Posted on Oct 31, 2007

Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg visits campus Nov. 28

The President's Speakers Series concludes this semester's presentations with a Nov. 28 visit by Dr. Daniel Ellsberg, the RAND Corp. analyst who, in 1971, leaked the classified Pentagon Papers to the New York Times.

The documents revealed the U.S. government had engaged in a pattern of deceiving the public about the number of Vietnam War casualties and the nation's ability to win the war. And they instantly validated the antiwar protest movement.

He'll be talking about his book, "Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers," copies of which will be available for sale.

The papers - over 7,000 pages - revealed that every administration from Harry Truman's had falsely painted what was a civil war in Vietnam as a cold-war struggle between the free nations of the world and those under communist rule.

Dr. Ellsberg was arrested and put on trial for leaking the documents, but the judge dismissed the charges against him due to improper governmental conduct that included evidence tampering and illegal wiretapping.

Since then, he has been a staunch opponent of nuclear weapons proliferation, an international advocate for peace and an early opponent of the Iraq War.

A question-and-answer session will follow the talk.

Dr. Ellsberg's lecture will start at 7 p.m. in the World Theater on Sixth Avenue. It's free and open to the public; no tickets are necessary but reservations are encouraged and can be made online at csumb.edu/speakers. To request disability accommodations, call 582-4189 at least 10 working days prior to the event.

Driving directions and a campus map can be found at csumb.edu/map

 The President's Speakers Series, which was inaugurated during the spring 2007 semester, is intended to enhance the intellectual life of the campus and the community.

 "Not long after she arrived on campus, President Harrison asked the faculty what she could do for them. They asked for a speakers series that would stimulate thought and discussion," said Renee Curry, dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. The speakers series is also a way to invite the community onto campus.

Suggestions for speakers came from the faculty. "We were looking for a variety of appeal, for people who had interdisciplinary ideas, and who could speak to a variety of audiences," said Dean Curry.

It came down to matching each speaker's availability with the campus schedule. Three names emerged: Dr. Philip Zimbardo, professor emeritus of psychology at Stanford University, who visited campus on Sept. 25; Mark Becker, a documentary filmmaker who showed his film Romántico on Oct. 23; and Dr. Ellsberg.

 "The President selects the series title. 'Exploring People, Ethics and the Law' was chosen because all three speakers will address the intersection of ethics and law and how this intersection affects the lives of real people," said Dean Curry.

The series got off to a great start when Dr. Zimbardo drew a standing-room-only crowd to the World Theater.

One of the world's leading psychologists, he is best known for conducting the Stanford Prison Experiment. His 1971 experiment "showed how anonymity, conformity and boredom can be used to induce sadistic behavior in otherwise wholesome students," said The New York Times.

More recently, Dr. Zimbardo has investigated how policy decisions and individual choices led to abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, a subject he examines in his new book, "The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil."

 Mr. Becker"s presentation was also well received.

The documentary, shown at the Sundance Film Festival, started out as a 10-minute short but turned into a three-year journey to document the life of Carmelo Muniz Sánchez. The undocumented mariachi was working in San Francisco to support h