Government promotes film about Pentagon Papers leaker Ellsberg
AP ^ | January 15, 2011 | Matthew Lee
Posted on ?1?/?16?/?2011? ?1?:?29?:?57? ?PM by epithermal
WASHINGTON — Even as prosecutors build a case against the Army private suspected of passing hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks, the State Department is promoting a documentary film that celebrates Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg.
Amid its struggle to contain damage from the WikiLeaks revelations, the State Department announced Saturday that “The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers” has been selected as one of 18 films that will tour the world this year as part of its “American Documentary Showcase” program.
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Among the other documentaries chosen for this year’s showcase are “If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front,” which deals with the radical environmental group that some regard as a terrorist organization; “Freedom Riders,” which traces the experiences of civil-rights advocates in 1961; and “No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson,” which examines the youthful legal troubles of the basketball star.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
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The Ellsberg film was produced by major Obama donor/fundraiser Jodie Evans, who co-founded Code Pink.
Political favor?
7 posted on ?1?/?16?/?2011? ?3?:?47?:?29? ?PM by kristinn
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The curious thing about the Pentagon Papers is that everyone bought a copy of the book for their coffee table, but as near as I can tell, hardly anyone actually read it.
It was pretty boring.
The propaganda meme was that it showed that Nixon and the Republicans were responsible for some sort of mess in Vietnam.
I actually took the trouble to read the whole thing at the time, as it was published as a supplement to the NY Times. The only really interesting point, IMHO, was that John F. Kennedy ordered the CIA to assassinate our ally, Ngo Dinh Diem. He did so, I think, because Deim was a Catholic, and because the press presented him as a horrible dictator who was responsible for Buddhists setting themselves on fire. Kennedy didn’t want to be thought of as doing a favor for a fellow Catholic, since he was still busy living his Catholicism down. So he went with the Buddhist meme and had Diem assassinated.
Needless to say, that did huge damage to the war effort. South Vietnam never really recovered as a useful military ally, so our troops had to do all the work.
Somehow or other, the press managed never to mention this awkward fact, even though it was certainly the biggest revelation in the entire secrets leak.
4 posted on ?1?/?15?/?2011? ?4?:?10?:?46? ?PM by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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