Daniel Ellsberg's Downfall: A Trifecta of Shilling, Conspiracy Theories, and Lies - People's View

[Jack Rabbit]

141. How old are you, ucrdem?

Last edited Thu Jul 11, 2013, 02:04 AM - Edit history (1)

For the record, I'm 61. I was around when the Pentagon Papers were released. I was already an adult and I remember it very well. I was a political science major in college at the time. It was a matter of academic discipline to follow the news and read the reports of what was in those papers.

Your attempt to smear Dr. Ellsberg misses the mark by a country mile. First of all, are you going to tell me somebody other than Jack Kennedy was president when Ngo brothers, Diem and Nhu, were overthrown and killed in early November 1963? Are you going to tell me that somebody other than Lyndon Johnson was president when the war escalated following the Tonkin Gulf Resolution in 1964?

Or is that just something we're not supposed mention here? IOKIYAD, I suppose? Revisionist history doesn't work for me, fella, no matter who's doing the revising. I'm calling bullshit on you and hanging it around your neck.

The Johnson administration did, in fact, systematically lie about Vietnam. Over and over again. That's the truth. Can you handle it? Deal with it.

And you dare to compare Ellsberg to the Swiftboat Liars? That is outrageous. Ellsberg released the Pentagon Papers to get the facts out. That's right, guy, the facts. The Swiftboat Liars were about smearing the reputation and fabricating the war record of Senator Kerry, who dared to seek election as president against the usurper and serial liar who was then in the White House. If a stray fact found its way into anything they said about Kerry, then I am still unaware of it. Dr. Ellsberg and the Swiftboat Liars have absolutely nothing in common.

The secret history of the Vietnam War were written in 1967, as you point out, and that is why they only cover government duplicity about the war up to that time. If Dr. Ellsberg had documents concerning specific acts of duplicity by the Nixon administration, he no doubt would have released those, too.

Nixon was president when the report was released, and Nixon, who was telling the same lies about the war, attempted to prosecute Dr. Ellsberg. Nixon recognized that exposure of duplicity from the Johnson administration was also exposure of duplicity from his administration. The Pentagon Papers contradicted both the Johnson and Nixon administrations and no one at that time saw it any other way. Until I saw this thread, I didn't think that there was any one since then was either so misinformed or just such a cynical liar that he would try to present Dr. Ellsberg as a servant of Richard Nixon or partisan Republicans.

I don't often get so upset at a post on DU that I say this, but you, sir, crossed the line. Ucrdem, you should be ashamed of yourself.