DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR. Even as its priorities pivot, however, Pentagon leaders will continue to face a range of global threats and responsibilities. The meetings between Ellsberg and The Washington Post were dramatized in the Steven Spielberg film "The Post." After The New York Times began publishing the Pentagon Papers on Sunday, June 13, 1971, the nation was stunned. Army Capt. Stay informed about the latest scientific discoveries & breakthroughs. It was a comedy of errors that only two people wanted to correct and were fought tooth and nail, all the way. And these are experienced, high-level commanders. Yeah the above presentation is pretty much a massive pile of intellectual dishonesty. The story of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle is probably not the worst example of military misspending, and the limitations of a feature film require the script to condense its history rather too much. Reddit, Inc. 2023. There was no point in trying to say we've got to do it and threaten to quit because then if you - even if you won that, you'd win it leaving a - great scars and wounds in personal relationships. . Bob Odenkirk plays Bagdikian. You believed in the security clearances, right? This is a devastating security breach of the greatest magnitude of anything I've ever seen. But the experiences in Afghanistan also offer lessons for U.S. enemies, too. Yet the Pentagons boots-on-the-ground experience in Afghanistan will nonetheless leave a lasting imprint on military doctrine in ways that will continue to shape its leaders. But, you know, things that had pilots - jet fighters and bombers - there was no way to send them - to bring them back? The military decides to create a new troop carrier. Robert Furman stands in front of a plan for the Pentagon circa 1941. BRADLEE: No, I had no opponents in the newsroom. We could only read - each of us read sections of it. I'm Dave Davies, in for Terry Gross. By creating an account, you agree to the by Jim Burton. By Mandy Smithberger | - (Tomdispatch.com) - Call it a colossal victory for a Pentagon that hasn't won a war in this century, but not for the rest of us.Congress only recently passed and the president approved one of the largest Pentagon budgets ever. Supreme Court strikes down election theory. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, it's quite clever and amusing and keeps a good pace. This movie could have been good to watch on a big screen. Fascinatingly, the guys who really got this was the Russians. He points to hybrid warfare campaigns that include targeting the U.S. population with social media barrages in its efforts to disrupt U.S. elections. Until then, people who couldnt use stairs used long ramps to move between floors. The war for a good quality troopers-transport vehicle. I called up the editor of the Chicago Sun-Times, Jim Hoge, and said, I need to get a message to Edward Williams - Edward Bennett Williams in such and such a courthouse immediately. The ramps are still there, but the rumors of office chair races are greatly exaggerated. Clearly we've still got big ones. This message will appear once per week Did you make speeches about freedom of the press? And she was - it was a great decision. (Profanity.). Be that as it may I thought Kelsey Grammar ("General Partridge") and Cary Elwes ("LTC James Burton) performed in an excellent manner. For a while, there was a secret crash pad in the Pentagon. What did it take to get you to make that step? Coming up, we remember the great character actor Ned Beatty. The Pentagon Wars 1998 (R)Based on the true story of Air Force Col. James G. Burton (Elwes) whose mandate in the 1980s was to monitor weapons testing. You - what troubled you about the plan that you saw? GROSS: Now give me a sense of what your style was like when you were making your case to Katharine Graham and to the lawyers. It probably saved thousands of lives. If not a coup, then, at the very least, a systematic military effort to undermine America's civilian commanders in chief. When they are shooting the TOW missile at the Bradley full of sheep, the gunner says, "On the way," after which the order, "Fire," is given. i first saw this movie well before coming into the military, and while i found it very entertaining, didn't fully appreciate it. He was then 13. HAIG: Sure it is. Our work isn't possible without your support. Terms and Policies All rights reserved. You became famous for leaking the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times and other publications. As the last of the U.S. forces withdrew from Afghanistan and closed the books on the longest war in American history, the general consensus seemed to be that politicians won . But the Justice Department got an injunction against the paper, preventing it from publishing further excerpts. I do love the - that sense that you're dealing with important issues and that you're going to be fair and you're going honest (ph), but you're not going to back down. Very well written, acted, and direct. As an adaptation from Lt. Col. James G. Burton's 1993 book of the same name, 'The Pentaton Wars' dramatises the ludicrous time/money wasting going on in the many Pentagon weapons programmes during the cold war. you are agreeing to our, In Thailand, conservation drive and Indigenous traditions collide, Letter from Glasto: Kid packs, wilderness wipes, and Rocket Man. If had we been convicted of that - you cannot own television stations if you are a convicted felon, and that would have been a felony. And it's - there are no known device that you can erase a daily newspaper (ph). And we want to publish. Ellsberg then gave a copy of the classified report to The Washington Post, which started publishing its own series five days after the first article had appeared in the Times. I also enjoyed the performance of Viola Davis as the loyal sergeant, "SFC Fanning". They lied to Congress. I'm Dave Davies, and this is FRESH AIR. The reformers way would have led to an unsustainable explosion in personnel costs. no cushy job with a contract when you retire!" But actually, there were people even at a lower, as