Daniel Ellsberg died last week. I’ve been following his career closely for decades. He was a fascinating character in modern American history. Because of Ellsberg I spent six months reading The Pentagon Papers in school — we read paper in real libraries back then! I can still smell the stacks via the memory alone. I ended up doing my final thesis in history on The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. 100 pages.

I even personally met and interviewed Neil Sheehan twice on the issue. Sheehan broke The Pentagon Papers story in the NYT back when the NYT was a real newspaper. The Ellsberg/Sheehan relationship was also an interesting side story among all that madness in the 1960s and 1970s.

So now both Ellsberg and Sheehan are gone. But I believe they are safe where they are now, and millions of people lived as a result of their brave actions. Their detractors, however, will burn in hell forever.

Daniel Ellsberg Is Dying. And He Has Some Final Things to Say.
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The Greatness of Daniel Ellsberg, From Heroic Vietnam War Whistleblower to Fearless Free Press Activist