Ben Bagdikian - Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers — Transcript

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1. 0:06when the question of the Pentagon papers
2. 0:08came out what happened was the New York
3. 0:10Times got him as you know and uh Bradley
4. 0:14he couldn't stop pacing around he had to
5. 0:16get the Pentagon papers the times had
6. 0:19been stopped and he said we got to get
7. 0:22those Pentagon papers I came out of a
8. 0:25editor's meeting and my deputy said
9. 0:29there's a phone message here for you
10. 0:32there's a Mr Boston says to call him at
11. 0:36this number well it was a 617 area code
12. 0:40and that was Boston Mr Boston and
13. 0:44Boston something's going on here and
14. 0:48from call from a secure phone so the
15. 0:50stat Hotel was across the street at that
16. 0:52time and had a bank of telephone calls
17. 0:56and I went to one I called and the man
18. 0:58said now go to another phone and call
19. 1:02from there I went to this other phone
20. 1:04said this is someone you know I said
21. 1:07yeah and and this is Dan yes said you
22. 1:11were talking about secure phone I said
23. 1:13yes this is Dan and uh uh he said uh if
24. 1:19I
25. 1:20can get you the Pentagon
26. 1:25papers uh will
27. 1:28you print them will Washington Post
28. 1:31print them I said yes he said is that a
29. 1:34commitment I said I can't give you a
30. 1:37commitment till I ask Bradley so I I
31. 1:41went over to back back to the office I
32. 1:45said
33. 1:46Ben what would you do you would you want
34. 1:49to get a copy of the Pentagon papers he
35. 1:52said I'd give my left one for that and I
36. 1:56said well if we get them will we print
37. 1:58them he said if we don't print them
38. 2:01there's going to be a new executive
39. 2:02editor of the Washington Post the next
40. 2:05day so I met Dan at a rundown Motel it
41. 2:11was a secret Source but it eventually
42. 2:13becomes known with Dan
43. 2:16ellsburg and so I went up into this uh
44. 2:20hotel room and there were these beds
45. 2:24with thousands of pieces of paper wow
46. 2:27and these are cables these are
47. 2:30assessments by various officials and so
48. 2:33forth but the direct cables between some
49. 2:36very high classification I said Dan you
50. 2:39know what I'm here for he says yeah take
51. 2:42go to this address in and uh in
52. 2:45Cambridge and pick up two
53. 2:48boxes so I went to a cab driver and I
54. 2:51said go to this address and it was in a
55. 2:55was in Porter Square Cambridge a woman
56. 2:58came to the door and I went to the door
57. 3:00said uh a friend has said that you have
58. 3:03some boxes here she said yes they're in
59. 3:06the cellar so uh there was a uh there
60. 3:11were these two B know there used to be
61. 3:13Xerox boxes that were about 2 and 1/2 ft
62. 3:16long and so high I had the cab driver
63. 3:20move them into the cab and I had the cab
64. 3:24driver bring it up to that room in the
65. 3:26motel and uh uh there were uh Dan said I
66. 3:33I want you to take these two boxes I
67. 3:37said do do they take two boxes you no
68. 3:39the two different sets I said well one
69. 3:42set's enough he said no I want you to
70. 3:44take two I said what's the other one for
71. 3:47he said well it's for uh politician I
72. 3:52said well Dan I can't do that he said
73. 3:54that's all way I'll do it and I had to
74. 3:57break a rule
75. 3:59mine which is you don't you don't have
76. 4:02any secret dealings with uh really
77. 4:05secret dealings with the uh uh
78. 4:09politicians I finally agreed I'd take
79. 4:12two and he said I want you to hold those
80. 4:16until you get a call from a certain
81. 4:19member of Congress of where to meet
82. 4:22him and uh I tried to talk him out of it
83. 4:26but I wanted that box so much and
84. 4:28Bradley wanted that box
85. 4:30so the time came I I reserved two seats
86. 4:34I still have it somewhere in American
87. 4:36Airlines Mr Bag two front seats first
88. 4:40class Mr bag dickin and
89. 4:43box so I took the Box the word came that
90. 4:48uh as I uh landed at the airport go
91. 4:54directly to Bradley's house don't come
92. 4:56near the office so I went to Bradley's
93. 4:58house and there was a daughter Marina
94. 5:00selling uh uh uh lemonade to all these
95. 5:04people coming into her father's house
