‘The Most Dangerous Man in America’ Streaming on POV

In honor of the 40th anniversary of the release of the Pentagon Papers, POV streams The Most Dangerous Man in America 14 June.

Knowledge can be powerful, as noted by Daniel Ellsberg in Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith’s documentary. Remembering his first reading of the Pentagon Papers, he describes the stages of his response: “You feel great exhilaration as you’re getting all this amazing information that you didn’t even know existed,” he says, “And the next phase is you’ll feel like a fool for not having known that it existed, but that won’t last long. Very soon, you’ll come to believe that everyone else is foolish.” His decision to release the papers, of course, helped to change the course of the war in Vietnam. Now streaming on POV’s website, The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers tracks the complex process of his decision.

See PopMatters‘ review.