50 years ago today my father began taking volumes of the Top Secret history of the Vietnam War (the Pentagon Papers) from his safe at the RAND Corporation to photocopy on a friend’s xerox machine.
Conversation
He acted in the hope that revealing this history of lies might help end the war. He was particularly inspired by his reading of Gandhi about the power of Truth. He described his motivations for me, and shared the books he had been reading by Gandhi, Thoreau, M.L. King.
Later that week, at the Brentwood Country Mart, he asked me if I would help. Not that he needed my help (I was 13)—but he wanted me to see that there were times when one might be called to pay a price for the cause of peace. And this might be his legacy for me and my sister.
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Two years later the Papers appeared in the press. He was arrested and faced a possible 115 years in prison. To a reporter who asked if he wasn’t afraid of going to prison, he said, “Wouldn’t you go to prison if it would help end this war?”
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What did I learn? My father’s witness was inspired by others—especially young draft resisters. I learned the power of moral witness. It inspired me to spend my life telling the stories of saints, prophets, and witnesses. I learned that one lamp lights another.
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