Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner at Seattle Town Hall
Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame has another revelation to make. In 1961 he consulted for the Department of Defense and the White House and drafted Secretary Robert McNamara’s plans for nuclear war.
In 1969 Ellsberg copied the top secret documents along with those pertaining to the war on Vietnam. Ellsberg’s attempts to publish the nuclear war papers were stymied by the loss of his copies and the refusal by 17 publishers who told him that nobody was interested in a book about nuclear war. The Doomsday Machine was finally published in December 2017.
Now, in the context of Trump’s threats to North Korea, the question of what it means for the rest of the world if one or more of todays super powerful nuclear weapons were to be used is rising to top priority. Convincing evidence shows that even a small nuclear exchange will instantly kill millions and a larger exchange would endanger the rest of the hemisphere by nuclear winter.
Ellsberg spoke at Town Hall in Seattle on January 9, 2018. He was recorded by Mike McCormick of Talking Stick TV and KEXP radio.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:00 — 19.9MB)
