Ellsberg’s final book

Daniel Ellsberg’s ninth and final book, Truth and Consequence, was published this spring, three years after his passing.

Pentagon Papers leak

Ellsberg helped write the 20-year Pentagon Papers, a top-secret history of the US war in Vietnam.

Media’s role

The Supreme Court battle between The New York Times and Nixon Administration made the Pentagon Papers a press triumph.

Ellsberg’s legacy

Ellsberg used his stature to call attention to whistleblowers and nuclear war risks.

Ellsberg’s impact

Ellsberg’s 1971 leak of Pentagon Papers was not the cause of Vietnam’s end, but a historical record.

Ellsberg’s message

Ellsberg urged young people to reveal government secrets before bombs fall.

“My message to [young people] is: Don’t do what I did. Don’t wait until the bombs are actually falling or thousands more have died before you do what I wish I’d done years earlier, in ’64, or even ’61 on the nuclear issue, and that is reveal…the dangerous truths that are being withheld by the government at whatever cost to yourself, whatever risk that may take.”

Ellsberg’s background

Ellsberg’s parents were ethnically Eastern European Jews who became fanatical Christian Scientists.

Ellsberg’s early life

Ellsberg was a gifted musician but abandoned piano after his mother’s death in a car crash.

Ellsberg’s career

Ellsberg graduated from Cranbrook School, majored in economics at Harvard, and joined the Marines.

Ellsberg’s paradox

Ellsberg developed the Ellsberg Paradox in game theory, describing ambiguity in choices.

Ellsberg’s nuclear work

Ellsberg copied 15,000 pages of top-secret RAND documents on nuclear weapons.

Nuclear war risks

Ellsberg estimated a 600 million death toll from a US nuclear war in the Soviet Union, China, and Europe.

Nuclear deterrence

Nuclear deterrence requires certainty that using weapons will destroy the user, but is inherently unsafe.

Ellsberg’s warning

Ellsberg warned that nuclear weapons are more dangerous than any time in his lifetime.

“We’re in a more dangerous situation than any time in my lifetime.”

Current nuclear threat

The US is rebuilding its nuclear arsenal for $1.7 trillion amid rising global tensions.

Ellsberg’s conclusion

Ellsberg urged leaders to avoid using mass destruction tools for short-term problems.

“Do not give decent, well-intentioned humans at the apex of large, hierarchical organizations instruments of mass destruction that may be wielded as solutions to narrow, parochial, egotistical, short-run problems, which challenge their perceived success or position of control.”