I get to meet a lot of fabulous people at this job. Everyone from David Cronenberg to Julia Roberts to Paul Reubens to both Shatner and Nimoy. But it isn't every day I get to meet someone I learned about in high school history class.
If you are lucky enough to live in Los Angeles or New York City, you can go see the new documentary The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers. I consider myself someone that knows more than the average bear when it comes to 20th Century political history - but it wasn't until I saw this film that I knew Ellsberg's incredible story.
I thought I did, though. If you know Ellsberg at all, you know him as a footnote to the Watergate scandal. You know that it was the covert opp of breaking into his psychiatrist's office (in an effort to discredit him) that begat the so-called "Plumber's Unit" that eventually brought down the Nixon Administration. What's been somewhat lost in the story is why Nixon wanted to discredit Ellsberg in the first place. It was Ellsberg, an analyst for the Pentagon and the RAND Corporation, who leaked the "Pentagon Papers" - a comprehensive study conducted by the RAND Corporation at the behest of the US government that proved that America's involvement in Vietnam was a) based on fabrication b) going on for decades longer than the public knew and c) considered by every expert imaginable completely unwinnable. Ellsberg nearly went to prison for his entire life.
"Actually, I would have gotten out just a few years ago with good behavior!" Ellsberg beams in a small conference room in the upstairs office of New York's legendary Film Forum theater on Houston St. He is a slender, fiery man of 78 years. He is wearing a hearing aid and what can only be described as slacks. He is there with his wife Patricia and the co-director of the film, Rick Goldsmith. Not that either can get a word in edgewise.
When I let him know that my outlet, UGO, is very involved with video game news, he springs up, "There could be a video game based on this documentary. First, we have to Xerox the thousands of pages in the dead of night without arousing suspicion. Then we have to distribute to material to the different newspapers. Then I hide out underground while Nixon calls for my head and issues a manhunt. Or - better yet - you can play as the Government and try to suppress the nineteen different newspapers that stood up and printed the material. For the first time in history the US Government went out to suppress the spreading of information of a particular story. Abraham Lincoln went against the press, but Nixon went against the public's right to know a specific story. That sounds to me like it could make for an interesting game."
I decide to parry with him a bit. "But, if I may, Mr. Ellsberg. When you were working as an analyst at RAND and took copies of 'The Papers' - forget for a moment whether it was right for the people to know what was in them. Forget whether there is a higher ethical standard to being a whistle blower. Weren't you, in effect, stealing property? Property that came at a great expense?"
"It was information!"
"Yes, but couldn't you say, given the great expense into the research of this information, that it was proprietary information?"
"Of course. Yes. Proprietary to the Citizens of the United States. They funded the research."
He had me. There was no way I could ever outsmart him on this one. He beat the Federal Government.
"Well, is there ever a case when the public just does not have a right to know?"
"Yes, " he demurs. "Say, for example, the date and location of the Normandy Beach Invasion. Or, say, the name of a secret CIA agent like Valerie Plame."
With that, he smiled.
Daniel Ellsberg is a man who beat the odds and obviously isn't scared to ruffle feathers. He laid it all out on the line and could have spent a lifetime behind bars for doing what he thought was right. I asked him if this means he's constantly unafraid of a fight, and woe be to you if you cut him off in traffic.
"Naw, naw. In personal matters, I avoid confrontation and hold my tongue."
You can get to know more about this fascinating man though his website Ellsberg.net and through this film - one of the best documentaries of the year. If it doesn't play in your town, it is surely bound for Netflix soon.
