize in 2016.<ref name="Dresden">{{cite web |title=Laureates – Dresden-Preis |url=http://dresdner-friedenspreis.de/laureates/?lang=en |website=dresdner-friedenspreis.de |access-date=November 16, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190104164251/http://dresdner-friedenspreis.de/laureates/?lang=en |archive-date=January 4, 2019 |url-status=dead }}</ref> He received the 2018 [[Olof Palme Prize]] and the 2022 [[Sam Adams Award]].<ref name=":0" /><ref name=saa-ellsberg>{{cite web |url=https://samadamsaward.ch/daniel-ellsberg/ |title=Daniel Ellsberg |publisher=Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence |date=April 11, 2023 |access-date=May 1, 2023}}</ref>

==Works==
*{{cite book |last1=Ellsberg |first1=Daniel |title=Papers on the War |date=1972 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |location=New York |isbn=9781439193761 |url=https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Papers-on-the-War/Daniel-Ellsberg/9781439193761|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |first=Daniel |last=Ellsberg |editor-last1=Thompson |editor-first1=E. P. |editor-link1=E. P. Thompson |editor-first2=Dan |editor-last2=Smith  |editor-link2=Dan Smith (British author) |year=1981 |url=https://monthlyreview.org/product/protest_and_survive/ |title=Protest and Survive |contribution=Introduction |location=New York |publisher=Monthly Review Press |isbn=978-0853455820|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |first=Daniel |last=Ellsberg |year=2001 |isbn=978-0815340225 |title=Risk, Ambiguity, and Decision |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m6fOB0XuZ1cC |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |first=Daniel |last=Ellsberg |year=2003 |url=http://www.us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780142003428,00.html?Secrets_Daniel_Ellsberg |title=Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers |location=New York |publisher=Viking Press |isbn=0670030309 |ref=none |access-date=March 24, 2020 |archive-date=May 28, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130528101739/http://www.us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780142003428,00.html?Secrets_Daniel_Ellsberg |url-status=dead }}
* {{cite book |last=Ellsberg |first=Daniel |year=2017 |title=The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner |publisher=Bloomsbury |isbn=978-1608196708 |url=https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/doomsday-machine-9781608196746/|access-date=April 4, 2023 |ref=none}}

