Wild Man: The Life and Times of Daniel Ellsberg

ISBN-13: 9780230619791 / Angielski / Miękka / 2009 / 722 str.

Tom Wells

Opis

On September 4, 1971, the office of Lewis Fielding, a psychiatrist practicing in Los Angeles, was broken into. It looked like a run of the mill drug raid. A month later, a homeless man was charged with burglary and the case was considered closed. On June 17, 1972, five men were charged with breaking and entering at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. With these two burglaries, one seemingly innocuous while the other was more serious because of the venue, the scandal known as Watergate was born. As the tale of Richard Nixon and his Plumbers began to unfold, it was discovered that one of Lewis Fielding's patients was Daniel Ellsberg, the man who released the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times . Ellsberg was high on Nixon's list of enemies and he vowed to destroy him at all costs. In Wild Man, Tom Wells explores the life of Daniel Ellsberg to discover what makes an individual enact the most severe breach of government security ever to occur in the United States. As Wells follows Ellsberg from his early days as a piano prodigy to his years of great promise at Harvard, we see the development of a volatile, narcissistic loner with a voracious sexual appetite, a highly developed intelligence and, most importantly, the overwhelming need to take centre stage in the pageant known as America. In Wild Man, Tom Wells creates an unforgettable picture of Daniel Ellsberg, an American Everyman for the seventies who embodied the promise and paranoia of that uncertain time. This is a thrilling piece of biography that will stand as one of the great American portraits.

Recenzje

Praise for Wells's previous book, The War Within:

'An invaluable record of an unforgettable American calamity...The War Within deserves to be read and pondered for the lessons it provides about the surprising power of ordinary citizens to make and break wars and Presidents.' - The New York Times

'By releasing the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times, the enigmatic Daniel Ellsberg forever etched his name in the annals of American History. But until Tom Wells wrote Wild Man, the strange and twisted life of Ellsberg was largely unknown. Now, in this brilliantly researched biography, we finally understand the demons that drove the eccentric Ellsberg to perform a daring act of patriotism aimed at extracting the United States from the Vietnam War.' - Douglas Brinkley, Director of the Eisenhower Centre and Professor of History at the University of New Orleans, USA

'Tom Wells has written a fascinating biography about the bizarre career of Daniel Ellsberg before he became famous as the man who turned the Pentagon Papers over to the New York Times. He has also retold, in breathtaking prose, portions of the dastardly and inept deeds of the 'Plumbers' unit within the White House for a generation of Americans who have long since forgotten (if they ever knew of) Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers. Ellsberg may not be happy with this revealing account of his life and career, but Wells's biography will save him from becoming a mere footnote to history. As a fanatic hawk turned fanatic dove, Ellsberg's lasting claim to fame rests not so much on the secret RAND report that he leaked to the press, but on the Nixon White House's mishandling of this leak which transformed the 'Plumbers' into burglars. Discovery of their break-in at the office Ellsberg's psychiatrist resulted in a mistrial of government charges against Ellsberg for releasing classified information. This first 'black-bag' job of the 'Plumbers' set the stage for the other illegal activities of the administration which Nixon Attorney General John Mitchell later called the 'Watergate horrors.'' - Joan Hoff, James Pinckney Harrison Professor of History, College of William and Mary, USA; author of Nixon Reconsidered

'Fascinating investigation...recommended.' - Library Journal

'He probes Ellsberg's mind circumspectly, without overreaching and with fruitful results...Wells is a fair and perceptive chronicler of the life of this sometimes inspirational, sometimes maddening, always fascinating figure.' - Washington Post Book World

'Tom Wells has done the nearly impossible in his comprehensive biography of Dan Ellsberg - captured the enigmatic and erratic brilliance of a gung-ho war-lover who sought the opportunity to 'kill Communists' in Vietnam,then risked prison to give the Pentagon Papers to the press in the single most effective blow of the anti-war effort he once had scorned.' - Tom Wicker, formerly of the New York Times

Spis treści

Preface Prologue: Break-in Loner Outsider Liberated Soldier and Theorist Supergenius Rejection Damaged Goods Death Wish Wild Man Friend or Country? 'We're All War Criminals' Battle Mode Boomerang On Stage Outcast

O autorze

TOM WELLS is the author of The War Within: America's Battle with Vietnam. He lives in Boulder, Colorado, USA.