Tomorrow is the first anniversary of the death of Daniel Ellsberg, a man once dubbed, “the most dangerous man in America” for leaking the 1971 Pentagon Papers.
As a front-row seat to the drama of the events of that time, I found Steve Sheinkin’s Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War to be engaging, enthralling, and eye-opening.
Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of meeting with Steve over Zoom to discuss this true story. It was supposed to be a relatively short interview but our enthusiasm for the subject kept us spell-bound for nearly an hour.
Here’s a 1.3-minute preview of the conversation:
I feel directly connected to Ellberg by the uncomfortable supposition that my father probably hated him, though he never named him specifically.
I hope it is not only my affection for my dad that makes this passage from his April 1974 letter to his sister hard to read:
It is tiresome but unlike most of the American people, I still care very much about the people of South Vietnam. And Jane Fonda, Mike Mansfield, and other agents of the opposition notwithstanding, I think we have good reason to try. And I intend to stick with it.
I still think we can win and will. [emphasis added.]
All the news has to do with the tapes and back payments of taxes by the President, etc. This, they say, is the greatest crisis of the Republic, the greatest scandal.
May I say BULLSHIT. When the historians look back on it a hundred years from now they will consider it a fantastic curiosity symptomatic of our times but the "crimes" of Watergate and "coverup" and taxes will fall into obscurity.
Nixon, as you know, is not exactly my favorite person. But he has taken on the burden of his predecessors and he is carrying it with responsibility. His critics and assassins don't give him credit for that.
God help us if we get somebody in the White House who fails in that respect! As a partisan, I have always been against Nixon. As an American now, I am all for him and the ferment throughout the country to impeach him is rotten!
Much of it is not so much against Nixon as against the USA. Their [the communists] psychological warfare is much better than mine, I must admit.
Ouch. And yet you can see from his writing that he was honest with himself and he was dedicated to his cause of helping our South Vietnamese allies, though almost all American support had been pulled from underneath them.
All this is to say that history is not a set of facts, some black, some white marching across an indelible page but an interplay of dramatic, and often conflicting, stories.
I say without hyperbole that Steve Sheinkin is a master at making the true stories of history come to life for readers and listeners and Most Dangerous helped me get right up close to the drama of Ellsberg’s life and to develop a great deal of affection for his life and struggle.
Through reading Sheinkin’s book and learning Ellsberg’s story, I found a peace between the whistleblower’s actions and my father’s love of his work and his anti-protester perspectives.
Whereas the views of both men used to seem diametrically opposed, I can see now that they both sought a closer relationship to truth and acted out of love for the country.
This conversation was a delight—I hope you enjoy watching it. The book is a gripping page-turner (also on audio) and I hope you’ll give it a read.
Enjoy the full video (55 minutes) with author Steve Sheinkin here:
Visit Steve’s website or click here to buy through Bookshop.org (benefits local bookstores).
Thank you for reading! “Stories of Vietnam,” offers a historical and personal glimpse into the Vietnam Era as we approach the 50th Anniversary of the End of the Vietnam War.
To learn more about my books, visit Kat-Fitzpatrick.com.