'The Most Dangerous Man in America:
Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers'
http://blog.buzzflash.com/contributors/2058
by Bill Berkowitz
09/02/2009
Force-feeding Democracy: 'The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel
Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers,' to premiere at Toronto Film Festival
A BuzzFlash exclusive online interview with Rick Goldsmith, the
co-director of a 'story about American government, secrecy, lies and
power.'
--
" … this is a self-governing country. We are the government. And in
terms of institutions, the Constitution provides for separation for
powers, for Congress, for the courts, informally for the press,
protected by the First Amendment. . . . I think we cannot let the
officials of the Executive Branch determine for us what it is that
the public needs to know about how well and how they are discharging
their functions. . . ." Daniel Ellsberg interviewed by Walter
Cronkite, while underground after releasing the "Pentagon Papers."
A little over 38 years ago, when he released the "Pentagon Papers" to
The New York Times and other newspapers, it set off one of the 20th
century's most important battles over government secrecy and freedom
of the press. The nation was stunned by the revelations, and he
became one of the most reviled and admired figures in America. The
Nixon Administration was apoplectic; it targeted him through
warrant-less eavesdropping and ransacked his psychoanalyst's office
to gain access to his medical records. An exhausted anti-war movement
was buoyed by his courage and audacity. And yet, despite the uproar,
the Vietnam War lasted several more years.
He was arrested and tried for espionage and conspiracy, and faced
life imprisonment. The charges were later dropped due to the Nixon
Administration's misconduct.
In 1969, Daniel Ellsberg, a former Marine Corps officer, was given
access to classified documents regarding the conduct of the Vietnam
War, in his capacity as a U.S. military analyst employed by the RAND
Corporation.
As reported by Stanford Unger in his book "The Papers & The Papers,
An Account of the Legal and Political Battle Over the Pentagon
Papers" 1972, E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc.), in 1969, Ellsberg and his
former RAND Corporation colleague Anthony Russo, secretly photocopied
7,000 pages of what was to become known as the "Pentagon Papers." The
"Pentagon Papers," officially titled "United StatesVietnam
Relations, 19451967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense,"
were a top-secret United States Department of Defense history of the
United States' political/military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to
1967, commissioned in 1967 by then Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara.
After failing to convince several anti-war Senators to release the
papers on the Senate floor, Ellsberg finally leaked the documents to
The New York Times correspondent Neil Sheehan.
In mid-June of 1971, after initially publishing the first of nine
excerpts and commentaries on the 7,000 page collection, the Times
ceased further publication after the Nixon Administration requested,
and was granted, a court order. Ellsberg then leaked the documents to
The Washington Post and 17 other newspapers. By the end of June, a
Supreme Court decision -- New York Times Co. v. United States --
permitted the Times to resume publication. Understanding that the FBI
might assume that he was responsible for the leak, Ellsberg went
underground for 16 days. He then turned himself in on June 28. (See a
partial transcript of Walter Cronkite's clandestine interview with
Ellsberg while he was in hiding.)
A new documentary film, "The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel
Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers," co-produced and co-directed by
Rick Goldsmith and Judith Ehrlich, tells the story of those
extraordinary times. The film will be premiering at the Toronto Film
Festival on Friday, September 11. It will subsequently be shown in
New York City at the Film Forum, in Los Angeles, and at the Vancouver
International Film Festival and Mill Valley Film Festival in October.
I recently conducted the first extensive interview with Goldsmith. He
is the producer and director of the Academy-Award nominated
documentary feature "Tell the Truth and Run: George Seldes and the
American Press" and the writer and editor of "Soul of Justice:
Thelton Henderson's American Journey" - a film about the pioneering
and controversial African-American jurist.
Bill Berkowitz: Why did you and Judith Ehrlich decide to do a film
about Daniel Ellsberg? Why now?
Rick Goldsmith: We each came to it independently. I had interviewed
Ellsberg for my film on George Seldes (When he was a Harvard student
in 1950, Ellsberg had subscribed to Seldes' four-page newsletter.) In
2002, I wrote Ellsberg about the possibility of doing a film on him
and the "Pentagon Papers"; sending him a 2-page outline which even
then was titled "The Most Dangerous Man in America." He didn't reply
and I didn't follow up. A few years later, Judy Ehrlich approached me
and suggested doing a film on Dan Ellsberg. We took it from there.
We both had done films about people of conscience who stood up for
their beliefs and dared challenge the status quo. Her film "The Good
War and Those Who Refused to Fight It" told a riveting story about
conscientious objectors in World War II. By 2004, we were in the
middle of an immoral and disastrous war in Iraq started by a
President who lied us into the war, and we had a Congress and a
public who seemed either uninterested or powerless to stop it. The
story of Ellsberg and the "Pentagon Papers" had parallels that were
all too apparent. It was a compelling story and we both felt that it
might have something to say to audiences today, especially anyone
under 50, who wouldn't have personally remembered or even known about
the "Pentagon Papers" events at all.