==Films==
* ''[[Pentagon Papers (Film)|The Pentagon Papers]]'' (2003) is a [[Historical drama film|historical film]] directed by [[Rod Holcomb]] about the Pentagon Papers and Ellsberg's involvement in their publication. The movie, in which he is portrayed by [[James Spader]], documents Ellsberg's life, starting with his work for RAND Corp and ending with the day on which the judge declared his espionage trial a mistrial.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/2003/tv/reviews/the-pentagon-papers-2-1200542977/|title=The Pentagon Papers|first=Michael|last=Speier|work=Variety|date=March 5, 2003|accessdate=June 21, 2023}}</ref>
* ''[[The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers]]'' (2009) a feature-length documentary by [[Judith Ehrlich]] and Rick Goldsmith traced the decision-making processes by which Ellsberg came to leak the Pentagon Papers to the press, ''The New York Times'' decision to publish, the fallout in the media after publication, and the Nixon Administration's legal and extra-legal campaign to discredit and incarcerate Ellsberg. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and won a Peabody Award after its 2010 POV broadcast on PBS.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mostdangerousman.org/ |title=The Documentary Film about Daniel Ellsberg, from Ehrlich and Goldsmith's ''Most Dangerous Man'' |publisher=Mostdangerousman.org |access-date=December 2, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080612204859/http://www.mostdangerousman.org/ |archive-date=June 12, 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* [[Hearts and Minds (film)|''Hearts and Minds'']], a 1974 Academy Award winning documentary film about the Vietnam War with extensive interviews with Ellsberg.
* ''[[The Post (film)|The Post]]'' is a 2017 historical drama film directed and co-produced by [[Steven Spielberg]] from a script written by [[Liz Hannah]] and [[Josh Singer]] about ''[[The Washington Post]]'''s  battle with the federal government over its right to publish the Pentagon Papers. In the movie, Ellsberg is portrayed by [[Matthew Rhys]]. The film also stars [[Tom Hanks]] as [[Ben Bradlee]] and [[Meryl Streep]] as [[Katharine Graham]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/2018/politics/news/daniel-ellsberg-the-post-pentagon-papers-1202679514/|title=PopPolitics: Daniel Ellsberg on a key moment that didn't make 'The Post'|first=Ted|last=Johnson|work=Variety|date=June 28, 2018|accessdate=June 21, 2023}}</ref>
* [[The Boys Who Said NO! (film)|''The Boys Who Said NO!'']], a 2020 documentary film about the draft resistance movement during the Vietnam War, including interviews with Ellsberg where he talks about the impact resisters had on his decision to risk life in prison for releasing the ''Pentagon Papers''. Directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Judith Ehrlich.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.penningtonlibrary.org/boyssaidno/|title=Documentary film discussion with director Judith Ehrlich|publisher=Pennington Public Library|date=March 27, 2022|accessdate=June 21, 2023}}</ref>
* "[[American Experience (season 35)|The Movement and the 'Madman']]{{-"}}, a 2023 PBS ''[[American Experience]]'' documentary film reports how two enormous antiwar protests in the fall of 1969 pressured President Nixon to cancel his secret "madman" plans for a major escalation of the war in Vietnam, including threats to use nuclear weapons. The film was directed and produced by Stephen Talbot and features a key interview with Ellsberg.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Movement and the "Madman"|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/movement-and-madman/|access-date=2024-01-10|publisher=PBS|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/nuclear-vault-vietnam/2023-03-24/movement-and-madman |title=The Movement and the "Madman" |publisher=National Security Archive |date=March 24, 2023 |accessdate=June 21, 2023}}</ref>
* “[https://www.netflix.com/title/81614129 Turning Point: The Bomb and The Cold War]” Episode 3,  Netflix: “With firsthand accounts and access to prominent figures around the world, this comprehensive docuseries explores the Cold War and its aftermath. Episode 3 includes an inspiring, recent interview with Ellsberg and his self-sacrificing choice to release information to the public that would enlighten the world’s understanding of Nuclear Weapons forever and hopefully eventually put an end to the insane development of real life “Doomsday Machines” that still threaten the existence of civilization.

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography}}
* [[Jack Anderson (columnist)|Jack Anderson]]
* [[Thomas Andrews Drake]]
* [[List of peace activists]]
* [[Tran Ngoc Chau]]
* [[Reality Winner]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em|
refs=
<ref name="AndyWorthington2015-09-15">
{{cite news
| url         = http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2015/09/27/28-veterans-of-us-intelligence-fight-back-against-cia-claims-that-the-bush-torture-program-was-useful-and-necessary/
| title       = 28 Veterans of US Intelligence Fight Back Against CIA Claims That the Bush Torture Program Was Useful and Necessary
| author      = Andy Worthington
| date        = September 15, 2015
| archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20150928060211/http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2015/09/27/28-veterans-of-us-intelligence-fight-back-against-cia-claims-that-the-bush-torture-program-was-useful-and-necessary/
| archive-date = September 28, 2015
| url-status     = live
| author-link = Andy Worthington
}}
</ref>
}}

==Further reading==
===Pentagon Papers editions===
* Official name of the Pentagon Papers: ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=O0BuAAAAMAAJ&q=History+of+United+States+Decision-Making+Process+on+Vietnam+Policy,+1945%E2%80%931967 History of United States Decision-Making Process on Vietnam Policy, 1945–1967]''.
* ''The Pentagon Papers as published by the New York Times''. New York: Bantam Books, 1971.
* ''United States-Vietnam Relations 1945–67, Department of Defense Study'', 12 vols., Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1971. This is the official and complete edition of the ''Pentagon Papers'', published by the Government after the release by the press

