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October 28, 2005
DANIEL ELLSBERG, WHO RELEASED THE PENTAGON PAPERS IN 1971, TO SPEAK AT WILLIAM PATERSON UNIVERSITY ON NOVEMBER 15
Daniel Ellsberg, the former government analyst whose release of the Pentagon Papers in 1971 helped to turn public opinion against the Vietnam War, will speak at William Paterson University in Wayne on Tuesday, November 15 at 12:30 p.m. in Science Hall 200A. The public is invited to attend.
Ellsberg will discuss “Free Speech in a Time of War.” His lecture will be followed at 2 p.m. by a panel of William Paterson students who will react to the lecture.
A former U.S. Marine, Ellsberg earned a doctorate in economics from Harvard University. From 1964 to 1967 he served in the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of State, concentrating on issues related to Vietnam.
In 1967, while employed at the American think tank, the RAND Corporation, he worked on a top secret study of U.S. decision-making in Vietnam authorized by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, which later came to be known as the Pentagon Papers. In 1969, Ellsberg photocopied the 7,000-page study and gave it to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; in 1971 he gave it to the New York Times, Washington Post and 17 other newspapers. The government tried to prevent publication of extracts from the documents, but the U.S. Supreme Court, in its New York Times v. United States Government decision, allowed the newspapers to go forward. The revelations in the Pentagon Papers helped to increase public awareness of and opposition to the Vietnam War.
Ellsberg was charged with twelve felony counts carrying a possible sentence of 115 years. The case was dismissed in 1973 on grounds of governmental misconduct against him, which led to the convictions of several White House aides and figured in the initiation of impeachment proceedings against President Richard Nixon.
Since the end of the Vietnam War, Ellsberg has been a lecturer, writer and activist on the dangers of the nuclear era and unlawful interventions. He is the author of Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers (Viking, 2002), which won the American Book Award and the PEN Center USA Award for Creative Nonfiction. He recently received the 2005 Distinguished Peace Leadership Award from the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.
The lecture is sponsored by the William Paterson University Department of Political Science, Pre-Law Program, Master’s Degree Program in Media Studies, and Master’s Degree Program in Public Policy and International Affairs. For information, contact Steve Shalom, professor of political science, at 973-720-3433, shaloms@wpunj.edu.
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WILLIAM PATERSON UNIVERSITY 1855-2005: CELEBRATING 150 YEARS
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