Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers

This is a brilliant book. During the time Ellsberg relates, he was constantly called upon to write lengthy and detailed reports for officials already over burdened with endless reports they had to consume. He had to be clear, precise, cogent, and articulate. This highly developed skill is amply demonstrated in this book. Which reads more like a work of fiction than what it truly is: A personal account of what was going on INSIDE the government during the build up and eventual crisis of the Vietnam War. And in the fields and hamlets of Vietnam. Two quotes to frame the context: "A popular government, without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or, perhaps, both. knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own governors, must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives." James Madison. Quoted by Daniel Ellsberg (p431) "Once in 1967 after a somewhat pessimistic briefing by John Vann, Rostow, slightly shaken, said, "But you do admit that it'll all be over in six months." "Oh," said Vann somewhat airily, "I think we can hold out longer than that." - The Best And The Brightest p.637 David Halberstam. Ellsberg's memoir was published before the Snowdon revelations about the true breadth and depth of NSA foreign and domestic data mining. So there is that additional perspective to ponder. Ellsberg, one of Halberstam's Best and Brightest. A true cold warrior, third in line under McNamara. One of the very best and brightest, who came too late to question Vietnam Policy and ordered the compiling of the Pentagon Papers. The history of Presidential folly, self deception and fear of the primitives and isolationist anti communist("You Lost China") lobby. The Pentagon Papers that Ellsberg released to the press. So we have two profoundly important themes - the abuse of power and executive efforts to restrict access to any remotely pertinent information "top secret". And, in Ellsberg's memoir the circumstances and thinking that made him break with the establishment and publish that top secret information. "Plus ca change" as the French say. We seem condemned to deprecate the British Empire while seriously intensifying both that Empire's moral (self righteous) certitudes and its most egregious failings and obtuseness. The one thing that most impressed me about this book is what Elleberg did NOT say. Did not NEED to say, because he writes so clearly the picture is so clear, in all its awful complexity. To be sure he has his own moral point of view. And he lets this show from time to time. Only, I think, to underscore the fallibility of everyone and anyone involved with or observing the unfolding and unravelling of US Vietnam policy. But, for the most part he has chosen his examples and sequence of events and policy decisions to paint a complete portrait, showing far more than he tells. For me this is brilliant. Not a jeremiad. Just a cool and personal report for the ages. Which, judging by more recent military adventures, we are doomed to repeat and not learn from. There will always be honorable souls, like George Ball, Vann and several others Ellsberg quotes and acknowledges, who will see to the heart of the matter. And there will always be "primitives" (Roosevelt's term) who will scare enough people enough of the time for this tragedy to be repeated. If it isn't being so already.... Compelling reading.

Interesting account of the politics behind Vietnam and the War. A lot of specifics that I didn’t know or remember. Dan Ellsberg! Not who I thought he was. Always in the right place at the right time.

Daniel Ellsberg's service in Vietnam has been documented in other books, but his personal account is very informative. There are several true gems in this memoir, the most remarkable being the scene in which he personally warns Kissinger of the dangers of top secret access, this just prior to Kissinger's taking the National Security Advisor position. Ellsberg warns the good Doctor that those with access to highly classified information go through a transformation process which eventually leads them to think that anyone without the same access is a simpleton not capable of judging policymakers. They stop listening to outsiders and eventually turn themselves into morons. Sound familiar? A follow-up scene shows that Kissinger did fall victim to that syndrome at least on occasion. Perhaps the same may apply to Dan Ellsberg. He assumed that once the public saw what he saw in those "secret" papers the world would turn back on its axis. Ellsberg may not have realized that "the people" have always known the key secret -- the "great leader" will stop at nothing to remain in power and his men will do anything to keep their jobs. [See the final paragraph of David Chandler's book "Voices from S-21" for the best explanation I have seen about how men rationalize the evil they do by placing themselves in a "state of agency" to a bureaucracy to which they cling for survival.] The "secret" is as old as man himself, and never changes. Only those on the "inside" imagine themselves brilliant by virtue of their access to the details of age old political power schemes. The quotes from the Oval Office tapes of Nixon's "frank" reactions to Ellsberg's plot to publicize the McNamara study are wonderful, laughable, and a great joy to read. Would today's Oval Office tapes really be any less satisfying?

