ELLSBERG TRACES HISTORY OF VIET ESCALATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-01601R000300360003-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 17, 2000
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: November 2, 1972
• Content Type: NSPR

PA.
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he said was dramatic atW
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man, at a time when the U. S. Air Force gave the crowd of SOD or more And the reason for the change, ills
was not supposed to be bombing North a history lesson derived from the Penta- berg believes, is that with George Wal-
Vietnam at all was retirement on a gon Papers, which enlightened hill on lace out of the picture the President: has
general's pension, most of it, tax-free, the origin of our involvement In Viet- no fear of a right-wing backlash at the
Ellsberg, because he took it upon trim- n Irn. polls.
self to let, the Congress and the public What the effect. Of four more years on
know how successive administrations It was 1950, the year of Alger hiss his hope of acquittal would be, Ells-
from `Truman to Nixon had deceived and Joe McCarthy and recriminations in berg duct not say. acquittal
noting that he ob-
is trial because the
them concerning our aims and mien- this country over the loss of mainlantailed a delay in hFut
Justice Department tapped his phone,
tions in Vietnam, could. spend the rest China to the Communists =- not a good
of his life behind bars. year, I-larry Truman and Dean Ache- Ju closed with the t tapped tho ight:
son felt, for losing Indochina too. So we "If 1'ediwithte should receive a morn
Sometime between now and spring he supported the French attempt to re-es-
vrill he tried on 15 counts for which the tablish authority there. date, if corruption in t h I s campaign
penalities add up to 11.5 years. After that, Ellsberg said, every four should be endorsed, if Nixon gets a see-
vears a crisis arose as the Communist and term, then Congress and the press
The chances of. conviction, his law- North seemed on the verge of winning. and the courts can line tip on the White
tell him, are 50 5D. Every four years a president of the blouse lawn the day after the election
Ellsberg was in Pittsburgh yesterday United States-had the choice of escalat- and salute and wait for orders."
to make a speech. ICs the way he bus- ing our help to the South and restoring
ties money for his defense. the stalemate or of getting out. And
Since June, when his contract ox- every four years he escalated. The rule
pired, he has not had a paycheck from was: don't lose Indochina before the
the 'Rand Corporation, the brain factory next election.
the Pentagon uses in researching ideas rata U. S. Involvement
the professional thinkers who advise the
President run up the flagpole to see if So Americans became accustomed to
they're red, white and blue. Ellsherg seeing American weapons killing Viet-
became sort of persona non grata with nanncsc and seeing it as acceptable,
his bosses at Rand after concluding that. Ellsbcrg went on. Here was a Com-
one project he had worked on, a study munist country invading. a country NYC
of the U. S. decision-making in Viet- were obliged to support. But the Pent.a-
narn, might be the whole country's busi-1 gon Papers convinced him that the re-
ness rather than a jillion-word memo gin,e in the South, far from being inde-
for the eyes of the inner sanctum alone. pendent, was an American c o 1 o n i a 1
The result of his high-level bean spill- government, its army s u p ?p 1 i e d,
jag was the. Pentagon Papers, published equipped, clothed and paid by the U. S.' ,
in toto whereas t h e . Russian-Chinese
in bits and pieces last year by 'File New contribution to the war chest of the
York Times and 18 other newspapers. North was 10- per cent at the most.
. No maker of waves could look more Still quoting f r o m the Pentagon
subdued than I~I1sherg. He has feverish Papers, he told how in 1963 the CIA,
blue c ri ai s about Ob O 33t lctei e
t' M Wd!
bin, r ,r 0 601 R000300360003-0
clothes - is muted. Yet though Ells of Ngo Dinh Dicm, the dictator
here Smoke quietly in the well of Dtu- murder
Colurunist.at-large
What' John D. Lavelle got for author- .night, what
nb'rn* raids over North Viet.- forceful.
24 h
judge- really threw the book at Bernard
3Barker, lie sentenced him to 00 (lays on
probation and took away his notary
public's seal.
"And still it was more than Lavelle
got," said Daniel. Ellsberg dryly.
rrrx:i-ee Punishment
Bernard Barker, the CIA graduate
whose job was to carol off hJ'{thecks for
,the Committee to Re-elect the Presi-
dent. .
In Miami yesterday, a criminal court
xerious, even solemn individual, but
1''llsherg had to smile at the news about
Approved For Release 2091-MEWL CIA-RDP80-01601
we had set up and kept in power for
presidents and generals expressing baf
?rah 4 7r?
+ impressive, Viet Con;; and the low morale of 1 ,e
'
n sbuilding last Vietnamese army the U. S. was posh
Daniel T+.llsberg is known as a highly concrete Student Union ing - into combat.
"N'laybe we're on the wrong side,"
said his boss in the State Depart.n,ent,
John McNau?;htou, and last night- Ells-
berg's answer was, "No, were not. We
ARE the wrong side."
As Ellsbcrg talked, he :,armed to his
subject -- literally, 1-1e took off his,
jacket. and necktie, lie rolled up his
shirtsleeves.
Ile said he welcomes the rumors of
peace. He said, "I didn't expect Nixon
to do what he's doing. I thought he was
a true believer in the domino theory,
in the danger of bloodbaths and so on.
11
Rolf