Daniel Ellsberg’s Not Yet Goodbye

Daniel Ellsberg, a giant of American history for leaking the Pentagon Papers, wrote the following email to friends on Wednesday, including Consortium News, and has today decided to make it public. 

Daniel Ellsberg. (Free Getty embed, Paul J. RIchards)

Dear friends and supporters,

I have difficult news to impart. On Feb. 17, without much warning, I was diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer on the basis of a CT scan and an MRI. (As is usual with pancreatic cancer–which has no early symptoms – it was found while looking for something else, relatively minor). I’m sorry to report to you that my doctors have given me three to six months to live. Of course, they emphasize that everyone’s case is individual; it might be more, or less.

I have chosen not to do chemotherapy (which offers no promise) and I have assurance of great hospice care when needed. Please know: right now, I am not in any physical pain, and in fact, after my hip replacement surgery in late 2021, I feel better physically than I have in years!

Moreover, my cardiologist has given me license to abandon my salt-free diet of the last six years. This has improved my quality of life dramatically: the pleasure of eating my former favorite foods! And my energy level is high.

Since my diagnosis, I’ve done several interviews and webinars on Ukraine, nuclear weapons, and first amendment issues, and I have more scheduled.

As I just told my son Robert: he’s long known (as my editor) that I work better under a deadline. It turns out that I *live* better under a deadline!

I feel lucky and grateful that I’ve had a wonderful life far beyond the proverbial three-score years and ten. ( I’ll be ninety-two on April 7th.) I feel the very same way about having a few months more to enjoy life with my wife and family, and in which to continue to pursue the urgent goal of working with others to avert nuclear war in Ukraine or Taiwan (or anywhere else).

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 (and was).

Yet in the end, that action—in ways I could not have foreseen, due to Nixon’s illegal responses—did have an impact on shortening the war. In addition, thanks to Nixon’s crimes, I was spared the imprisonment I expected, and I was able to spend the last fifty years with Patricia and my family, and with you, my friends.

What’s more, I was able to devote those years to doing everything I could think of to alert the world to the perils of nuclear war and wrongful interventions: lobbying, lecturing, writing and joining with others in acts of protest and non-violent resistance.

I wish I could report greater success for our efforts. As I write, “modernization” of nuclear weapons is ongoing in all nine states that possess them (the U.S. most of all). Russia is making monstrous threats to initiate nuclear war to maintain its control over Crimea and the Donbas–like the dozens of equally illegitimate first-use threats that the U.S. government has made in the past to maintain its military presence in South Korea, Taiwan, South Vietnam, and (with the complicity of every member state then in NATO ) West Berlin. The current risk of nuclear war, over Ukraine, is as great as the world has ever seen.

China and India are alone in declaring no-first-use policies. Leadership in the U.S., Russia, other nuclear weapons states, NATO, and other U.S. allies have yet to recognize that such threats of initiating nuclear war–let alone the plans, deployments, and exercises meant to make them credible and more ready to be carried out–are and always have been *immoral* and *insane*: under any circumstances, for any “reasons,” by anyone or anywhere.

It is long past time — but not too late! — for the world’s publics at last to challenge and resist the willed moral blindness of their past and current leaders. I will continue, as long as I’m able, to help these efforts. There’s tons more to say about Ukraine and nuclear policy, of course, and you’ll be hearing from me as long as I’m here.

As I look back on the last sixty years of my life, I think there is no greater cause to which I could have dedicated my efforts. For the last forty years we have known that nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia would mean nuclear winter: more than a hundred million tons of smoke and soot from firestorms in cities set ablaze by either side, striking either first or second, would be lofted into the stratosphere where it would not rain out and would envelope the globe within days.

That pall would block up to 70 percent of sunlight for years, destroying all harvests worldwide and causing death by starvation for most of the humans and other vertebrates on earth.

So far as I can find out, this scientific near-consensus has had virtually no effect on the Pentagon’s nuclear war plans or U.S./NATO (or Russian) nuclear threats. (In a like case of disastrous willful denial by many officials, corporations, and other Americans, scientists have known for over three decades that the catastrophic climate change now underway–mainly but not only from burning fossil fuels–is fully comparable to U.S.-Russian nuclear war as another existential risk.)

