The Most Dangerous Man In America
The Rumpus just published my review of the recent documentary about Daniel Ellsberg, The Most Dangerous Man In America:
On June 13th, 1971, in the midst of the Vietnam War, the New York Times began to publish excerpts of an internal Pentagon document that detailed the top-secret history of US-Vietnam relations from 1945 to 1967. Soon known as the Pentagon Papers, its seven thousand pages added up to an unambiguous picture: four consecutive Presidents had misled the public into supporting and sustaining an unwinnable war, largely from a desire to avoid the national humiliation of a defeat.
The story immediately exploded into the wider media, though the revelations about Presidential duplicity were less discussed than the question of who had leaked this document and why. The FBI identified the probable source: Daniel Ellsberg, a highly respected military analyst, formerly employed by the Department of Defense and the Pentagon-funded RAND Corporation. Soon, he was the target of one of the largest manhunts in the history of the country.
posted: 10 February 26
under: The Next Frame