Pentagon Papers whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg speaks at Blair

Daniel Ellsberg spoke about the Pentagon Papers, his personal experiences in the Vietnam War and his opinion of the war on Iraq to over 75 Blazers during fourth period yesterday, May 27.

Ellsberg, who is most widely known for leaking 7,000 pages of top-secret information about the Vietnam War to the New York Times and The Washington Post, focused on two main topics during his 30-minute address: his firsthand experience in the Vietnam War and how that war is related to Iraq.

Ellsberg said he released the Pentagon Papers because he hoped doing so would help end the war. There were several experiences that led Ellsberg to the conclusion that America should get out of Vietnam.

When Ellsberg went overseas as a high-level government operative, he said, within months he was aware that the U.S. would not emerge victorious from the war in Vietnam.

A main point that Ellsberg made in his speech was that the US soldiers and the Vietnamese were fighting for two very different reasons. The U.S. was fighting to get the communists out of South Vietnam, while the Vietnamese were simply fighting to get the foreigners out of their homeland.

Ellsberg said that he could relate his experiences in Vietnam to that of the Red Coats in the Revolutionary War, because he was fighting against people who knew the land. "[The Vietnamese] knew every inch of the countryside unlike us, like it was their backyard, probably because it was their backyard, as these were clearly local boys," Ellsberg said.

This Red Coats analogy later led Ellsberg to accept that the U.S. was not the first country to try to invade Vietnam. "Later, I realized we were walking in the footsteps of French invaders of Vietnam, before them the Japanese invaders and before them the Chinese invaders," he said.

Ellsberg was able to parallel his releasing of the Pentagon Papers with the recent release of pictures of Iraqi prisoners being tortured by American soldiers.

Though Joseph Darby, the U.S. soldier who told his superiors of photographs from Iraq, was a national hero for exposing the truth, he was also shunned in his hometown, according to Ellsberg. Some of the people he reported on live near his hometown in Maryland, and Darby is thought of as a traitor to his friends, said Ellsberg.

According to Ellsberg, it is not uncommon for whistle-blowers to lose friends and become alienated from society. When he released the top-secret Pentagon Papers to the press all of his friends disappeared, even the ones who agreed with his decision. "They couldn't associate with me," said Ellsberg.

His part in the exposure of the Pentagon Papers was big. "What I had to do was give 7,000 pages to the New York Times, knowing I'd be prosecuted. I thought I'd go to prison," said Ellsberg. Initially, he was facing 115 years, but the charges were dismissed because of crimes committed by the government against Ellsberg.

Recently, Ellsberg was given a "whistle-blower" award in Germany in recognition of his decision to release the Pentagon Papers. Since there is no direct translation of the phrase "whistle-blower" in German, Ellsberg asked what the closest word. The Germans responded with the German word for "traitor." The next closest, he said, was "tattle tale."

Ellsberg also briefly touched upon the topic of whistle-blowing in today's society. He related it to priest molestation of children in the Catholic church. "In this case, they didn't take lives, but ruined lives," he said. This kind of abuse happened in many churches nationwide, but no one blew the whistle on the abusive priests, so they only transferred to another area, Ellsberg stated.

Ellsberg also related his experience with that of tobacco companies marketing towards children and teens. When two whistle-blowers finally exposed cigarette companies by admitting they target teenagers, it was a big step. Though officials "swore under oath they don't market to teens, they do market to young people and they'll keep doing it," said Ellsberg. This is because young people, especially those in their teen years, are more easily addicted to tobacco. The cigarette companies specifically target teens because they need their business.

Ellsberg feels that he made a good decision in giving the Pentagon Papers to the press. He advised Blazers to "take the risk" and sacrifice themselves for the sake of a good cause when needed.

Last year, Ellsberg published Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers, which has become a New York Times bestseller.

Click here to visit the official website for Secrets.