===Other===
* {{cite book | last=Gerstein | first=Marc S. | last2=Ellsberg | first2=Michael | title=Flirting with Disaster: Why Accidents Are Rarely Accidental | publisher=Union Square Press | publication-place=New York | date=2008 | isbn=978-1-4027-5303-9  |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jrppb5Z8ULIC |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last=Sheinkin | first=Steve | title=Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War | publisher=Macmillan | date=2015 | isbn=978-1-59643-952-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/mostdangerousdan0000shei |author-link=Steve Sheinkin |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last=Solomon | first=Norman | title=Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters with America's Warfare State | publisher=Routledge | publication-place=Sausalito, CA | date=2007 | isbn=978-0-9778253-4-9 | oclc=148917327 |author-link=Norman Solomon |ref=none }}
* {{cite book | last=Ungar | first=Sanford J. | title=The Papers & the Papers: An Account of the Legal and Political Battle over the Pentagon Papers | publisher=New York : Dutton | publication-place=New York, NY | date=1972 | isbn=978-0-525-17455-4 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last=Wright | first=Ann | last2=Dixon | first2=Susan L. | title=Dissent: Voices of Conscience | publisher=Koa Books | publication-place=Kihei, Hawaiʻi | date=2008 | isbn=978-0-9773338-4-4 | oclc=144518771 |url=http://www.koabooks.com/doc/KoaBooksCatalog.pdf |ref=none}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Daniel Ellsberg}}
{{Wikiquote|Daniel Ellsberg}}
* {{Official website|https://www.ellsberg.net/}}
* [http://scua.library.umass.edu/ellsberg-daniel/ The Daniel Ellsberg Papers] acquired by the [[University of Massachusetts Amherst]] in 2019
** {{Cite web |first=Jill |last=Kaufman |date=2019-09-25 |title=UMass Amherst Buys Historic Papers Of 'Pentagon Papers' Whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg |url=https://www.nepm.org/regional-news/2019-09-25/umass-amherst-buys-historic-papers-of-pentagon-papers-whistleblower-daniel-ellsberg |access-date=2025-04-30 |publisher=[[New England Public Media]] |language=en}}
* {{C-SPAN|16213}}
* {{IMDb name|id=0255281|name=Daniel Ellsberg}}
* {{Internet Archive collection|id=danielellsberg|name=Daniel Ellsberg}}
* [https://www.archives.gov/research/pentagon-papers The Pentagon Papers]
* [https://iowaculture.gov/sites/default/files/history-education-pss-wwi-espionageact-transcription.pdf Espionage Act 1917]; {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230614145630/https://iowaculture.gov/sites/default/files/history-education-pss-wwi-espionageact-transcription.pdf |date=June 14, 2023 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20041025003806/http://www.ellsberg.net/truthtellingproject/ The Truth-Telling Project] – Project formed by Ellsberg for [[whistleblower]]s
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20061007082157/http://www.rightlivelihood.org///recip/2006/daniel-ellsberg.htm 2006 Right Livelihood Award Recipient Daniel Ellsberg ]
* {{cite web|title=The Doomsday Machine {{!}} Daniel Ellsberg {{!}} Talks at Google|date=February 1, 2018|via=YouTube|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7cJG9j0NdY}}
* Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/M8-eBSkWcnk Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20210727050628/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8-eBSkWcnk Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web|title=On Julian Assange: Marianne Williamson in Conversation with Daniel Ellsberg|date=July 26, 2021|via=YouTube|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8-eBSkWcnk}}{{cbignore}}

{{Gandhi Peace Award laureates|state=collapsed}}
{{Footer Olof Palme Prize laureates}}
{{Laureates of the Sam Adams Award}}
{{Authority control}}

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