I’m happy to know that millions of people–including all those friends and comrades to whom I address this message–have the wisdom, dedication, and moral courage to carry on with these causes, and to work unceasingly for the survival of our planet and its creatures.

I’m enormously grateful to have had the privilege of knowing and working with such people, past and present. That’s among the most treasured aspects of my very privileged and very lucky life. I want to thank you all for the love and support you have given me in so many ways. Your dedication, courage, and determination to act have inspired and sustained my own efforts.

My wish for you is that at the end of your days you will feel as much joy and gratitude as I do now.

Love,

Dan

53 comments for “Daniel Ellsberg’s Not Yet Goodbye

  1. Maurice Held
    March 5, 2023 at 07:01

    For ever thankful for having had this incredible courage to denounce the threats of nuclear annihilation and the absurdity of its planning! So thankful also to have given us a wonderful human being fully dedicated to peace in your son Robert!
    Maurice Held

  2. Nelson Betancourt
    March 4, 2023 at 17:20

    There will come a time when his memory will strengthen the meaning of our actions and projects, and profoundly and inevitably become a spiritual force in our next evolutionary step: making a world without nuclear weapons. –Nelson Betancourt

  3. Robert Emmett
    March 4, 2023 at 17:06

    Well, Daniel, you’ve seen the elephant and opened the eyes & hearts & minds of those of us willing to see it too & to call it by its right name. Not to be like those blind men who grasp but a part & think they know the all of it.

    To me, more the 15 years your junior, you’ve been a true elder who’s shared your insights & walked your path with dignity & bravery. It can’t have been easy. Be at peace, my friend, you’ve pointed the way with truth & wisdom. It is up to each of us now to do likewise in whatever ways we can. Thank you.

  4. LeoSun
    March 4, 2023 at 15:43

    Imo, “Broken Hearts,” everywhere!!! But, all the blessings, Bob Dylan bestowed upon his children, in the song, “Forever Young,” are wholly REAL in Daniel Ellsberg’s life, “a strong foundation, swift feet, a joyful heart, youth; and, a Song!!!”

    Now, “Everybody, knows,” Daniel Ellsberg will be 92, on April 7! AND, Ellsberg’s “Rockin the House. Come on in!” Absoullutely! DANIEL ELLSBERG, “NEVER SAY DIE!”

    “It is not the highest mountain that a man/woman climbs; but, the depths from whence he/she came.”

    Imo, “We, the People,” feel sincere reverence, gratitude, love for Mr. Ellsberg, his family, friends, his foundation of peace & strength. Daniel Ellsberg, like Consortium News is revered for NOT whitewashing or sugar-coating the truth; but, publishing “IT.” Facts w/supporting documentation. Imo, serving up the World’s BEST Investigative Journalism. AND, the bonus, keeping us in the loop.

    “We, the People,” see the light surrounding The Truth Tellers, The Peacemakers. The Investigative Journalists. They are “Always, Courageous. Standing Upright & Strong.” For example, Daniel Ellsberg @ The Belmarsh Tribunal, Washington, D.C., “FREE, SPEECH. FREE, PRESS. FREE, JULIAN ASSANGE!” hxxps://consortiumnews.com/2023/01/22/ellsberg-losing-1st-amendment-reverses-war-of-independence/

    —“May your hands always be busy. May your feet always be swift. May you have a strong foundation, when the winds of change, shift. May your heart always be joyful. May your song always be sung; and, May you stay, Forever Young.” (Bob Dylan) hxxps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Frj2CLGldC4

    W/o a doubt, DANIEL ELLSBERG rocks the other three things worth having in this world, “courage, common sense, and caution.” Rockin’ those gifts, imo, “We, the People” will NOT be rendered unconscious by the alternative, mainstream, cable network news corporations & social media platforms b/c there really are “Angels” on earth who’ve made known to us, who the enemy is. Yep. “Flip’n the Beech,” right side up! TY, Daniel Ellsberg, Consortium News, et al. “Keep It Lit!!!”

