Truth and Consequence: Reflections on Catastrophe, Civil Resistance, and Hope - Daniel Ellsberg

Daniel Ellsberg was the whistleblower who leaked the Pentagon Papers, exposing U.S. lies about the Vietnam War and helping trigger the crisis that brought down President Richard Nixon. He went on to spend the rest of his life as an antiwar activist, focused above all on the dangers of nuclear weapons. In this conversation, Barry Stevens speaks with his son, Michael Ellsberg, about Truth and Consequence, a collection of Daniel’s writings that blends personal memoir with decades of political and ethical reflection. Together they explore his evolution from nuclear war planner to whistleblower and activist, and his uncompromising view that the deliberate targeting of civilians—including through nuclear threats—is terrorism, a standard that casts a harsh light on todays' U.S. leadership and its contempt for international law.