Daniel Ellsberg
A portrait by Diana Garland

AboutDaniel Ellsberg, the whistle blower

Daniel Ellsberg was born on April 7, 1931 in Chicago. He grew up in Michigan at Highland Park. An introverted child, he develops a passion for mathematics and piano. Daniel attended the Cranbrook School at Bloomfield Hills and then the prestigious Harvard University. He graduated in 1952. He wrote his thesis 'Theory of decision-making in uncertainty'. Later it was published in Economic Journal and American Economics Review. He studied economics in King's College at Cambridge University.

In 1954, Daniel joined the Marine Corps as an operations officer in the United States. . From 1964, he worked as a Military Analyst Consultant and became assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs. He was asked to develop strategic plans to aggravate the war in Vietnam. Plans that, he deeply hoped, will never see the light of day. In 1967, Robert Mcnamara, the Secretary of Defense, entrusted him with the top secret mission to work on the Pentagon Papers, aimed at determining the American decision about Vietnam. It shows a report of 7,000 pages. Daniel Ellsberg feels torn by his professional and personal conscience upon studying the Pentagon Papers, as they testify to the absolute horror and lies that justified the war in Vietnam.

No longer able to be the witness and complicit in these lies that fool the public opinion about the US government's involvement in the war in Vietnam, in 1971 Daniel Ellsberg made a decision that provoked a political controversy at national scale. Despite the risks involved, he discloses the entire US government decision-making process by publishing the Pentagon Papers in the New York Times -> content of this file: www.archives.gov/research/pentagon-papers
Daniel Ellsberg becomes the first whistleblower, risking his professional career and especially his freedom.

He received the Alternative Nobel Prize in 2006.
Aged 87, he won the 2018 Olof Palme Award for Human Rights on January 9, 2019.

AboutDiana Garland, the artist

Daniel Ellsberg was born on April 7, 1931 in Chicago. He grew up in Michigan at Highland Park. An introverted child, he develops a passion for mathematics and piano. Daniel attended the Cranbrook School at Bloomfield Hills and then the prestigious Harvard University. He graduated in 1952. He wrote his thesis 'Theory of decision-making in uncertainty'. Later it was published in Economic Journal and American Economics Review. He studied economics in King's College at Cambridge University.

In 1954, Daniel joined the Marine Corps as an operations officer in the United States. . From 1964, he worked as a Military Analyst Consultant and became assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs. He was asked to develop strategic plans to aggravate the war in Vietnam. Plans that, he deeply hoped, will never see the light of day. In 1967, Robert Mcnamara, the Secretary of Defense, entrusted him with the top secret mission to work on the Pentagon Papers, aimed at determining the American decision about Vietnam. It shows a report of 7,000 pages. Daniel Ellsberg feels torn by his professional and personal conscience upon studying the Pentagon Papers, as they testify to the absolute horror and lies that justified the war in Vietnam.

No longer able to be the witness and complicit in these lies that fool the public opinion about the US government's involvement in the war in Vietnam, in 1971 Daniel Ellsberg made a decision that provoked a political controversy at national scale. Despite the risks involved, he discloses the entire US government decision-making process by publishing the Pentagon Papers in the New York Times -> content of this file: www.archives.gov/research/pentagon-papers
Daniel Ellsberg becomes the first whistleblower, risking his professional career and especially his freedom.

He received the Alternative Nobel Prize in 2006.
Aged 87, he won the 2018 Olof Palme Award for Human Rights on January 9, 2019.

Behind the scenes

Daniel Ellsberg by Diana Garland



concept

(Street) artistsfrom all around the world
making portraits of variouswhistle blowers
to raise awareness about privacy and touch a wide audience

The projects

Discover the other portraits