  5. March 4, 2023 at 08:38

    Dear brother and father Daniel Ellsbergs, I will use your picture in many of my social networks profiles in order to keep your spirit alive with all my marxist, communist leftist warrior friends. that will give us more power to destroy the world capitalist imperialist system (the main enemy of mankind)

    PS: The war that the world needs is a war against all capitalist governments of the world

    • Iva
      March 5, 2023 at 07:24

      ” all my marxist, communist leftist warrior friends””that will give us more power to destroy the world capitalist imperialist system (the main enemy of mankind)”… are you kidding me? The marxism and communism is the worst ENEMY of mankind. I am saying this as a daughter of the survivor of Siberian gulag , living under communism for quarter of century an escaping it.

  6. Realist
    March 4, 2023 at 02:38

    Truly, very touching. Like the individual letters my mother wrote to each of her children years before she passed but distributed, without expectation, only upon her death, emphasizing precisely how much each of us meant to her. Such validation offers immeasurable satisfaction in the face of the most profound grief you will ever know. Leaving your posterity with such a message becomes the ultimate gift, short of being reunited somehow.

  7. March 4, 2023 at 00:15

    Thank you for a life well lived. May these last days, be filled with peace , love and strength. God be with you.

  8. Joan N.
    March 3, 2023 at 23:25

    Daniel Ellsberg, I was struck with sadness by the first of your message, but thankful doctors don’t know and you feel well and can be
    with your family. Then thought of what has recently seemed to me: life on earth is not the end. Clearly remembers precious moment: big peace witness at white house. Got on small wall, then saw you! Chris Hedges came, spoke with you, and I could move over so he and his companion could join you. Profound thanks for your valiant work and messages for sanity and peace! Young people caught in the death grip of U.S. military-industry need be informed of it.

  9. Wendy
    March 3, 2023 at 20:36

    I am crying at this news.

  10. March 3, 2023 at 19:08

    The good news is that only communists, only leftists go to heaven. Indeed the philosopher Nietzsche and other great thinkers and historians have said that Jesus was the founder of socialism, and the French Revolution, all revolutions and the ideology of socialism is really the continuity of christianity, the first christians and the New Testament but applied to politics and economics. So if Jesus was leftist and the founder of socialism, and if Jesus is the son of God, it means that God is also socialist, so remember give your wealth to the poor like the socialist Jesus says. So i guess we will get to see Daniel Ellsbergs in heaven with all the communists there like Hugo Chavez and Karl Marx who are in heaven

    Read this article from the Slavoj Zizek website about how all communists go to heaven:

    hxxps://zizekstudies.org/index.php/IJZS/article/view/1011

    All Communists go to Heaven: the Construction of a Marxist Kingdom of God on Earth
    Reid Thomas Funston

    Since its birth in the mid-nineteenth century, Marxism has had a contentious relationship with religion and Christianity. From the Marxist critique of religion as the “opium of the people” to the secularism of the Soviet Union to the Catholic Church’s “Decree Against Communism,” the two schools of thought have widely been considered incompatible. Despite this tension, many of the critiques leveled by both sides do not attack the real substance of their opponents’ ideas. As such, this paper sets out to answer two questions: first, whether Christian morality and Marxist thought can be made consistent on the basis of their ideological foundations, and second, what a Christianity consistent with Marxism would look like. It finds that on the level of ideological foundation, there are important consistencies between Christian morality and Marxism. Given these consistencies, a Christianity aligned with Marxist thought is possible, and this paper will conclude by exploring Liberation Theology as a possible avenue for the actualization of that consistency.

    .

  11. Dirk Nelson
    March 3, 2023 at 17:21

    Sadness rather than joy.

    I grew up with you and others, the Berrigans, and more, as heroes. People who took the hgh road, regardless of the potential perils, living by conscience rather than dogma or strong-arm mandates.

    We’re all headed to the groud at some point. I have cancer now, myself. Some of us will leave with fewer regrets than others. Some will lweave in blissful blinnesxz to what paths they walked, could’ve or didn’t.

    You haev been an icon of civility and conscientious living. You helped to shine the light on those engaged in illegal war.

    Thanks are insufficient, but…

    Thank you for your years of dedication.

    Thank you for your support of Edward Snowden and Julian Assange.

    Thank you for your life’s work.

    Thank you for your principles.

    Thank you..

