'Dangerous':
Watchdog film doesn't hide its bite
http://www.mydesert.com/article/20100108/EVENTS01/1070378/+Dangerous+++Watchdog+film+doesn+t+hide+its+bite
Bruce Fessier
January 8, 2010
The documentary "The Most Dangerous Man In America: Daniel Ellsberg
and the Pentagon Papers" is a reminder for those who lived through
the Watergate era that Daniel Ellsberg inspired perhaps the greatest
era of watchdog journalism in U.S. history.
For those who grew up after the 1970s, the film debuting today at
Regal Cinemas 9 explains how a man who helped plan early Vietnam War
strategies morphed into a whistleblower who exposed war lies going
back to the Truman administration.
Ellsberg, who will conduct Q&As following today's screening and
Saturday, worked in the Department of Defense and the State
Department before analyzing the Vietnam War for the hawkish Rand
Corporation think tank.
With his high security clearances, Ellsberg had access to a secret
report compiled for President Lyndon B. Johnson's Secretary of
Defense Robert McNamara on the uncensored history of Vietnam,
including admissions that analysts felt the war could be managed with
an infusion of troops in the mid-1960s, but never won.
The documentary reveals that Ellsberg had an epiphany in 1969 that
made him reverse his position on the war and leak the massive
McNamara report to the New York Times.
When an appellate court granted a Nixon administration motion to
enjoin The Times from publishing its entire series about the report,
Ellsberg leaked it to other newspapers who agreed to publish it
despite the threat of legal battles. The Times finally won its case
in the Supreme Court, but President Nixon in the meantime created the
White House Plumbers a covert investigations unit to investigate
Ellsberg and prevent subsequent leaks. They were responsible for the
Watergate break-in, which eventually forced Nixon to resign after he
was found to have lied about his role in it.
Ellsberg said in a recent interview that he's pleased with Judith
Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith's film, but said the impact of the
"Pentagon Papers" (as the McNamara report was called) on Watergate
could have been explored further.
"They do have Egil Krogh, who was in charge of (creating the
Plumbers)," said Ellsberg. "If there were to be a longer version, it
would make a lot of sense to bring in the Plumbers a lot more. They
just didn't have time to go into it."
The film also has little time to explore Ellsberg's evolution into an
outspoken opponent of today's wars. He sees many parallels between
the Johnson and Obama administrations.
"People seem to forget the oath they've taken," he said. "In his
Nobel speech, Obama actually justified his departure, as he put it,
from Ghandian principles ... to justify what he was in the process of
doing, which was enlarging a hopeless war. He said, 'I am sworn to
protect and defend the country.' The statement is false. The oath he
swore is to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the
United States against all enemies foreign and domestic."
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