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Town Hall Seattle: Civics Series

Town Hall’s Civics series highlights everything from local policies to world politics. These events offer perspectives on a range of topics as diverse as Seattle itself—a bustling forum for activism, discovery, and thought-provoking discussion.

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Jan 15, 2018

With developing international discussions of nuclear conflict, it’s critical that we gather context for the policies and legacies of nuclear weapons. To help us gain perspective, we invited to the stage Daniel Ellsberg, former high level defense analyst and legendary whistle-blower who revealed the Pentagon Papers. In his book The Doomsday Machine Ellsberg offers us a first-hand account of America’s nuclear program in the 1960s, highlighting how our nation’s nuclear strategy has not fundamentally changed since the eras of late Eisenhower and early Kennedy. Ellsberg was joined in conversation with Daniel Bessner, professor of American Foreign Policy at the University of Washington’s Jackson School, to discuss the legacy of the most dangerous arms buildup in the history of civilization—and to analyze how its proposed renewal under the Trump administration threatens our very survival. 

In 1961 Daniel Ellsberg consulted for the Department of Defense and the White House and drafted Secretary Robert McNamara’s plans for nuclear war. A Senior Fellow of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Ellsberg is the author of Secrets and the subject of the Oscar-nominated documentary The Most Dangerous Man in America.

Daniel Bessner is the author of Democracy in Exile and co-editor of The Decisionist Imagination. He has published scholarly articles in several journals, including The Journal of the History of the Behavioral SciencesInternational SecurityThe Intellectual History Review, and others.

Presented by Physicians for Social Responsibility and Town Hall Seattle as part of the Civics series. Recorded live at University Temple Church by Town Hall Seattle on Tuesday, January 9, 2018.