What we must learn from the man who gave us the Pentagon Papers
3 min read
In October 1969, nearly 14 years into the Vietnam War and only months before the first civilian draft lottery, Daniel Ellsberg decided that Americans deserved to know the truth. The military analyst photocopied thousands of pages of classified documents and, after U.S. senators refused to release them, leaked them to the public in 1971—demonstrating that the U.S. government had known early on that the war was a lost cause.
While most Americans are familiar with the story of the Pentagon Papers, far less is known about the man who risked everything to leak them. Released posthumously in 2026, Truth And Consequence: Reflections on Catastrophe, Civil Resistance, and Hope is a stunning collection of Ellsberg’s previously unpublished writings, exploring the inner world of America’s most famous whistleblower: from his continuous anti-war activism and advocacy against nuclear weapons, to his personal struggles surrounding the death of his mother and sister as a teenager.
Compiled from decades of handwritten notebooks and journal entries, the book offers an intimate portrait of Ellsberg’s moral and intellectual life, revealing the convictions that shaped his extraordinary career. Current Affairs sat down with Ellsberg’s sons, Robert and Michael, and his longtime assistant Jan Thomas—the latter two of whom co-edited the volume—to discuss Ellsberg’s legacy and what readers can still learn from his example.
Nathan J. Robinson: Welcome to Current Affairs. My name is Nathan Robinson. I am the editor in chief of Current Affairs magazine.
And today I am joined by three guests who between them are the collaborators on a new book of collected works by Daniel Ellsberg, famously known for being the Pentagon Papers whistleblower, a man who had such a rich and interesting career, so much beyond the Pentagon Papers, that we’re going to dive into today.
So I am joined by, first, Jan Thomas, who was Daniel Ellsberg’s assistant for many years and compiled many of his unpublished notes. Jan, welcome to Current Affairs. (Thank you.)
I am also joined by Daniel Ellsberg’s sons, Robert and Michael, who have very eclectic backgrounds. Michael, I know that you’ve worked as a stand-up comedian and a music producer and have a totally interesting background. And Robert, you worked with Dorothy Day and The Catholic Worker and have been a book publisher yourself.
So I could talk to you both about your own lives for a long time, but we’re here to talk about this new book. Michael, you co-edited it, and Robert, you wrote this incredible foreword.
But I guess I wanted to start with you, Jan, if you could talk a little bit about the material that we have here, what Daniel Ellsberg wrote over all these years, during which he was publishing very little, but he was writing all these thoughts. So tell us a little bit about what comprises this new collection…
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Copyright (c) 2026 Current Affairs magazine. All Rights Reserved. Rebroadcast and republished with written permission of Current Affairs magazine.
See also: Daniel Ellsberg speaks to us as the war on Iran continues
