Скачать или смотреть What Would Daniel Ellsberg Say About Iran? His Son Michael on America’s Most Famous Whistleblower

“All my life, I’ve absolutely opposed all terrorism by anyone under any circumstances. I define terrorism as the deliberate killing of noncombatants.” — Daniel Ellsberg, October 2001

Last week we had Tom Wells on the show talking about Henry Kissinger’s moral indifference to the loss of innocent lives in the Vietnam war. Henry Kissinger, of course, was no fan of the Pentagon Papers— the leaked documents that showed the American government was lying about Vietnam, thereby changing public opinion about the war and helping end it. And the Pentagon Papers are forever associated with one brave man: Daniel Ellsberg, Harvard economist, RAND Corporation strategist, marine, Pentagon insider—and America’s most famous whistleblower.
Ellsberg died in 2023 at the age of 92. Now his son Michael Ellsberg has co-edited a posthumous collection of his father’s previously unpublished writing. Truth and Consequence: Reflections on Catastrophe, Civil Resistance, and Hope draws from a hundred boxes of handwritten notebooks in nearly illegible script, spanning fifty years of moral reckoning. Daniel Ellsberg didn’t much care about publishing these notes. His son thought otherwise.
What emerges is not another memoir of the Pentagon Papers but a book of ideas—about the nature of evil, the morality of obedience, and what Ellsberg called “civic courage”: taking nonviolent risks when your democracy is in danger. He was inspired not by intellectuals but by young draft resisters going to jail. Daniel Ellsberg’s moral lineage ran from Thoreau through Gandhi to Martin Luther King. And his moral absolute was uncompromising: the deliberate killing of civilians is “terrorism”, whoever orders it. By that definition, Daniel Ellsberg defined Harry Truman as a terrorist. Not to mention morally indifferent politicians like Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger.
Michael Ellsberg is candid about growing up in Berkeley with a father who was loving but distracted—a free-range parent who spent his evenings filling yellow legal pads rather than playing baseball. He’s equally candid about what his father would be saying right now: that whatever rationale exists for the Iran war, there are official plans and reasoning that the American public should know about but doesn’t. The Pentagon Papers proved the government lied. The question, as American bombs once again rain down on innocent civilians, is whether anything has changed in the last sixty years since “terrorists” like Henry Kissinger lied to the American public about Vietnam.

Five Takeaways
• You Are Being Lied to More Than You Realise: That was Ellsberg’s message in 1971, and his son says it’s his message now. Whatever rationale Trump has for the Iran war, there are plans the public should know about but doesn’t.
• The Establishment Man Who Became a Traitor: Ellsberg was Harvard, RAND, the marines, the Pentagon. Not a hippie. A silent-generation insider who watched the system lie about Vietnam and decided the public had a right to know.
• All Deliberate Killing of Civilians Is Terrorism: Ellsberg proposed a moral absolute. By that definition, Hiroshima was terrorism and Truman was a terrorist. No lesser-evil exceptions.
• Civic Courage Is as Important as Military Courage: Ellsberg modelled nonviolent risk-taking when democracy is in danger. His lineage: Thoreau, Gandhi, Martin Luther King.
• A Son’s Labour of Love: Daniel Ellsberg filled a hundred boxes of yellow legal pads in illegible handwriting. He didn’t care about publication. His son and assistant thought otherwise.
About the Guest
Michael Ellsberg is the son of Daniel Ellsberg and co-editor of Truth and Consequence: Reflections on Catastrophe, Civil Resistance, and Hope (Bloomsbury). He lives in Berkeley, California.

References
Truth and Consequence by Daniel Ellsberg: https://www.amazon.com/Truth-Conseque...
The Doomsday Machine by Daniel Ellsberg: https://www.amazon.com/Doomsday-Machi...
Daniel Ellsberg’s website: https://www.ellsberg.net/

About Keen On America
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Chapters:
00:00:00 Introduction: From the Kissinger tapes to the Pentagon Papers
00:03:37 Why Daniel Ellsberg matters now
00:06:21 The establishment man who became a whistleblower
00:09:16 McNamara, RAND, and the stalemate nobody would admit
00:11:19 Randy Keeler and the draft resisters who changed everything
00:12:17 Growing up Ellsberg: a free-range parent with yellow legal pads
00:14:03 Hero, martyr, or loyal mutineer?
00:15:32 Snowden, the Patriot Act, and the impossibility of a fair trial
00:19:54 The nature of evil: Ellsberg’s absolute moral position
00:23:08 What would Daniel Ellsberg say about Iran?
00:26:19 Truman as terrorist: Hiroshima and the moral absolute
00:30:49 The Thoreau–Gandhi–King lineage
00:33:52 A labor of love: why this book, why now