[Salon] Fwd: Daniel Ellsberg’s First Leak Helped Prevent War With China

Begin forwarded message:

From: Todd Pierce <todd.e.pierce@icloud.com>
Subject: Fwd: [Salon] Daniel Ellsberg’s First Leak Helped Prevent War With China
Date: April 16, 2023 at 7:30:32 PM CDT
To: SALON Admin <salon@committeefortherepublic.org>

I shared information about a must-see documentary movie yesterday in which Daniel Ellsberg is a featured speaker, and recommended people see it while it remains available for streaming as it is relevant to today’s political “climate.” But so as not to blur the importance of seeing that movie, I didn’t add any “contextual analysis” to that email. So here it is now, along with a number of important writings of Daniel Ellsberg’s, which I believe raised him to a far higher level than what many may see him as, far above that of “Whistleblower” and opponent of war, but as a “political theorist.” In the Hannah Arendt/Carl von Clausewitz meaning, as the attached files show.

Daniel Ellsberg Week has been declared the week of Mon April 24 - Sun April 30 by a number of organizations, as it should be by the Committee for the Republic, which previously gave him its “Defender of Liberty Award,” as can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7L3DOhakNU

And this is part of my tribute to Dan!

I had three fairly extensive conversations with Dan over the last decade, and wish I would have recorded each, instead of just the one where he welcomed Julian Assange’s father to St. Paul on behalf of a local group. But in each, it was like talking to Hannah Arendt, or Carl von Clausewitz, for their knowledge of the “theory of war,” as Peter Paret explains of Clausewitz in the file named “Theory” below.

But here is Dan from “Papers on the War.” Knowing how averse most people here are to acquiring knowledge, versus “conservative” opinion,” I highlighted many of the pertinent parts, in my opinion (so you don’t have to read so much, if you read at all of any “serious writing, where he discusses U.S. plans for nuclear war against China, and of how it was the “right-wing” putting pressure on policy all the time to “not lose Vietnam,” as in the charge: “Who lost China.” And how that drove so much of the Vietnam War, without excusing the Democratic Party for what they did.

Here Dan Ellsberg and Noam Chomsky discuss the “Present Danger,” which even though so real, it's almost a pleasure to hear them talk just for the opportunity to hear two intelligent people discuss “war,” versus the fanatics I read so much of, as if its a “walk in the park,” so to speak, in their eagerness for war with Russia, and China (and as Trump made so clear, always against Iran, and the Palestinians, as he carried out with Netanyahu).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fEuUQsvDOM

Chomsky and Ellsberg on the Present Danger

youtube.com

Ellsberg, beginning at 23:25: "You can’t count on anyone, to be wrong on everything, all the time.” That’s true, but you can count on some people to be wrong on almost everything, almost all the time. Especially on what they specialize in being wrong on, like Lindsey Graham and war, as one example.

So with mention of Chomsky, here is a chapter of Chomsky’s 1982 book: “Towards a New Cold War," with this chapter attached, "The Remaking of History," as the current American “New Right” is doing with its reinvention of right-wing history, and the present by their duplicitous claim of “Right-wing Peaceniks” so zealously peddled by The American Conservative, and (sometimes) Responsible Statecraft, and other “right-wing realist” platforms, to include, sadly, even Stephen Kinzer, who fell for such insanity in celebrating “Matt Gaetz” as a “right-wing peacenik.” Ignoring how zealous Gaetz has always been for war against China. Or as I speculated before; maybe “it’s not war, when our victims are “of color.” Like Teddy Roosevelt and his fellow Republican “Hamiltonians” were always so enthusiastic for, whether in Asia, or Latin America, but also Germany, before they prodded Wilson into WW I.