After finding this book quite by accident while browsing through the wonderful Concord bookstore the other day, I was astounded to find how relevant and interesting a story author Daniel Ellsberg manages to conjure up after all this time regarding his legendary experience leading up to and including the leaking, release and publication of the infamous "Pentagon Papers' by the New York Times. As he explains early in the long yet fascinating monologue, he fully expected to be sentenced to a long prison sentence for having secreted a copy of the highly classified Department of Defense's official history of the American Government's policy and involvement in Vietnam. The report was a damning confirmation of the worst fears of the anti-war movement, and provided overwhelming evidence of the cynical, manipulative, and deceitful character of our government and its deceit to its own people regarding its involvement. What surprised Ellsberg most in all of this swirling excitement and activity was his own growing celebrity, and while he spent years fearing the worst for his own admitted culpability in defying criminal statues by stealing and leaking official government secrets, eventually the charges against him were dropped based, among other things, on the revelations of the Nixon's plumber's unit's illegal break-in at Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office. Ellsberg was an unlikely hero, a graduate of the Harvard University economics doctoral program, a former marine officer turned defense issue intellectual, a frequent visitor to Vietnam who was rankled by the distinct difference between what he was seeing and experiencing during his visits, on the one hand, and what the official American government position regarding what the situation was on the ground on the other. Based on this growing dissatisfaction and the discovery of the so-called Pentagon papers, a treasure trove of more than 7,000 pages of carefully documented details about the U.S. Government's involvement in Vietnam and its motives, considerations, and actions, Ellsberg tried to enlist the support of a number of Senators and Congressmen in an effort to use the evidence in the Pentagon Papers to undercut the Government's position and thereby end the war itself. Failing to do so, he finally surrendered the documents to the New York Times, which agreed to publish them through a series of daily excerpts (and also later in an abridged best-selling paperback version). The Government tried to stop publication, but was denied the right to do so by the Supreme Court. Of course, with the publication came an increase in public opposition to the war and a recognition of the degree to which the Executive branch and the military had intentionally misled the public regarding the conduct of the war and the situation on the ground for the moiré than 500,000 troops then stationed in-country. Still, it took more than five more years before the American involvement in Vietnam ended. This is a wonderful book to experience, and in reading it one comes to recognize the formidable skills Ellsberg brings to bear in terms of his amazing recall, eye for details, and ability to successfully juggle a variety of interacting considerations at the same time. This guy is smarter than the average teddy bear, and it is easy to see how difficult a task it would have been for the Department of Defense and the nitwits over in the White House to try to outmaneuver him. I was a bit surprised at some of the personal revelations in the book, and while it is obvious that Mr. Ellsberg has a healthy ego, he manages for the most part to keep it at bay in retelling a story that could have easily have devolved in a retelling of the David against Goliath epic, but which he keeps objective and factual enough to keep the story rolling along as a recounting of the gripping events that transpired more than thirty years ago and helped to turn the tide of public opinion toward the war in Vietnam. I heartily recommend this book to anyone interested in 20th century American history. Enjoy!

What an amazing book about a true event about the Viet Nam War. While working with the Rand Company, Daniel Ellsworth worked with Robert McNamara as a strategic analyst and was given unlimited access to all information and data coming from the war. He learned almost immediately, that what was coming in was never what was being told to the American people. Long story short, he began copying huge volumes of the data and released it to the New York Times for publication. The genie was out of the bottle, there was no putting it back, and Americans demanded answers! A bit long, but very detailed and well written!

