Last night I had the good fortune to re-watch a movie made back in 2003, entitled “The Pentagon Papers” starring James Spader as Daniel Ellsberg. Although not a Documentary, it is based on a True Story. The time frame dealt with the period of the Viet Nam War, and all the lies and propaganda surrounding our involvement in it.
Back when it all Started, in the early Sixties, I was about Twenty. I had joined the Army Reserves with Six other Buddies. We had gone on our first Two-week Summer Camp in July of 1960, and drove our LCM’s -Landing Craft Mechanized - you know those boats with the Ramps up front, for ‘Hitting the Beach’ that you’ve seen in all the old War movies. From Curtis Creek in Curtis Bay, down the Patapsco River, to its mouth at the Chesapeake Bay, up to the C&D Canal, through it, to the Delaware Bay, to Cape Henlopen, on the edge of The Atlantic Ocean.
This Twenty-Two Hour Trek only involved about Ninety Miles of travel - BUT - the following Sunday morning, after chow, we were marched up to the old Theater building on this abandoned Air Force Base. There, we were proudly told by the Officers present that -
OUR TRIP WAS THE EQUIVALENT TO TRAVELING THE NINETY MILES TO REACH THE SHORES OF CUBA!
Way back then - we just Didn’t GET IT! NOW, I DO!
Anyway, we ‘Boots’ or ‘Recruits’ were just young and dumb guys from the inner city, who did not want to get Drafted by ‘Uncle Sam.’ So, we signed a Contract for Six Years of Service - Six months of Active Duty, followed by Five and a Half years of Monthly Weekend Reserve Meetings. Eight hours Saturday and Eight hours Sunday, Twelve times a year, times Five point Five years, equals Sixty-Six week-ends, or One Thousand Fifty-Six hours, plus Four Thousand Three Hundred and Twenty hours of Active Duty equals a Grand Total of Five Thousand Three Hundred and Seventy-Six hours of ‘Service.’ This amount nets out to being about One-Fifth of actual service time, as compared to those who got drafted and served for Three solid years.
In 1966, when we all received our Honorable Discharges from the U.S. Army Transportation Corps, that’s All we got! Because we were ‘Only Reservists’ we did not receive any ‘Entitlements!’ No G.I. Insurance - No G.I. Education Grants - No Health Coverage - No Commissary Privileges - We could not even go onto any Military Base, simply to buy Un-Taxed cigarettes, food, or clothing! Nuttin’ Honey!
“What has this personal diversion have to do with the movie?” You might ask! During this Six Year period, it ALL happened! In april 1961, the infamous “Bay of Pigs’ FIASCO! Nixon Proposed it! Eisenhower Planned it! Kennedy Approved it! The CIA Carried it out!
Our involvement in Viet Nam started, JFK was Assassinated! MLK Jr. was Assassinated! August 5th, 1964, LBJ’s Message to Congress, Requesting “The Tonkin Bay Resolution” Escalated the War in Viet Nam - June 1968 RFK was Assassinated!
THESE WERE VERY PERILOUS TIMES!
Back to the Movie - Daniel Ellsberg, a former U.S. Marine, who served in Viet Nam, worked as an Analyst at RAND, then went into Government Service, returned to Nam as an ‘Observer’ - then subsequently realized that all the “BODY COUNTS” were OUTRIGHT LIES!
After obtaining a copy of “The Pentagon Papers” - reading over Seven Thousand Pages - Forty-Seven Volumes of “The History of The War in Viet Nam” - as a Patriot, he just Had to DO SOMETHING!
After being Rejected by Senator Fulbright, The Chair of The Foreign Relations Committee, and many other Members of Congress, he went Public! He leaked the documents to a Reporter at The New York Times Newspaper!
As these Documents had been labeled as “TOP SECRET” and HIDDEN FROM CONGRESS EVEN - he was BRANDED as a TRAITOR! The FBI was after him! He went to Jail! The only thing that Saved him was that the Case went to The Supreme Court, and they Found in Favor of The First and Fourteenth Amendments to The Constitution! He was Freed! He was Absolved! The Rest is History!
I highly recommend that Every American Citizen get a copy of THIS MOVIE and Watch It!
If you cannot see the Corresponding Repetition Throughout The BUSH Administration ...
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