Goucher Presents Screenings of "The Most Dangerous Man in America"

February 27, 2010 |

Prior to the visit by Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, Goucher College will present three viewings of the Academy Award-nominated film The Most Dangerous Man in America, which recounts the circumstances and drama surrounding Ellsberg’s decision to leak thousands of pages of top-secret documents leading up to the Vietnam War to the New York Times.

The free film screenings will be held in Kelley Lecture Hall at the following times: Saturday, February 27, at 4 p.m.; Sunday, February 28, at 4 p.m.; and Monday, March 1, at 7 p.m.

Ellsberg will speak at Goucher on Tuesday, March 2, at 8 p.m. This event is free and open to the public, but tickets must be reserved by contacting Goucher’s box office at 410-337-6333 or boxoffice@goucher.edu.

The film is based on the true story of Daniel Ellsberg, who President Nixon’s National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger deemed “the most dangerous man in America” after Ellsberg released the Pentagon Papers to the American public.

Ellsberg was a former military analyst who began having doubts about the escalation of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, where, by 1968, more than 500,000 troops had been deployed. Convinced the war was unwinnable, Ellsberg methodically copied the Pentagon Papers’ 7,000 pages and made them available to 17 newspapers—all of which published the documents in part or in their entirety—and to Senator Mike Gravel, who read from them and entered them into the Senate record. Ellsberg was accused of conspiracy and eight other charges, with a maximum penalty of 115 years.

The case against Ellsberg was dismissed in 1973 on grounds of governmental misconduct against him. The trial helped lead to the convictions of several White House aides and figured into the impeachment proceedings against President Nixon.

The story of The Most Dangerous Man in America is told largely by Ellsberg, his colleagues, family, and critics; Pentagon Papers authors and government officials; Vietnam veterans and anti-war activists; Watergate principals, attorneys, and the journalists who both covered the story and were an integral part of it; and through White House audiotapes of President Nixon and his inner circle of advisers.