Death of Daniel Ellsberg, the whistleblower who exposed the “Pentagon Papers” to the world

Overused and misused, understated expression The “whistleblower” has an original incarnation in modern democracies. A man of exemplary industry, firm convictions and steadfast courage.

Daniel Ellsberg, who died at the age of 92 on Friday, June 16, following a battle with pancreatic cancer, entered US military, political and media history by deciding to reveal what should have been kept quiet, prompting one of the most important and devastating classified leaks. archives.

In 1971, ending an exemplary career as a private consultant and adviser to the federal government, he released to the press copies of nearly 7,000 pages of “top secret” documents, exposing the lies and cover-ups of four successive administrations. War in Vietnam. A total of 58,000 Americans were killed in the conflict. The “Pentagon Papers” were the result of a 1967 order by Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, who wanted to document the history of the war and America’s commitment to the region since 1945. .

After warning the failed senators, Daniel Ellsberg acted as a strategist. The New York Times- The Supreme Court imposed a ban on the publication of the newspaper.

And then it was The Washington Post and the Associated Press, followed by other newspapers The Boston Globe, cannot stop the updating of these confidential and damning documents. At the end of June 1971, the same Supreme Court finally ruled in favor of publishing documents in the name of freedom of expression.

For Kissinger, “the most dangerous man in America.”

While Ellsberg, hunted by the police, became a hero of the antiwar movement, the Nixon administration and supporters of the continuation of the conflict saw him as a traitor. For Henry Kissinger, the president’s diplomatic adviser, it was “The Most Dangerous Man in America”. But two cases against him, in Los Angeles and Boston, ended in prosecution failures due to procedural flaws and police abuse.

Disguised as fake plumbers, an undercover team of ex-agents is sent to search the former office of Ellsberg’s psychoanalyst in Beverly Hills (California). The goal was to find patient compromise cues.

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