"The Pentagon Papers"

No one of my generation can possibly have avoided hearing this prase in their lifetime.

I have no clear opinion of the man. The subject is far too complex and I have not researched it thoroughly, but needless to say, Daniel Ellsberg made his mark on our society.

I will say this, though- I cannot dispute this quote from him:

quote:

The public is lied to every day by the President, by his spokespeople, by his officers. If you can't handle the thought that the President lies to the public for all kinds of reasons, you couldn't stay in the government at that level, or you're made aware of it, a week. ... The fact is Presidents rarely say the whole truth—essentially, never say the whole truth—of what they expect and what they're doing and what they believe and why they're doing it and rarely refrain from lying, actually, about these matters.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ellsberg

Anyway, dead at 92

During the “Pentagon Papers” era I was naive enough to trust the government more than I trusted Ellsberg. I realize that was an error, now.

If I recall from past readings, Ellsberg's files and some of his work that hadn't become public, were at the center of the Watergate break-in. While the Pentagon Papers exposed both Kennedy and Johnson administration's poor leadership of the Vietnam war, because of its association with the Watergate Scandal, Nixon and the GOP seemed to endure the most fallout.

I'm sure there's members who can re-tell what the zeitgeist of the times was as it pertains to this, as a cynical view of government became pervasive and other long-standing institutions lost their place in American society.

The Watergate association was the creation of the Plumbers unit because Nixon was so paranoid from this breach.
He or his guys then used them to break into Democratic headquarters to plant bugs but they were caught and eventually traced back to the Nixon campaign causing a long drawn out process for the next several years.

I was pretty politically naive at that time despite being of voting age and draft eligible. More concerned and focused on my career and personal relationships than the big picture, if it didn’t directly affect me in my daily life it was ignored.

I mistakenly believed that most of our elected officials were acting in our best interests, the simplistic view taught in schools (at least in the ones I attended) from the 50’s.

So, were they better at coverups back then or just more blatant as time passed? Or both?

quote:

Originally posted by shovelhead:
...
So, were they better at coverups back then or just more blatant as time passed? Or both?

Neither, really.

The change as been the proliferation to information access.

Before, you have to gain physical access to a document of which there may be few copies.

Now, with documents in digital form, any one can access them with the correct credentials or hacking skills.

More access to information, the more "leaks" out. The more out there, the greater the chance of discovery. It makes it harder to run either a cover-up or an operation.

Take HillDog. Her email scandal was discovered because someone at Judicial Watch got access to her "official" emails, and had the observation skills to note the domain was not @state.gov.

I hope that Julian Assange will also make it to 92 and live to see his role changed from that of a villain to a hero. Just a couple of hours reading through WIKI leaks is enough to prove the genuine evil of much of our current leadership.

Silent

^^^^^^
US ambassador flags potential Julian Assange plea deal

“US Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy has hinted at a possible deal to allow Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to return to Australia.

Mr Assange has been facing extradition to the US on spying charges for more than a decade and claimed sanctuary in London's Ecuadorian Embassy for seven years.

But now ambassador Kennedy has said a solution could be in the pipeline to end the long-running saga.

'It's not really a diplomatic issue, but I think that there absolutely could be a resolution,' she has told the Sydney Morning Herald.
'There is a way to resolve it'.

But she stressed any potential agreement was 'up to the Justice Department'.

Mr Assange has been fighting the British legal system for years to avoid being sent to the US, where he faces 17 charges of espionage and one charge of computer misuse over WikiLeaks' publication of classified diplomatic and military documents. …”

DailyMail article:
https://mol.im/a/12403127