Daniel Ellsberg | |
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| Born | April 7, 1931 Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Died | June 16, 2023 Kensington, California, United States |
Daniel Ellsberg (April 7, 1931 – June 16, 2023) was a Statesian anti-war activist who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971, exposing U.S. war crimes in the Vietnam War. He was arrested more than 90 times. U.S. charged him with espionage, which carried a punishment of 105 years in prison.[1]
Pentagon Papers
The Pentagon Papers contained 7,000 pages of classified documents. They showed that the USA knew it would lose the Vietnam War as early as July 1965. Lyndon B. Johnson believed the USA would not defeat Vietnam even if it lost 50,000 people. Kissinger described Ellsberg as "the most dangerous man in America", and Nixon banned newspapers from publishing the papers.[1]
Later activism
In 2019, Ellsburg spoke out against U.S. coup attempts against Venezuela. In May 2021, he released a classified document from 1958 that showed that the United States would start a nuclear war if China retook Taiwan.[1]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Richard Becker (2023-06-21). "How Daniel Ellsberg exposed the U.S. war machine and became a top enemy of empire" Liberation News. Archived from the original on 2023-06-22.