Daniel Ellsberg, a US government analyst who became one of the most famous whistleblowers in world politics when he leaked the Pentagon Papers, has died. He was 92. His death was confirmed by his family on Friday.
‘I’ve never regretted doing it’: Daniel Ellsberg on 50 years since leaking the Pentagon Papers
In March, Ellsberg announced that he had inoperable pancreatic cancer. Saying he had been given three to six months to live, he said he had chosen not to undergo chemotherapy and had been assured of hospice care.“I am not in any physical pain,” Ellsberg wrote, adding: “My cardiologist has given me license to abandon my salt-free diet of the last six years. This has improved my life dramatically: the pleasure of eating my favourite foods!”
Excellent article by Fred Kaplan, a foreign policy analyst who knew him well.
I said it in the death pool thread, but Ellsberg’s memoir is one of the most compelling books I’ve ever read. He was a former marine who went on the ground in Vietnam to observe how the war was going, and also rubbed shoulders with its architects, like Nixon and Robert McNamara. His conscience is what led to the Pentagon Papers, and the Pentagon Papers led to Watergate (Nixon’s plumbers were assembled to ‘stop the leaks’, which was precipitated by Ellsberg’s act).
I daresay he was one of the most pivotal Americans of the 20th century.