96. 5:07lawyers and the editors and so forth so
97. 5:10I picked uh the uh four people who
98. 5:17covered internal who covered uh national
99. 5:20security for my staff at Don oror he was
100. 5:23the fastest writer so I said you do the
101. 5:26one for tomorrow morning and the others
102. 5:28they're sorting papers into articles for
103. 5:33the future at first I appointed one of
104. 5:36our fastest editors to have uh where
105. 5:38they'd hand it down and he'd copyedit it
106. 5:41and then there was a courier that had a
107. 5:43motorcycle that would take it down to
108. 5:45the paper and set it as it ran in and we
109. 5:49were doing that uh and then pretty soon
110. 5:52the chairman of the board uh BB came in
111. 5:55we're arguing that we needed to run the
112. 5:58papers and Brad and I uh the lawyers
113. 6:02were
114. 6:03very resistant to the
115. 6:06idea uh and BB came flew down from New
116. 6:10York and I said M I said prit I we have
117. 6:15an obligation really to the public to
118. 6:18print these things he said I respect
119. 6:20that man but I have an obligation to the
120. 6:24future of the Washington Post and I
121. 6:26don't want them to be so fined that it
122. 6:31might destroy the
123. 6:33paper there was a an intense argument uh
124. 6:37between the lawyers and well basically
125. 6:41it was the lawyers uh along with the
126. 6:44corporate types I think Fritz BB was
127. 6:46part of the conversation at that point
128. 6:48plus Ben Bradley and then yourself and
129. 6:51exactly who else from sort of the
130. 6:54editorial side I'm not clear but it was
131. 6:56all several of you in the Bradley House
132. 7:00and uh at some point that fateful
133. 7:02evening where a lot of these things were
134. 7:05decided uh the newspaper did not want to
135. 7:08publish and instead of not publishing
136. 7:11they were going to announce that they
137. 7:13were going to publish that they had the
138. 7:15papers and they intended to publish and
139. 7:17that was a compromise to amarate The
140. 7:20Newsroom which would have all revolted
141. 7:22which you pointed out to them and at one
142. 7:24point you utter a very famous line uh
143. 7:29that the way way to assert the right to
144. 7:30publish is to publish two things
145. 7:33happened there one was uh uh when they
146. 7:39the lawyers said well the way to search
147. 7:41a publish is to the courts I said no the
148. 7:43way to publish is to
149. 7:45publish and the other one was uh they
150. 7:49were then arguing about putting a notice
151. 7:51that where we have it and and we may
152. 7:54publish them and in the meantime that
153. 7:57crew I had working inside to sort the
154. 8:00papers to write care they were they'd
155. 8:03been doing that for hours and it was
156. 8:05then about 600 or 7:00 and Bradley had
157. 8:08ordered catering in some sandwiches and
158. 8:10stuff and they came in and my friend Don
159. 8:14nooder with whom I had collaborated on
160. 8:17many stories before for the sad Evening
161. 8:20Post uh came in and someone said they're
162. 8:24talking about writing a notice saying
163. 8:26that we have the papers but we aren't
164. 8:28going to publish them right away and he
165. 8:31said that's the shittiest idea I ever
166. 8:33heard of and that was the end of that
167. 8:35argument yeah in in your book double
168. 8:39vision I guess you you have a whole
169. 8:41chapter on the Pentagon papers and you
170. 8:42have that moment it looks like that took
171. 8:44the air out of the room all of the
172. 8:46opposition went away with that Bradley
173. 8:49and I were the only ones then who were
174. 8:51still pushing uh the editor the
175. 8:53editorial page and the his assistant uh
176. 8:57were went along with this stupid notice
177. 9:00idea right and but it was the fact that
178. 9:03these reporters came in and one of them
179. 9:06expressed their shock with that way the
180. 9:08shittiest idea I ever heard of it
181. 9:11suddenly brought reality back and it
182. 9:14finally ended up Katherine was giving a
183. 9:17big banquet at her mansion and she was
184. 9:20on the phone with Bradley telling her
185. 9:23what was going on and uh uh Bradley
186. 9:27arguing what I was arguing
187. 9:30and she kind of wobbly but at the last
188. 9:33minute she said okay we'll print and uh
189. 9:38we did and uh I've respected her for
190. 9:42that