But take a look at this, and try to rise above partisan insanity (of both party’s), and take these words for what they actually mean, of Trump’s claim he would have hung on to Bagram Airbase for war against China, as if that wouldn’t have continued the war of the Afghans to evict us from their country (Pentagon contractor Microsoft’s slant, but can’t find this on Fox (maybe because they were smart enough to know that Trump was calling for “endless war,” if the US had tried to cling on to Bagram?) And further advanced the “cause” of war with China, explaining Tucker Carlson’s occasional “****eating grin.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/donald-trump-s-interview-with-tucker-carlson-was-an-epic-mess/ar-AA19MEAO

Within the space of 2:35 to 3:40, Trump goes from talking like the “Godfather" to a Taliban leader, to asserting a right to Bagram airbase for war against China, and we're supposed to believe that that all would have gone over with the Afghans without objection, or continued resistance? Which is not to defend Biden and his succession to Trump’s wars in any way.

But listen to Trump, and Biden, and its clear they’re both playing "off the same sheet of music,” replicating Nixon’s and Kissinger’s “Madman” act, and doing a hell of a good job. Until their schtick all goes up in the proverbial “Mushroom Cloud,” along with the rest of us.

Watch film:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/movement-and-madman/

On Apr 12, 2023, at 9:38 AM, egarris2--- via Salon <salon@listserve.com> wrote:

https://original.antiwar.com/mcgovern/2023/04/11/ellsbergs-first-leak-helped-prevent-war-with-china/

Daniel Ellsberg’s First Leak Helped Prevent War With China
by Ray McGovern

Those unaware of Dan Ellsberg’s 2002 Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers may think the leak of the Pentagon Papers was Dan’s first unauthorized disclosure. Not so. Arguably, his first such leak, in March 1968, was even more consequential.

After the Viet Cong shocked most observers by mounting a countrywide offensive in South Vietnam at Tet (late Jan./early Feb. 1968), Dan leaked to the NY Times chapter and verse on how Gen. William Westmoreland had "cooked" intelligence, lowballing data on insurgent strength to create the impression the U.S. was making "remarkable progress" in the war.

The Only Thing Needed: More Troops

Unembarrassed by the Tet offensive, Westmoreland was asking for 206,000 additional troops. Dan knew that and expected President Lyndon Johnson to grant that request. In Secrets Dan writes:

"I wanted to deter him from it. I feared that once he had sent even more troops and called up the reserves, the public and Congress would demand an all-out attack against the North, up to and perhaps beyond the Chinese border. …

"This was what the JCS expected. … Whether or not some of the joint chiefs actually wanted war with China and use of nuclear weapons – I’m not sure on that question to this day – that is what we would be actually risking.

"The striking impact of [an earlier] unauthorized disclosure [in the NY Times on March 10] of the request for 206,000 additional troops – at the time one of the most closely held secrets in the administration – suddenly opened my eyes to my responsibilities as a citizen. I had never considered up till that point leaking classified information" …

"As I observed the effect of this leak, it was as if clouds suddenly opened. I realized something crucial: that the president’s ability to escalate … had depended on secrecy and lying and thus on his ability to deter unauthorized disclosures – truth telling – by officials."

Sweet Irony

Dan did not find out who the first leaker was; that is, who leaked the Westmoreland request, until after the leaker, Leslie Gelb, died in 2019. Gelb was a senior Pentagon official in 1968. Now, ready for this? It was Gelb who was put in charge of compiling the Pentagon Papers – which were leaked three years later – but this time not by Gelb! He remained in good odor as President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations until he died. Even so, we are indebted to Les Gelb and for the good example (incognito) he gave Daniel Ellsberg.

Ellsberg Wins the Sam Adams Award

At a small gathering today (April 11, 2023) in the Bay area of California, Dan Ellsberg, patron saint of whistleblowers) was presented with the traditional Corner-Brightener Candlestick Holder – the "Oscar" accompanying the Sam Adams annual award. Below is the award Citation:

(Read the rest):
https://original.antiwar.com/mcgovern/2023/04/11/ellsbergs-first-leak-helped-prevent-war-with-china/

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