Daniel Ellsberg, the whistleblower who released the secret Pentagon Papers to the media, will join UA professor Noam Chomsky in Tucson to discuss concerns about the possibility of a nuclear war.
Tickets for the University of Arizona College of Social and Behavioral Science event, βThe Haury Conversation: Daniel Ellsberg and Noam Chomsky Discuss Nuclear War,β will go on sale Tuesday, April 10, at 9 a.m.
The April 24 event, which starts at 7 p.m., is to be the first time the two longtime friends have shared a stage together.
The event is co-sponsored by the Agnese Nelms Haury Program in Environment and Social Justice, which helped fund Chomskyβs position at the UA.
βHearing Ellsberg, who has firsthand experience with the U.S. historical nuclear policy, and Chomsky, who has long called nuclear war humanityβs βexistential threat,β will make this an event not to be missed,β said John Paul Jones III, dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences.
Once described by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger as βthe worldβs most dangerous manβ for releasing the Pentagon Papers, Ellsberg authored βThe Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Plannerβ last year.
The Pentagon Papers were a secret report that Ellsberg, a military analyst, worked on concerning the United Statesβ involvement in the Vietnam War from 1945-1967. Ellsberg photocopied the report and in 1971 first gave it to The New York Times and later to the Washington Post and other newspapers. The Times and then the Post published stories on the report, and Ellsberg faced charges of espionage. Charges against him were eventually dismissed on grounds of governmental misconduct.
Ellsberg is currently a senior fellow of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Chomsky, considered the founder of modern linguistics, has published and lectured widely on U.S. foreign policy, Mideast politics, terrorism, democratic society and war. He was hired by the UA last year as a laureate professor.
Two years ago, Chomsky said in an interview he believes nuclear war is more likely now than even during the Cold War.
The discussion will be moderated by Betsy Reed, editor-in-chief of The Intercept. The parent company of The Intercept will livestream the discussion event for free.
Tickets, which are $25, can be found at chomsky.arizona.edu
The event will be at the Environment and Natural Resources 2 building, Room N120, on the UA campus.
Ellsberg will also make an appearance at The Loft Cinema on the following day, April 25, at 5 p.m. where he will discuss the Pentagon Papers and how their release has been portrayed in films.
Tickets for that event can be purchased at The Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway, or at loftcinema.org