  12. Westley
    March 3, 2023 at 15:55

    “Russia is making monstrous threats to initiate nuclear war to maintain its control over Crimea and the Donbas…” What are we to make of these words …and the use of emotive “monstrous” for Russia but “illegitimate” for the US?
    …and the repetition in Ellsberg appearances of condemnations of Russia’s unjustified “invasion” switching the blame to Russia. What are we to make of this as well?
    And finally, since it seems Russia will succeed making Russian first use unnecessary, then changing USA posture is the existential answer for our efforts.
    My comments respect Daniel Ellsberg.
    Sharing similarly myself, being diagnosed with terminal stage 4 lung Cancer in 2012 and told to hospice for the end, a trial medical intervention was pursued with no guarantees.
    The future no one can see.
    May Daniel live much longer than predicted.

  13. Louise
    March 3, 2023 at 15:19

    Sad news. I hope you are able to finish or pass on your wisdom for the documentary you are working on with Paul Jay. Your life has been well spent and honoured.

  14. Kathleen McGettigan
    March 3, 2023 at 14:52

    So far Daniel Ellsberg has out-lived three major war criminals.

    May the Fates so prolong his life as to enable him to outlive the worst of them all.

  15. Kara Noble
    March 3, 2023 at 13:56

    Inspiring.
    Thank hank you for your service to the truth.
    Kara

  16. March 3, 2023 at 13:16

    A hero and my role model.

  17. David Otness
    March 3, 2023 at 12:58

    A beautiful man, a beautiful mind. A life well-lived.

    You’ve given greatly, Dan Ellsberg. A hero of the finest order, your humility and compassion always evident.

    Humanity, those of us awake to our possibilities, as ever, rejoices in your legacy and ongoing acts committed to and for: Peace.

    Fare thee well, Dan Ellsberg.

  18. Bill Todd
    March 3, 2023 at 12:20

    I suspect that the author referred to the prospect that the Ukraine fiasco could cause a full-blown nuclear exchange to emphasize exactly what devastation that would entail, and that inferring that he thought that the blame for that would be shared similarly between East and West would either be misinterpreting his words or that the stress he is likely under now has made him unduly influenced by the relentless barrage of propaganda surrounding him in the U.S.

    If world-wide anti-war sentiment fails to prevent this outcome the brightest hope I can muster (taking my cue from “The Life of Brian”) is that Russian and Chinese ABM technology is sufficiently effective that it can prevent such devastation in most of the world and allow them to feel they can limit retaliation to military targets in the West.

  19. Sharon Aldrich
    March 3, 2023 at 11:55

    Thank you Daniel for your good work in this world! We are forever grateful for your Bravery and Courage. Peace to you and yours.

  20. Steve Woodward
    March 3, 2023 at 11:31

    As one of the countless people whose lives you saved, I just wanted to thank you, sir.
    As I approached my 18th birthday, the choices facing me were prison, Canada, or Vietnam. Then you put your own freedom at risk, and saved me from having to make that choice.
    Now, as I approach my 71st year, words simply cannot express the gratitude for the opportunity to enjoy the gift of those years. In Peace.

  21. Hester Eisenstein
    March 3, 2023 at 11:14

    Thank you for this brave and moving message. Your heroism in revealing the Pentagon Papers will never be forgotten. Wishing you strength in this frightening passage and hoping that the good wishes and gratitude of so many peace loving people around the world will give you some comfort. Your model of outspoken honesty is needed now more than ever, as we confront the reckless behavior of leaders on all sides in the face of a clear nuclear danger in Ukraine.

    Hester Eisenstein
    New York

  22. Ken Bubb Family
    March 3, 2023 at 10:58

    Thank you Daniel Ellsberg for your life dedication as peacemaker on this planet, now leaving us with a powerful message:
    “Si, se puede”. What more can we ask for? You’re doing it; so must we.

  23. Ron
    March 3, 2023 at 10:57

    Much love back at you Dan. You’re one of my heroes.

  24. Cal Lash
    March 3, 2023 at 10:47

    Truly a great individual.
    thak you
    Hasta Luego

  25. Charles Peterson
    March 3, 2023 at 10:32

    I’m disappointed that Daniel Ellsberg has chosen to say that “Russia is making monstrous threats to initiate nuclear war to maintain its control over Crimea and the Donbas–like the dozens of equally illegitimate first-use threats that the U.S. government has made in the past to maintain its military presence in South Korea, Taiwan, South Vietnam”

    Russia was stating Russian policy, which is far less assertive than US policy.
    Crimea was legally Russian for 200 years until 1954, and was virtually Russian until 1954. It is populated mostly by ethnic Russians. It voted overwhelmingly to join Russia in 2014, and that result has been verified by a large number of western sponsored polls.

