of us government lies about the war in vietnam. the nixon administration was enraged. they tried to destroy daniel ellsberg. they failed. and today he is still warning the american people about the dangers of unchecked military power. but are they listening? daniel ellsberg, welcome to hardtalk. glad to be with you. it s a great pleasure to be at your home. you have lived a long and a very full life, and i guess the truth is you know that you will always be associated with one extraordinary decision you took to leak the pentagon papers. does it bother you that that is the thing that people think about you? no. well, i know that it is, but, so i ve lived with that for a long time. my intent at the time was to put out more important papers, ifelt, top secret papers on nuclear war planning and the prospects of nuclear strategy, supposedly, which i had in my safe, top secret safe at rand, and i copied them at the same time. and there s a friend of mine who went to prison and w
about the war in vietnam. the nixon administration was enraged. they tried to destroy daniel ellsberg. they failed. and today he is still warning the american people about the dangers of unchecked military power. but are they listening? daniel ellsberg, welcome to hardtalk. glad to be with you. it s a great pleasure to be at your home. you have lived a long and a very full life, and i guess the truth is you know that you will always be associated with one extraordinary decision you took to leak the pentagon papers. does it bother you that that is the thing that people think about you? no. well, i know that it is, but, so i ve lived with that for a long time. my intent at the time was to put out more important papers, ifelt, top secret papers on nuclear war planning and the prospects of nuclear strategy, supposedly, which i had in my safe, top secret safe at rand, and i copied them at the same time. and there s a friend of mine who went to prison and was a model for me, rea
i look back on that with amazement, almost. then i was in vietnam, but then i read the pentagon papers. i knew coming back from vietnam, as everyone knew coming back who d been involved in combat, we were not going to win. we were not going to get these guys to quit. they were not going to quit. some of your critics i m going to quote one of them, he s an academic called gabriel schoenfeld. he has written about your decision, and he said there is a fundamental arrogance about what daniel ellsberg did because he said and i m going to quote him he said, you know, we have a system for controlling critical national security secrets. very, very well controlled. yes. and he said, you know, this is established by the congress, by the executive branch, both of which are elected by the people. congress had nothing to do with it. congress has nothing to do with the classification system. it is an executive system ruled by regulations from the defence department.
started and carried it on. i d been part of that. i look back on that with amazement, almost. then i was in vietnam, but then i read the pentagon papers. i knew coming back from vietnam, as everyone knew coming back who d been involved in combat, we were not going to win. we were not going to get these guys to quit. they were not going to quit. some of your critics i m going to quote one of them, he s an academic called gabriel schoenfeld. he has written about your decision, and he said there is a fundamental arrogance about what daniel ellsberg did because he said and i m going to quote him he said, you know, we have a system for controlling critical national security secrets. very, very well controlled. yes. and he said, you know, this is established by the congress, by the executive branch, both of which are elected by the people. congress had nothing to do with it. congress has nothing to do with the classification system. it is an executive system ruled by regulations
we helped him get the bombing started and carried it on. i d been part of that. i look back on that with amazement, almost. then i was in vietnam, but then i read the pentagon papers. i knew coming back from vietnam, as everyone knew coming back who d been involved in combat extent because we were not going to win. we were not going to get these guys to quit. they were not going to quit. some of your critics, i m going to quote one of them. he s an academic called gabriel schoenfeld. he has written about your decision. and he said, there is a fundamental arrogance about what daniel ellsberg did because, he said, and i m going to quote him, he said, you know, we have a system for controlling critical national security secrets. very, very well controlled. yes. and he said, you know, this is established by the congress, by the executive branch, both of which are elected by the people. congress had nothing