Long before the birth of Edward Snowden, America was rocked by the revelations of whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg. This autobiography provides insight into his life and motivations, while also meticulously detailing the government's efforts to arrest and silence him. Labeled a hero by some and a traitor by others, Ellsberg's release of the notorious (and highly classified) Pentagon Papers, a study by the US Government and the Rand Corporation of America's struggle in Vietnam, would shake American politics to the core. Bringing into question just how soon American leaders had understood that the Vietnam War was a lost cause, the Pentagon Papers laid bare the lies told by politicians, the CIA, and military leaders, about the war. Ellsberg was, at first glance, an unlikely whistleblower. A clean-cut ivy leaguer, with a degree in economics from Harvard, after studying at Cambridge, he returned to the US and joined the Marine Corps. He soon find himself employed as a nuclear strategist by the CIA affliatated Rand Corporation. By 1964, he was working in the Pentagon under Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, quickly becoming embroiled in the escalation of the war in Vietnam. Under the command of General Edward Lansdale, he would spend two years working for the State Department in South Vietnam. He returned home in 1967, tired and disillusioned, nominally employed by the Rand Corporation. He had long believed that the war was simply a mistake, that our leaders hubris was blinding them to the reality on the ground, but the Papers, which he first read in 1969, called this view into question. They suggested that American leaders understood, as early as 1965, that the war was unwinnable. He believed the American public deserved to know the truth. He risked everything to ensure that the Pentagon Papers were published. What follows is a two year struggle to get them publicly released, days spent on the run, and his eventual arrest. The government might have successfully tried and imprisoned him for life, but Pres. Nixon's rampant paranoia and criminal activities proved to be a godsend for Ellsberg. An engaging read for anyone interested in American history, politics, and the Vietnam War.

Reading this book was an educational experience. I was a child when this all happened. I was incapable of grasping the events that were unfolding on the TV screen and in the newspapers. My older brother is a Vietnam veteran; an experience that haunts him to this day. I offer a posthumous salute for his efforts to end that war. It saddens me to see my country seeming to ignore the lessons of this period and continue to try to manage the affairs of sovereign nations.

Daniel Ellsberg writes a very long and drawn out explanation about that controversial war I served in where he lays out the mindset that he and his associates had at the time. At times it seems more like an excuse for their behavior and sounds like a denial of responsibility for their actions. The saga drags on and by the time I reached the midpoint I was bored with it. It began to sound like a stuck-record and I no longer believed what I was reading even though history says otherwise. I saw the PBS biographical film on his life and it was much better than this book. Sorry Daniel!

I remember all too well the events narrated in this book. (It chronicles the events that led to my leaving the US for good.) Ellsberg connects more of the dots between the Pentagon papers, the anti-war movement, his own actions and Nixon’s monarch-like rule over a supposed democracy. It makes clear the abrogation/dereliction of duty by both houses of Congress. Sadly, under Trump, the US has come dangerously close once more to an elected monarchy. A must read for all those who wish to avoid the end of democratic rule. Ellsberg, along with M.L. King, Jr, was one of the towering moral heroes of the late 20th century.

Like many 30-somethings, I was never taught the history of the Vietnam war in school. Plenty about the world wars and the contemporary conflicts, but for whatever reason, a massive gap in mid-century conflicts. There could really be no better time to read this book than today. The power of the executive branch has lost none of its potency and it is incredible to witness the lack of dignity given to congress let alone the voting public. Ellsberg is a passionate and driven writer. The book can feel a bit aimless and unbalanced from a plot point perspective but he has so many gems throughout the book and profound insights that you can see a true master of his craft. I'd rank this more of 4.5 / 5.0 but 4.0 / 5.0 is just cruel. The book is excellent, highly recommended.

This is really an outstanding personal memoir of the Cold War and essential reading. There's nothing more to say except to admire the relentless honesty of the enterprise.

This is an examination of conscience. Of the terrible things done in the name of national security. Of petty, cruel people killing people just because they could, and just because getting out of Vietnam seemed a loss of face. It is the sad story of a long war started on a faulty premise and continued by President after President, despite the tremendous suffering it caused, and the loss of limbs, mind and life recorded in so many books and films, simply because they did not want to look weak. Many paid the price for this narcissism.

Great book; tells the story with great detail. A must read.