    None of that would apply to US threats against South Korea, Taiwan, and South Vietnam.

    I recall feeling long ago that Ellsberg was both sidesing certain things.

  26. March 3, 2023 at 10:24

    Every time a friend or a progressive anti-war socialist person has a cancer problem or another type of dangerous healthy problem, i get real sad, even if I don’t personally know that person, because I was super-atttached to my father who passed away, not because of leukemia but mainly because of capitalism’s evil privatizacion of medical care which caused a leukemia cancer in my father. Capitalism kills, is killing and that’s why we need to kill the capitalist system. That’s why Hugo Chavez said that capitalism destroyed life on Mars.

    Another important progressive anti-war activist who has cancer is Tom Feeley, the owner of Information Clearinghouse, I think his cancer is treatable and not very dangerous

  27. Mark Michael Davidson
    March 3, 2023 at 10:16

    Daniel we love you and are indebted to you and your remarkable spirit…that spirit has uplifted the Ant-war movement to places it could have never gone….But dont throw in the towel just yet. Your body feeling the way it currently does might be defying the odds here..

  28. March 3, 2023 at 10:09

    Hi, wow, what a sad news. My father died on November 27, 2020 because of the neoliberal capitalist system, cancelled his medicare assistance under the neoliberal-capitalist government of the neoliberal-capitalist Obama, and since then he became very ill, because he had untreated leukemia, and one of the main reasons that i am an ultra-leftist orthodox trotskist marxist is the death of my father and how the millions of US voters (despite living a very bad life) keep voting for both of the neoliberal-capitalist parties (Democrats and Republicans), but since I am a very curious person, i have also been studying the new paradigm of life after death, specially the theories of parallel universes, the theory of eternal return of Nietzsche, and the afterlife theory Biocentrism of Dr. Robert Lanza. So there is hope that comrade Daniel Ellsberg won’t really die. He will continue to live either (according to the theory of eternal return, being born again but in another parallel universe or living in another alternative reality

    That’s why we need a socialist workers state in the USA, that would provide free medical care, and all the billions of dollars spent on wars, being spent instead to find a cure for cancer

    .

  29. John Ressler
    March 3, 2023 at 10:03

    Thank you, Daniel Ellsberg, for your efforts/actions over the years, working for peace in the world on our behalf. Enjoy your time my dear man. Bless you.

  30. Dario
    March 3, 2023 at 09:08

    Your example will be forever inspirational, as it certainly was for a post-Vietnam generation activist like myself.
    While it is of course saddening to hear this news, the thought of your lasting legacy provides comfort and exceptional motivation to carry on the fight for world peace.
    All the best.

  31. March 3, 2023 at 09:02

    I asked a 25 year old if he had ever heard of Daniel Ellsburgh.
    Today, he leaves for China, Maine, as I explained to him that you were the spark that awoke the Peace Community of the Sixties to Rally against the Vietnam War. He had never heard of you nor the Pentagon Papers.
    Please make a deadline to find Peace in the Donbas.
    We have some in Maine who are planning small events and try to connect and support people of like mind who would listen to a reasonable deadline.
    So fortune has given you this opportunity.
    How can I help?

  32. john
    March 3, 2023 at 08:05

    But humanitarian and Zelensky-worshipper Sean Penn says Americans need to be “less cautious” about the use of nuclear weapons. That’s Sean Penn! I’m supposed to believe Daniel Ellsberg?

  33. March 3, 2023 at 07:19

    Thank you Dan, you are an inspiration to us all. We will continue the struggle to end nuclear weapons and to eventually bring peace to the world. Without your heroic actions, these efforts would be impossible. We all owe you a great debt.

  34. DAVID BUCKLEY
    March 3, 2023 at 05:39

    A wonderful letter and message to us all! Thanks for all your work during a remarkable life, you have lived it well and done humankind some service over many years – God Bless on the rest of your journey!

  35. wolfgang geist
    March 3, 2023 at 02:58

    Thank you Dan. I will do my best to inform the brain washed public.

