re: #69 Pie-onist Overlord

No, Ellsberg didn’t run to Russia with his stash. He stayed and faced the music.

Ellsberg is also wrong for admiring Snowden.

Snowden is still a shitbag.

Ellsberg also admires Julian Assange. Like those he admires, Ellsberg is another privileged white man who got ego gratification in becoming famous for pointing out what he thought were grave mistakes in governance. He was working for the Rand Corp, after a stint w/the State Dept in Vietnam and before that in the Defense Dept, when he revealed the Pentagon Papers. Until that point, Ellsberg had not taken part in any civil rights activities and wasn’t well known in the the anti-war movement, and, in fact, did not become well known until the Pentagon Papers were published in the NYT without his prior knowledge in 1971. It was only a chance meeting with an anti-war activist in 1969 that changed his mind about Vietnam.

Ellsberg never really had to work very hard to “get something” on the US govt. It was right there, he had worked on it in an official capacity, he knew exactly what it said, and he knew how to steal it. Very much like Snowden, with whom he compares with himself. So on that point, yes, they’re very much alike.

OTOH, the Vietnam War was a result of Cold War policy that was outdated, the “Domino Theory” being invoked, and like the French before us, the US was not going to change the hearts and minds of the former anti-colonialists and others who saw communism as an alternative to foreign domination. It was an unpopular war before Ellsberg became involved and continued to be. Ellsberg traveled in much loftier circles than most anti-war protestors, both politically and socially. Nevertheless, the Nixon admin began a vendetta against Ellsberg that indeed did violate his civil rights, including warrantless wiretaps, the break-in of his psychiatrist’s office, and other shenanigans by the FBI. Ellsberg can be commended for bringing the truth about Vietnam to light, but to compare what he did to what Snowden did is just wrong.