Eyewitness exposé of top secret in US

The Doomsday Machine

AUTHOR: Daniel Ellsberg PUBLISHER: Bloomsbury RRP: $39.99 REVIEWER: Mary Ann Elliott

STEVEN Spielberg’s movie, The Post, (starring Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep) begins with Ellsberg’s story. He is a central figure in this controversy; this hawk turned dove’s volatile actions indirectly led to President Richard Nixon’s impeachment and in turn, to the end of the Vietnam War.

Here we have the story; not via the media, film or the newspapers but from the man himself. Ellsberg was a former high-level defence analyst and whistleblower who revealed the so-called Pentagon Papers, which were a top-secret government study of United Sates involvement in the then still raging Vietnam War.

This book is an eyewitness exposé of the dangers of America’s top secret, 70 year-long nuclear policy that alarmingly, continues to this day.

It makes chilling reading; American citizens were blissfully unaware of their government’s plans for virtual annihilation of their perceived enemies.

Ellsberg, known as “the most dangerous man in America”, would divulge their sinister secrets to the press, specifically to the Washington Post.

Considering Trump’s current attacks on the press, and his proposed renewal of an arms build-up, it’s a timely story.

Ellsberg’s firsthand account takes us from America’s nuclear program in the 1960s, to secret plans for general nuclear war under Eisenhower and the early Kennedy years, to Nixon, Johnson, Bush and beyond.

Every president since Truman has in fact professed “first-use” (of nuclear strike) as essential to US national security when every other nation in the UN including America’s close allies, had morally and politically isolated themselves from this doctrine.

Hillary Clinton is quoted as saying, “presidents never take the nuclear option off the table”. Ellsberg admits drafting Secretary Robert McNamara’s plans for nuclear war but later leaked information as his conscience dictated.

Here’s a real-life story and an ultimately powerfully important book about not just the state of affairs in the US today, but the future of the world.

‘‘ CONSIDERING TRUMP’S CURRENT ATTACKS ON THE PRESS, AND HIS PROPOSED RENEWAL OF AN ARMS BUILD-UP, IT’S A TIMELY STORY.