Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers to try to stop the Vietnam war
The historian, policy-planner and determined activist died on June 16th, aged 92
Two thatch huts were still smouldering when Daniel Ellsberg and his group reached the village. It took nothing to destroy them; just a Zippo lighter. Children were searching for toys in the ashes. In the first days of his posting to Saigon in 1965, to advise on General Edward Lansdale’s “pacification” programme, he had fallen in love with Vietnamese children: their nimbleness, their boldness, their fascination with the hair on his arms. They had followed him around like a cloud of birds. Now he watched one little girl pull out a blackened doll.
This article appeared in the Obituary section of the print edition under the headline “Tell me lies about Vietnam”
From the June 24th 2023 edition
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