POV: The Most Dangerous Man In America: Daniel Ellsberg And The Pentagon Papers

Airs Tuesday, October 5, 2010 at 9 p.m. on KPBS TV

Daniel Ellsberg at the Los Angeles courthouse, 1973. Anthony Russo and Patricia Ellsberg are to his right.

Credit: AP photos

Above: Daniel Ellsberg at the Los Angeles courthouse, 1973. Anthony Russo and Patricia Ellsberg are to his right.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Daniel Ellsberg in Vietnam

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Credit: Daniel and Patricia Ellsberg

Above: Daniel Ellsberg in Vietnam

"The Most Dangerous Man In America: Daniel Ellsberg And The Pentagon Papers" is a comprehensive look at the release of the Pentagon Papers in 1971 and the resultant political firestorm that may have sealed Americans' disenchantment with the war, and which certainly sealed the fate of the Nixon administration.

The film is also an intensely intimate look into the conscience of a gifted and intelligent man who National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger told his staff was "the most dangerous man in America who must be stopped at all costs" upon his leaking of the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times and who wrestled personally and professionally with what he came to see as the contradictions between American ideals and American power in Southeast Asia. Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature.

"The Most Dangerous Man In America: Daniel Ellsberg And The Pentagon Papers" will be available for online viewing from October 6, 2010 through October 27, 2010.

Video

Interview With Daniel & Patricia Ellsberg

Above: Daniel and Patricia Ellsberg talk about their participation in the film "The Most Dangerous Man In America: Daniel Ellsberg And The Pentagon Papers," coming to POV on October 5, 2010. In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg, a leading Vietnam War strategist, concludes that America's role in the war is based on decades of lies. He leaks 7,000 pages of top-secret documents to The New York Times, a daring act of conscience that leads directly to Watergate, President Nixon's resignation and the end of the Vietnam War.

Video

Jon Meacham from PBS "Need to Know" speaks with Daniel Ellsberg

Above: Jon Meacham speaks with Daniel Ellsberg about his decision to release the Pentagon Papers, the subject of a new documentary on the PBS series "POV: The Most Dangerous Man In America: Daniel Ellsberg And The Pentagon Papers." Ellsberg talks about the film and his thoughts on Bob Woodward's recently released book.

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