EP 241: Daniel Ellsberg Reveals America's Secret Nuclear War Plan

Daniel Ellsberg, the whistleblower behind the Pentagon Papers, reveals how helped design America's top secret nuclear war plan and why he has since dedicated his life to dismantling it. He explains why the movie Dr. Strangelove is not far from the truth, discloses that the President isn’t the only one with his finger on the nuclear button, and explains just how far down the chain of command that authority may reverberate. He reveals the potentially staggering human cost of America’s first strike strategy, the perverse logic behind the Joint Chiefs’ apparent peace with that risk, and their calculated willingness to obliterate US allies in the process. Plus Daniel Ellsberg weighs in on the nuclear game of chicken between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un, he lends some credence to the idea that’s there’s a so called “deep state” operating beyond the President’s authority, and America’s most famous whistleblower shatters the myth that all secrets in Washington eventually get leaked.

Order Daniel Ellsberg's book The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner on Amazon. Daniel Ellsberg is on Twitter at @Daniel Ellsberg, and you can keep up with him and view lots of supplementary documents about the Pentagon Papers and America’s nuclear war plan at www.ellsberg.net. Today's episode was sponsored by The Art of Charm podcast.