Celebrated whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, now age 90, used the occasion of the April 30-May 1 commemoration of the 50th anniversary of his release of the Pentagon Papers, organized by the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, to reveal that John Foster Dulles had proposed in 1958 that the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff recommend to the President that a nuclear exchange with China be launched in the Taiwan Straits, even though that would mean that Taiwan and its people would be wiped out, for the sole geopolitical purpose of maintaining the United States’s “position” in the world.“Let them try to jail me for disclosing this still-top secret fact today,” Ellsberg declared, adding that he was revealing the secret because, “I have no doubt whatever, that that discussion is going on in the Pentagon right now…. This is the month we have to be discussing the issue, in public, of whether we should go to nuclear war over Taiwan, or Ukraine, or Syria.” Citing the statement by the current Commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, Admiral Charles Richard, that the United States must be prepared to go to war with Russia and China, Ellsberg exclaimed: this is “asinine, criminally insane. War with Russia and China?” He emphasized that any armed conflict with Russia and China would bring a high risk of nuclear war, and if it goes to nuclear war, “we are talking about the near extinction of humanity. No, there should not be the slightest option, threat, or thought whatever of armed conflict with Russia and China, now or ever again,” he insisted. “We have to transcend that system, and that will not happen unless people in the government show the moral courage of Ed Snowden and Chelsea Manning … and let us know what these inside plans are. Without that, I think civilization will not survive the era of nuclear weapons.” Ellsberg disclosed that in the 1958 Taiwan Strait Crisis over the Quemoy and Matsu Islands, then-Secretary of State John Foster Dulles had asked a meeting of the Joint Chiefs to recommend use of nuclear weapons against China. Citing the still-classified section of the RAND Corporation study, “The 1958 Taiwan Straits Crisis, A Documented History,” Ellsberg quoted Dulles’s message to the meeting: “Nothing seems worth a world war … until you looked at the effect of not standing up to its challenge.” The RAND study explained that “the issue then was, would we, as the joint chiefs, recommend the use of nuclear weapons to defend Quemoy, and Matsu, and Taiwan, and possibly use seven- to ten-kiloton weapons with the expectation that … the Soviets would respond and would hit Taiwan.” “They were talking about destroying Taiwan, because their entire position in the world depended on it,” Ellsberg exclaimed—and that is the discussion going on in the Pentagon right now. The RAND Corporation has made public two-thirds of that history, written by then-Pentagon staffer Morton Halperin, but despite requests, the other third, from which Ellsberg quoted, is still classified as Top Secret. Ellsberg made his impassioned call at the very end of Amy Goodman’s interview of Ellsberg and Snowden during the “Truth, Dissent & the Legacy of Daniel Ellsberg: A 50th Anniversary Conference Commemorating the Release of the Pentagon Papers,” which can be see here.

In the latest revelation of how close the world has come to nuclear war, Daniel Ellsberg—of Pentagon Papers fame—revealed for the first time last week that the Joint Chiefs of Staff had prepared plans for nuclear war in 1958 during the Taiwan Straits Crisis, well aware that the outcome could be the total destruction of Taiwan itself. He warned that precisely such calculations were occurring today in the halls of power, pointing to the statement from the Commander of Strategic Command, Adm. Charles Richards, that nuclear war was a very real possibility. “This is the month we have to be discussing the issue, in public, of whether we should go to nuclear war over Taiwan, or Ukraine, or Syria.”Speaking to the power of individuals to change history, Ellsberg said that it is right to be a whistleblower “when lives are at stake” and that “If a high level official—it wouldn’t have to be a cabinet official, a deputy assistant secretary would be fine—had done what Snowden and the others did, there would have been no Iraq War in 1991. We would not have been in Afghanistan for 20 years of war. These catastrophes can be changed by individuals putting the truth out, and that can be very, very powerful.” Who will stand up today? Other potentially explosive situations exist, as the tense situation in Jerusalem shows. Removal of Palestinians from their neighborhoods, the clearing of the Al-Aqsa Mosque through the use of rubber bullets and tear gas within the holy building, rockets, and air strikes are building in intensity not seen for some years. Jordan’s Foreign Minister, speaking diplomatically in his meetings in Washington DC, was more direct in his remarks to the Arab League on Tuesday, where he warned that Israel is playing with fire. And the attacks on China and Russia continue, as they will continue until geopolitics is defeated, or nuclear war breaks out. Hypocritical attacks on China in the name of “human rights” ring hollower and hollower, but they repeat nonetheless. The ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline is being blamed on Russia with the same level of evidence (essentially zero) that was presented for attributing the SolarWinds hack to that nation. As the creative, most beautiful species, we inhabit a universe without limits. The beyond-stupid Malthusian dogma which states that population growth will unavoidably outstrip limited resources, recast in supposedly scientific form by the risible 1972 book Limits to Growth, and now serving as a religious-like axiom to “green” movements around the world, does not apply to any culture committed to scientific advancement, infrastructure development, improved powers of productivity, and advancing culture. Crushing war, sanctions and geopolitics, and establishing, around the world, platforms for health, energy, transport, water, education, and culture, will ensure that we can rise to new challenges, and make this planet—and others!—a habitation in keeping with the dignity of its inhabitants.

Daniel Ellsburg, who courageously released the Pentagon Papers 50 years ago, which exposed the lies of the military and intelligence community which led to the disastrous war in Vietnam, insisted that there be a public discussion NOW of whether we should risk a nuclear war over Taiwan, Ukraine or Syria. He reported on a RAND Corporation document -- still classified -- which reveals that John Foster Dulles favored a nuclear strike against China during the Taiwan crisis in 1958. Ellsburg called for whistleblowers to come forward today, to "Let us know what the inside plans are," so they can be countered before a new, devastating war can be unleashed.