BB: Where does the title "The Most Dangerous Man in America" come from?
RG: Henry Kissinger, who was President Nixon's National Security
Advisor, was widely quoted as having said about Ellsberg -- shortly
after he was identified as having leaked the Pentagon Papers to The
New York Times, and thought to have copies of Nixon's own Vietnam war
plans -- "Daniel Ellsberg is the most dangerous man in America and he
has to be stopped at all costs."
BB: The release of the "Pentagon Papers" was, amongst other things,
an example of great personal courage; a test of the media's right to
publish; and a battle over the public's right to know. How does this
relate to today's political climate; secret CIA hit squads,
Blackwater assassination teams?
RG: After Ellsberg's release of the "Pentagon Papers," he was tried
under the Espionage Act and faced 115 years in prison. The
publication of the Papers by The New York Times and other newspapers
could have subjected both the papers and their reporters and editors
to criminal prosecution as well. So you might say that June of 1971
was a high point in "civil courage" (a phrase Ellsberg likes to use).
Ellsberg and these newspapermen ascribed to the notion that the
United States is a democracy and can best function if the Congress,
the courts, the press, and the public are outspoken and involved in
the decisions of our government. And that while Presidents will try
to shut them down in times of crisis, they have to fight against the
government in order to make their voices heard, to get the truth out,
and to make democracy work. But since 1971, there has been a slow and
steady decline, not only in Congressional, press, and citizen
involvement, but in the notion that we have a right, a
responsibility, to challenge the President and his Administration.
During the first Gulf War, in 1991, CNN foreign correspondent Peter
Arnett (who has a cameo in our film) was branded "unpatriotic" and
even a "traitor" because he had the gall to do a story that put a
human face on Iraqis. The notion that because we're at war, it is
treason to report on the effects of war or to criticize the President
is an insane notion, but it persists more now than ever. Congress and
the news media have become more timid, so stories about torture,
assassination, and using mercenary enterprises like Blackwater to
fight our wars with no accountability are rarely reported and when
they are, horrendous abuses are pushed under the rug.
The Bush Administration said "no pictures of body bags" and the news
media complied. Reporters were embedded with the troops making it
near impossible to report independently and without censorship. When
the "Pentagon Papers" were published, the central issue was "national
security vs. the public's right to know." Today, the present
Administration and this is no less true with Obama and Afghanistan
than it was with Bush and Iraq holds all the cards, they make all
the rules, and the public has an extremely difficult task even
getting the facts, the true story.
BB: The story of the Pentagon Papers has been told a number of times.
What new things will viewers learn from your film?
RG: If you're young, you'll be entertained by a gripping story about
American government, secrecy, lies and power that you couldn't have
imagined in your wildest dreams. If you're older, you'll discover
that what you thought you remembered about the "Pentagon Papers" and
Watergate is not the whole story. You'll get the inside dope from
most of the principals of the time -- Ellsberg and his
"co-conspirator" Tony Russo, Ellsberg's family, journalists, anti-war
activists, government insiders, Nixon White House officials, and,
through the Nixon White House secret tapes, President Nixon and Henry
Kissinger as you've never heard them before. It's a wild and exciting ride.
BB: Over the course of your filmmaking career, you've interviewed
some very impressive individuals including the iconic journalist
George Seldes, Judge Thelton Henderson, and now Ellsberg. What links
these three historic figures? What have you learned about the
struggle for truth, peace and social justice?
RG: George Seldes and Dan Ellsberg were men of conscience, who took
risks to address the biggest social injustices of their day. In both
of the films there is a first-person narrative passage where the main
character -- Seldes in one film, Ellsberg in the other -- reflects on
a personal revelation, a turning point, where he comes to the
conclusion that war, which he has participated in and championed up
until this moment, is in actuality murder, a crime, and a crime that
has to be stopped. Their lives are changed forever -- they never
again "go along to get along." And what unfolds in each film, is a
story in which the viewer (at least this is the intention) comes to
see that stopping war, stopping injustice, may take both an
incredible about-face to your belief system and a enormous personal
commitment to do something -- not once, but over a lifetime -- to
battle the massive forces that keep those wars and those injustices
happening, time and again, in every generation.
BB: What do you hope the film accomplishes?
RG: I hope that audiences, especially young people who likely aren't
familiar with Ellsberg might see the film and begin to look at the
world around them in a different way; to question authority, to
consider that their President, their boss, their parents, whoever,
doesn't have all the answers. That taking risks for important issues
can be liberating, uplifting, and can make a difference in the world
around them. I think we all face periods of discouragement, maybe
even live "lives of quiet desperation" and that it is a common
experience to ask the question "why bother?" Maybe this film can help
answer that question.
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