  36. Cynic
    March 3, 2023 at 00:58

    Dear Mr Ellsberg,

    Even though I’ve never been blessed with the chance to meet you personally, it is with great sadness and profound gratitude that I read your letter. We shall try our very best to carry on your life’s good work while knowing in our hearts you can never be really replaced and will be sorely missed. But yes we must stop those insane few from literally destroying all that we have and all that we see around us. There is one more important petition that you can do, Mr Ellsberg. When you get to heaven, please help to bring our pleas to God, to fulfil His promise to be at the side of the peacemakers. For if God is for us, who can be against us?

    I’ll finally get to meet you in heaven when my time comes. In the meantime I pray that your days are filled with joy, love and peace.

    Yours Sincerely,

    A simple man from Asia.

  37. Thot
    March 2, 2023 at 23:51

    “La Chine et l’Inde sont les seules à déclarer des politiques de non-utilisation en premier. “, tout comme la Russie, je me demande pourquoi vous ne l’écrivez pas
    et non ” La Russie profère des menaces monstrueuses de déclencher une guerre nucléaire “, c’est faux et vous le savez très bien ! la doctrine russe est la même que la Chine et l’Inde alors pourquoi dire le contraire ?
    ce sont les USA qui menacent, sans aller piller les autres pays, les USA sont un pays comme les autre, surtout quand le racket dollar va prendre fin ! vivre sur le dos des autres ne marchera plus, la sangsue US va crever, il serait temps au vu des dégâts monstrueux qu’elle a fait au monde entier
    Prenez sin de vous, monsieur

    • Daniel Guyot
      March 3, 2023 at 04:15

      Well said!

    • MirrorGazers
      March 3, 2023 at 08:52

      “la doctrine russe est la même que la Chine et l’Inde alors pourquoi dire le contraire ?”

      C’est ca, pourquoi ?

      Fron inception “The United States of America” has never been “united” and hence to attain levels of security internally and externally “The United States of America” have always relied on aggresive coercive tactics and sought to “validate” their tactics by projection onto others, which in this instance may be “enhanced” by Mr. Ellsberg’s interpretation of The Presidential Decree 355 of 2nd June 2020, the contents of which representatives of “The United States of America” have been aware since June 2020.

      The representatives of “The United States of America” have always been aware that “war” is not restricted to things that go bang from “We the people hold these truths to be self-evident”onwards, but they are presently becoming more aware of the world-wide deteriation of the potency of their efforts in “psychological warfare” as in MKUltra, which their opponents, including The Russian Federation, The People’s Republic of China, India and others perceive as an open not a closed system, an open system of communication and opportunities of mutual transcendence, not a closed system of subject/object “perception management/psychological warfare”, an open system facilitating enhanced sustainability whilst others are engaged in attempted closed systems of counter-productive closure – in the vernacular painting themselves into corners into which they seek to invite others “informed” by custom and practice.

    • Dario
      March 3, 2023 at 09:26

      Monsieur, un peu de calme.
      La doctrine de non-utilisation en premier était longtemps la norme de la politique nucléaire russe, sans doute.
      Or, si vous avez suivi les développements de la guerre en Ukraine de près, la présidence russe a publié des modifications de cette doctrine, acceptant la possibilité d’un premier usage dans le cas d’un danger considéré “imminent”, soi disante utilisation préventive.
      Le président Putin a fait référence par ailleurs, à plusieurs reprises, à des utilisations des armes nucléaires dans le contexte ukrainien, qui étaient au moins ambiguës et opaques, et qu’on a du mal à réconcilier avec la doctrine de non premier usage.
      Certes, les provocations continues de l’occident sont en large partie responsables de cette démarche, qui pourrait avoir été envisagée tout simplement afin de dissuader l’Otan d’une intervention directe dans le conflit, comme l’estiment des nombreux analystes.
      Pourtant, l’objectivité impose de reconnaître que certaines déclarations ont été effectuées en effet.

      • MirrorGazers
        March 3, 2023 at 13:50

        “Pourtant, l’objectivité impose de reconnaître que certaines déclarations ont été effectuées en effet.”

        Sans doubt c’est vrai

        The aspect to which you and likely Mr. Ellsberg refers is the appendix in regard to “dead-hand” response ergo response to first strike not the initiation of first strike and not restricted to Ukraine to which President Putin acting for and on behalf the Security Counsel of The Russian Federation issued Presidential decree 355 of 2nd June 2020, but not in the way some choose to “interpret” it as étaient au moins ambiguës et opaques, et qu’on a du mal à réconcilier avec la doctrine de non premier usage.” except to some “anal-ysts” whom were never involved in the creation of the Presidential decree 355 of 2nd June 2020.

