This is Jacobin Radio. I'm producer Melissa Figueroa, sitting in for Suzy Weissman.

Today we are paid tribute to the late Daniel Ellsberg, who died at age 92 on June 16th.

He was a guest on this program and always generous with his time, a committed, consequential

activist with a moral compass that never left him.

Long time senior producer and program director Alan Minsky, now executive director of Progressive

Democrats of America, did a town hall meeting with Ellsberg this past April during what

they call Daniel Ellsberg week to defuse nuclear war. Ellsberg gives his thoughts on the

current geopolitical situation, the continuing dire threat to humanity posed by heightened

militarism and nuclear confrontation, and the need to keep fighting for progressive foreign

policy. They are also joined in this event by Chris Opie, a historian of the Vietnam War

who is working on a book about Daniel Ellsberg.

We'll also ask for your support during this KPFK fund drive, so stay tuned after the

program and pledge your support, all this when our program returns in just a moment.

This is Jacobin Radio. I'm producer Melissa Figueroa, sitting in for Suzy Weissman.

Today we honor Daniel Ellsberg, one of the most impactful figures on the history of the

20th century. Once a supporter of the Vietnam War, Daniel's decision to become a whistleblower

by leaking the famous Pentagon papers, woke up a nation, and in alliance with the anti-war

movement brought an end to the Vietnam War. Looking back on his life, Ellsberg said,

when I copied the Pentagon papers in 1969, I had every reason to think I would be spending

the rest of my life behind bars. It was a fate I would gladly have accepted if it meant

hastening the end of the Vietnam War, unlikely as that seemed. After the war, Ellsberg spent

decades working to alert the world to the perils of nuclear war and wrongful interventions.

...