WASHINGTON — Daniel Ellsberg, who copied and leaked documents that revealed secret details of U.S. strategy in the Vietnam War, documents that became known as the Pentagon Papers, says he has terminal cancer and months to live.
Ellsberg, 91, posted on Facebook Thursday that, after CT and MRI scans, doctors diagnosed him Feb. 17 with inoperable pancreatic cancer, which is one of the deadliest cancers, and estimated that he has between three and six months to live.
Ellsberg said he has opted not to undergo chemotherapy and plans to accept hospice care when needed.
The Pentagon Papers provided intimate details of U.S. government decisions and strategies regarding the Vietnam War. They told how U.S. involvement was built up steadily by political leaders and top military brass who were overconfident about U.S. prospects and deceptive about the accomplishments against the North Vietnamese.
Ellsberg said in his Facebook post that he feels “lucky and grateful” for his life.
“When I copied the Pentagon Papers in 1969, I had every reason to think I would be spending the rest of my life behind bars. It was a fate I would gladly have accepted if it meant hastening the end of the Vietnam War, unlikely as that seemed (and was),” he wrote.
“Yet in the end that action — in ways I could not have foreseen, due to Nixon’s illegal responses — did have an impact on shortening the war,” he wrote.
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