        As you are possibly aware translations between languages are never an option, only “interpretation” is possible as a function of socially conditioned responses facilitating options of some to choose to “interpret” it as ” étaient au moins ambiguës et opaques, et qu’on a du mal à réconcilier avec la doctrine de non premier usage.”

      • Randal Marlin
        March 3, 2023 at 20:17

        Let me see if I have understood what you are saying.
        You begin by asking Mr. Ellsberg to calm down a little. You point out that the non-first use principle has without doubt long been the Russian political policy norm. You then say that if Mr. Ellsberg has followed closely the war developments in Ukraine, [he would know that] the Russian presidency has announced modifications to this doctrine, accepting first-use possibility in the case of what is considered an “imminent” danger, supposedly preventative usage.
        Along with this, President Putin has referred on several occasions to use of nuclear arms in the Ukrainian context, references that were at least ambiguous and opaque, and were hard to reconcile with the doctrine of non-first use.
        Certainly, continuing western provocations are in large part responsible for this shift, you say, which might have been taken with a view simply to dissuade NATO from intervening directly in the conflict, as numerous analysts have assessed.
        Still, to be objective we should recognize that certain declarations have effectively been made.

        If I have interpreted you correctly, I don’t see why Mr. Ellsberg, me, or anybody should feel calm!

        Thank you, Daniel Ellsberg for your wonderful life and contribution to world peace, recognizing that you may still have more to offer, and looking forward to whatever it may be.

        • Randal Marlin
          March 4, 2023 at 17:10

          On reading things over, I see that Dario was referring to Thot, not Ellsberg. Sorry for the lapse.

  38. firstpersoninfinite
    March 2, 2023 at 23:27

    What a beautiful and inspiring message! Those who reveal the light of truth will never be forgotten. Each one of us should aim for the same result. Thank you for showing us the rare beauty of real, unadulterated dissent in action.

  39. Carolyn Grassi
    March 2, 2023 at 22:41

    Dear Daniel Ellsberg, Thank you on behalf of my family (including grandchildren) for your brave works and writings for peace. Your example is exemplary in every possible way. Tonight in California, I happened to open Consortium News and soon as I saw your name, I began reading your letter. But I felt like crying, still do, as I read your farewell words, so full of courage and gratitude. And I’m sure countless people in the U.S. and across the world are shedding tears too. We are all grateful. You are loved. May you feel the loving thanks and support of everyone who ever read or listened to your words. You have made a difference in making our world more peaceful. Your photo is precious as you are. May I say Blessings to you and your dear family.

  40. Rick Bochner, M.D.
    March 2, 2023 at 21:33

    Thank you Dan; you are great man and a true hero.

  41. Don Durivan
    March 2, 2023 at 20:30

    And our love to you, Dan. You are a giant in our history and those of us old enough have the remarkable inspired memory of your release of the Pentagon Papers. A courageous gift that was. I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to you in interviews, especially during the current “season of war” where you offered sane and insightful thinking. I will be listening still whenever and wherever I hear of your appearances.

    There are MILLIONS of us, around the world in fact, who treasure you and wish you maximum comfort.

  42. Henry Steen
    March 2, 2023 at 19:12

    Talk about a life well lived! Thanks Dan friend from all of us.

  43. Jose Gomez
    March 2, 2023 at 19:04

    I feel saddened to read this letter by Mr. Ellsberg. A true American hero that has work tirelessly to expose the crimes of USA government. The man will leave us but his legacy will keep inspiration millions for a better world.

  44. esh
    March 2, 2023 at 18:46

    Why people like Daniel Ellsberg are not elected to run countries will always be a mystery to me, but I think money has some part to play in it.

    • Leesy
      March 3, 2023 at 08:14

      So true, so sad.

    • Bob Martin
      March 3, 2023 at 17:13

      The corporations that rule the US (and crucially, their media arm) would never allow someone like him to get near the presidency. Especially the corporations that profit off of war and weapons, and they are the most powerful of all, to the detriment of all humanity.

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