Colman: THE WOMAN BEHIND THE PENTAGON PAPERS

Dr. Ellsberg was worried the Supreme Court today would not support a free press.  Actually, the problem today is that the media does not support a free press.

They lied and hid the Hunter Biden laptop, the lies of Adam Schiff were amplified without question, the now identified $40 million in bribes taken by Joe Biden and his Criminal Family is not discussed.  The media is the problem—not the Courts.

We have an incoherent, feeble old man as President, with his finger on the nuclear button and control of our military.  He has allowed the FBI to become the modern day Gestapo and the Department of Justice his own enforcement group to stop his opponents (like calling mothers who want to know what is going on in school “domestic terrorists”)

They applaud Ellsberg for stealing secret documents—and then having them published.  They denounce Trump for taking documents he has a legal right to and NOT publishing them.  Very confusing.

THE WOMAN BEHIND THE PENTAGON PAPERS

By Richard Colman, Exclusive to the California Political News and Views,  6/30/23   www.capoliticalreview.com  

Dr. Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked a secret history of the Vietnam war to The New York Times and other publications, was heavily influenced by a woman.

The woman was Ms. Patricia Marx, who later became Dr. Ellsberg’s wife.

The secret history of the Vietnam war became known as the Pentagon Papers.

The first installment of the Pentagon Papers appeared in The New York Times on June 13, 1971.

Dr. Ellsberg died in Kensington, California, which is adjacent to Berkeley, California, on June 16, 2023.  He was 92.

The Pentagon Papers contained over 7,000 pages that outlined a secret history of the Vietnam war, a history compiled by the United States government.

Shortly after the first installment of the Pentagon Papers appeared in the Times, the administration of President Richard Nixon went to court to halt publication.  After a few days, the United States Supreme Court decided that the Nixon administration could not prevent publication of the Pentagon Papers.

Who was Patricia Marx, the woman behind Dr. Ellsberg, who received a doctorate from Harvard University? 

Dr. Henry Kissinger, a Harvard professor, knew Dr. Ellsberg at Harvard.  Dr. Kissinger called Dr. Ellsberg a “genius.”  Dr. Kissinger was President Nixon’s secretary of state from 1973 to 1977.

Patricia Marx was described by the Times (Aug. 30, 1972) this way:  “She was a rich girl from Scarsdale [New York] –- an heiress with a trust fund -– and had cum laude degree from Radcliffe . . .”

Initially, Radcliffe was the female segment of Harvard.  Radcliffe became fully integrated with Harvard in 1999.

According to the Times, Ms. Marx, after meeting Dr. Ellsberg, “ . . . turned down his first marriage proposal (in 1966) was because of their differences on the war.”  Initially, Dr. Ellsberg was a strong supporter of the war.

According to sources, Dr. Ellsberg proposed to Ms. Marx several times.  After her rejections, Dr. Ellsberg became a strong opponent of the Vietnam war.  In 1970, Dr. Ellsberg and Ms. Marx were married.

The 1972 Times article, written by Judy Klemesrud, stated:  “Friends say that the Ellsbergs are an extremely close couple.”  The article, quoting a friend of the couple, continued:  “I’ve never seen two people their age bill and coo as much as they do.”

The article added, “Dr. Ellsberg acknowledges his wife as “my partner, lover, and closest friend . . .”

In 1974, your columnist interviewed Patricia Marx Ellsberg in Berkeley, California, where Dr. Ellsberg was giving a speech.  During the interview, Mrs. Ellsberg confirmed the accuracy of the 1972 Times article about her.

In 1974, your columnist was a student at the University of California, Berkeley.  He was a reporter and science editor for the student newspaper, The Daily Californian.

According to the 1972 Times article, “Patricia Ellsberg pooh-poohed the stories that she was the major reason her husband switched from being a hawk to a dove on the Vietnam war.”

In 1973, the U.S. government charged Dr. Ellsberg with espionage and other crimes and was tried in federal court in Los Angeles.  Just before jury deliberations, the judge, citing federal-government misconduct, threw out the case.

In 2010, Dr. Ellsberg gave a speech in Berkeley, California.  During his remarks, he expressed concern that the U.S. Supreme Court was different from the one that allowed, in 1971, the publication of the Pentagon Papers.  Dr. Ellsberg worried that the post-1971 High Court might not support freedom of the press.

The High Court, now a much more conservative institution than it was in 1971, has to be watched carefully to see that the court is willing to support press freedom.