Re: Lying About Vietnam (and lying about economics)

[Michael Pugliese <debsian@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

   See the new bio by Tom Wells on Ellsberg.Looks great. Wells, also wrote,
"The War At Home, " UC Press, on the anti-Vietnam War mvmnt.
Michael Pugliese

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Walker" <timework@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, June 29, 2001 8:37 AM
>Subject: [PEN-L:14380] Lying About Vietnam (and lying about economics)


> Daniel Ellsberg is also author of the 1961 article, "Risk, ambiguity and
the
> Savage axioms" published in the _Quarterly Journal of Economics_. That
> article makes it quite clear why and when it doesn't make sense to treat
> *uncertainty* as if it was probabilistic risk, something that economic
> modelers persist on doing anyway.
>
> June 29, 2001
>
> Lying About Vietnam
>
> By DANIEL ELLSBERG
>
> The Pentagon Papers, published 30 years ago this month, proved that the
> government had long lied to the country. Indeed, the papers revealed a
> policy of concealment and quite deliberate deception from the Truman
> administration onward.
>
> A generation of presidents, believing that the course they were following
> was in the best interests of the country, nevertheless chose to conceal
from
> Congress and the public what the real policy was, what alternatives were
> being pressed on them from within the government, and the pessimistic
> predictions they were receiving about the prospects of their chosen
course.
>
> Why the lies and concealment? And why, starting in 1969, did I risk prison
> to reveal the documentary record? I can give a definite answer to the
second
> question: I believed that the pattern of secret threats and escalation
> needed to be exposed because it was being repeated under a new president.
. .
>
> http://partners.nytimes.com/2001/06/29/opinion/29ELLS.html?todaysheadlines
> Tom Walker
> Bowen Island, BC
> 604 947 2213
>