Many people around the world regard my father, Daniel Ellsberg, as a hero. Over the last 40 years he has been a visible and outspoken champion for the cause of peace and social change. But he is particularly known for a singular act of courage. In 1969 he photocopied a 7,000-page top secret history of the Vietnam War, known as the The Pentagon Papers, and provided it to the New York Times and other newspapers. After the Papers were published in 1971, he was arrested and put on trial to face 115 years in prison. Thanks to eventual revelation of gross government misconduct in the case (including burglary of his psychiatrist's office and the attempted bribery of his judge), the charges were dismissed. These revelations, which were part of the wider "Watergate" scandal, led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon and ultimately the end of the Vietnam War.
These events were part of my childhood, and they continue to reverberate through my life.
My father spent the '60s working as a government insider, a defense department analyst entrusted with the highest security clearances. Then, in 1965, he went to Vietnam, and what he experienced there over the next two years caused him to change. He came to see the futility of the war, its impact on innocent civilians, and he began to question the motives and the morality of U.S. policy. On his return, as part of the Pentagon Papers project, he began researching the origins of the war. When he finally read the entire history, which documented a long history of government deception and lies, he realized that the war was not simply a mistake to be corrected but a crime to be resisted.
Soon after this, one day in October, my father took me out to lunch. He told me that he intended to copy secret documents about the war from his safe at the Rand Corporation and make them available to Congress. He didn't know what the consequences might be. It might help end the war. But it might also involve his going to prison. Would I help him?
I was 13 at the time. I can't say I totally understood the implications of what he was telling me. But at his urging I had been reading books by Gandhi and Thoreau's "The Duty of Civil Disobedience," and I certainly understood and supported his intentions. And so for a couple of days I and my younger sister helped with photocopying the Pentagon Papers, a long project that actually took him many weeks. I didn't suppose that he really needed our help. But in the belief that he might end up in prison for many years, and that surely we might later hear from other people (as indeed we did) that he was a criminal, a traitor or simply mad, he wanted us to have a share in this action. He wanted us to see that he was acting deliberately and with full possession of his mind. And he wanted us to receive lessons that might be the only legacy he could leave us: the importance of following one's conscience; the value of a life dedicated to truth; the message that there are things in life that are worthy of the greatest sacrifice.
The Pentagon Papers were published 40 years ago in 1971, at the midpoint of his life, thus far. April 7, 2011 is his 80th birthday. I am, of course, immensely glad that he did not spend the past 40 years in prison. In fact, he has spent the past 40 in continuous dedication to the same cause and the same values. In his protest against nuclear weapons and various wars, he has been arrested dozens of times. In particular, he has tried through his actions to inspire others, whether government officials or ordinary people, to live up to their highest responsibilities as citizens of the earth, as human beings. He has committed his words, his actions and all his energy to the struggle against war and violence of all kinds and to overcome lies through the power of truth.
But it is not only my father's exemplary and heroic qualities that I honor. I also think of his incredible zest for living: his passion for books, poetry, music and nature; his willingness to drive two hours to catch a movie on his "must-see" list; his hilarious sense of humor; his delight in entertaining children with card tricks and magic acts; the way he loses himself when he plays Chopin on the piano or recites a favorite poem; his pride in making scrambled eggs; his capacity to weep in the face of beauty; his fierce indignation over injustice; his ability to laugh at himself; his generosity and loyalty toward a friend in need; the way he always "dresses up" to get arrested and invariably flashes a peace sign from his manacled hands.
This is not to suggest he is without faults. He has many, which he himself is the first to recognize and name. But his shining idealism, his fullness of heart and his overall integrity, for me, far outweigh his failures and shortcomings. Up to the present he continues to grow, to question himself, to push himself to learn and understand the world, to seek out new opportunities to challenge the power of lies and violence, to expand the possibilities for peace.
On his 80th birthday, I am proud to call him my father, my hero. I know I will spend the rest of my life absorbing the lessons he has given me, trying my best to pass them along to my own children and to others.
Daniel Ellsberg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Daniel Ellsberg: The Crimes Richard Nixon Committed Against Me Are ...
Ellsberg should have been stopped, but he wasnt. The printers should have been
stopped, but they werent. They all should be in jail, but they arent. Our hope of being
a law abiding nation was destroyed and our weakness remains exposed by the latest
cowards and copy cats pretending moral superiority.
I am wishing a "HAPPY FATHERS DAY" to all the dad's here on HP today! Have a good one guys :^)