Opinion | Daniel Ellsberg stashed top-secret nuclear war papers, too — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00I believe that secrecy about
2. 0:02our nuclear plans
3. 0:04and our nuclear capabilities
4. 0:05and their effects has
5. 0:07been more dangerous than the
6. 0:09secrecy that gave us 10 years
7. 0:11of war in Vietnam
8. 0:12and 16 years so far
9. 0:15in Afghanistan.
10. 0:17I'm Dan Ellsberg.
11. 0:19And if people have heard of me at all,
12. 0:21it's generally in connection
13. 0:22with the Vietnam War
14. 0:23and with my release of
15. 0:25the so-called Pentagon Papers.
16. 0:37I was at the same time copying
17. 0:39documents on the nuclear
18. 0:41planning nuclear command
19. 0:42and control.
20. 0:43And I copied probably more documents
21. 0:45relating to that, intending
22. 0:47to give them to Congress
23. 0:48and the public.
24. 0:55In 1961,
25. 0:56I actually drafted for Secretary of
26. 0:58Defense McNamara the
27. 1:00guidance to the Joint Chiefs of Staff
28. 1:02for the annual operational plan
29. 1:04for general nuclear war.
30. 1:06Those plans were
31. 1:08and essentially are still
32. 1:10plans for the operation
33. 1:12of a doomsday machine.
34. 1:14A complicated array,
35. 1:16system,
36. 1:17of vehicles,
37. 1:19computers,
38. 1:21warheads,
39. 1:22submarines airplanes,
40. 1:24missiles
41. 1:24and humans,
42. 1:26which if launched,
43. 1:28the result would be the destruction
44. 1:30of most life on Earth.
45. 1:34Our plans would have the same effect
46. 1:36as an asteroid.
47. 1:37They would burn hundreds to thousands
48. 1:39of cities,
49. 1:40even if the cities were not directly targeted.
50. 1:42And the smoke from those cities
51. 1:44would be lofted into the
52. 1:46stratosphere so that they would remain
53. 1:48up there and not be rained out
54. 1:50for a decade
55. 1:51or more,
56. 1:52reducing sunlight enough to kill
57. 1:54all the harvests.
58. 2:07No such system should exist.
59. 2:09There's no reason for it.
60. 2:10There is no rationale.
61. 2:11Obviously it is the most insane
62. 2:14and I would have to say evil,
63. 2:16system, scheme, plan,
64. 2:18that has ever existed.
65. 2:29It has never been the case that that was
66. 2:31solely under the command of the president,
67. 2:34as people have been led to believe,
68. 2:35whether that president is
69. 2:37Donald J. Trump
70. 2:38or a more cautious president.
71. 2:41It has always been subject to being
72. 2:43launched by delegated authority
73. 2:45as well as the possibility
74. 2:47of unauthorized launch
75. 2:49by a considerable variety
76. 2:51of other commanders under various circumstances.
77. 2:58President Trump could
78. 3:01take a step that's been long
79. 3:02considered in the Pentagon
80. 3:04and always overruled:
81. 3:06Dismantle the
82. 3:08land-based ICBMs,
83. 3:10which are nothing other than
84. 3:12lightning rods for a Russian attack.
85. 3:15In the presence of our submarine-launched
86. 3:17missiles, which are invulnerable
87. 3:19and don't need to be launched lest
88. 3:21they be destroyed.
89. 3:22The land-based missiles have been
90. 3:24obsolete and anachronistic
91. 3:26and dangerous for over
92. 3:28half a century.
93. 3:29And yet, for the sake of jobs
94. 3:32in Montana,
95. 3:33Wyoming, North Dakota,
96. 3:35on keeping those missiles on alert,
97. 3:37senators have told each president,
98. 3:38and they're there doing so now,
99. 3:40they must keep them on alert.
100. 3:42We should under no circumstances
101. 3:44initiate nuclear war -
102. 3:46no first use.
103. 3:47That threat, which has been made by each
104. 3:49of our presidents, sometimes in
105. 3:51secret, should not be on the table.