Daniel Ellsberg

Daniel Ellsberg was an American activist and former military analyst who famously leaked the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times in 1971. In 1963, he was involved in high-level nuclear weapons issues as a deputy in the Pentagon's Office of International Strategic Affairs. He recalled seeing a "Top Secret, Eyes Only" memorandum from McGeorge Bundy to President John F. Kennedy summarizing a change in policy toward the French, indicating that the United States would cooperate with France and allow them to use the Nevada test site for underground testing. This memorandum was dated November 22, 1963, the day of Kennedy's assassination.¹

Following China's first nuclear bomb test in 1964, Ellsberg recalled similar talk at high levels in the Pentagon about taking out the Chinese nuclear capability, with the idea of using unmarked bombers to avoid identification. He noted that cooler heads prevailed, as the mission "just looked too big to be plausibly denied."¹