at a single base - you probably read an anecdote I had about Kunsan in Korea, in South Korea, the base possibly closer to communist territory of any of our bases in the world. DAVIES: So it was very clear that Nixon regarded you as a really dangerous man because, you know, he had information - you leaked these secrets, and there was information about his own internal thinking about Vietnam. NIXON: So what about the report? By what name was The Pentagon Wars (1998) officially released in Canada in English? DAVIES: You know, you - your trial ended when the government actions taken against you were exposed, and there was a - the charges were dropped. ELLSBERG: Pardon me. Life in any large organisation -- taken to the extremes that only the military can manage. Such developments are at the heart of the never agains of Afghanistan, he adds. So a larger cannon was added which caused it to be larger. Yet rather than admit these design flaws the decision was made to hurry up production as if getting the project approved was the ultimate symbol of success. And one of them was sort of a temporary city room where a bunch of reporters and a couple of news aides and a copy editor or two were actually reading the documents, making up their mind what story to run, what story could they get into shape to run that night. I'm Dave Davies, sitting in for Terry Gross. I mean, whoever - whatever department it came out of, fire the top guy. Indeed, it is a mist that appears for a little while and then disappears.When it comes to rectifying grievances and healing wounds, today is the day of salvation. I meant a lawyer. Again, it's closer to the truth than many people realize. The wars the Pentagon wants to fight are always rapid, high-intensity, and decisive, says retired Lt. Col. John Nagl, who helped to write the Armys counterinsurgency field manual and is now a visiting professor of national security at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. But what you found - I know that when you looked in the Pacific - is that these theater commanders had to be in communication with dozens and dozens of bases throughout the Pacific. The Pentagon Wars movie ends up missing the mark. This is what we want to do. That was the one time police came in and found my son running the Xerox machine. Fanning Burton's secretary and together they seek to carry out their orders. | Jun 3, 2004. The study came to be known as the Pentagon Papers. ELLSBERG: Without young men going to prison for nonviolent protest against the draft, men that I met on their way to prison, no Pentagon Papers. There's only one problem. This movie is about a war machine that the U.S government wants to somday send troops out into combat. Those were the years that we all believed in RAND and in the Air Force that there was a missile gap in favor of the Russians and that a Russian surprise attack was a real possibility. the Terms and Policies, and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes. No hidden fees. Major Sayers: The Brits did a study on aluminum. Were run by a church, but were not only for church members and were not about converting people. A book that does much to explain quirks of foreign policy, providing a military context for themand one that makes one wonder who's really in charge. We want to bridge divides to reach everyone. And you tell us at the beginning of this book that you copied not just the Vietnam study, but a lot of other material from your staff at the RAND Corporation about U.S. nuclear war plans. Then we - for about eight hours we read and then had a news conference and decided what we could publish. Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Hosted by Defense Media Activity - WEB.mil. Partridge: Kelsey Grammer. Construction finished on Jan. 15, 1943, just 16months after it started. PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON: OK. They call it the Bradley Fighting unit. (932) 1 h 43 min 1998 R. An honest Air Force officer tries to expose a case of government spending gone mad in this satirical comedy. Examining the voluminous paperwork on the Bradley, he reads that it has been in development since 1968, during which time it has gone from an economical troop transport vehicle to a monster designed to And they lied to the public. The Pentagon was the first desegregated building in Virginia. So when the design was finally established certain generals decided they wanted the Bradley Armored Personnel Carrier to be able to do additional missions as well. I'm not the only one who's called it the worst plan in human history. You examined it. Cary Elwes, who sounds like a cross between Martin Sheen and Richard Dreyfus, is pretty good as the earnest innocent, and Kelsey Grammar is superb as his immediate boss, blustering and puffed up and brimming with admiration for ex-military comrades who have gone into the private sector and make enough money to "buy and sell us ten times over." BRADLEE: That's a good question, too, because, you know, in the last - it was 7,000 pages, although we only had 4,000 of them. And it must have been hard for you to take the step of taking this top secret document and making it public. And the 689,000 tons of sand and gravel used to make the buildings reinforced concrete including 41,000 concrete pilings came from the nearby Potomac River. Latest book reviews, author interviews, and reading trends. In this film Director Richard Benjamin takes a realistic look at the brainless system by which the Military waste's taxpayer's money. Streaming: Not only does it portray the stress between the pentagon and congress as the troop carrier gets turns in to an amphibious, tank, antiaircraft, scoot (read slow moving target with troops in it). The humor in THE PENTAGON WARS, which like many HBO productions is adult in the best sense of the word, mitigates a bitter pill, but that bitterness leaves an aftertaste. BRADLEE: Well, he wasn't a judge. BEN BRADLEE: Failure to publish after The New York Times had published would have relegated The Post to a status of a kind of a pro-government establishment organization which didn't want to take on the government, didn't want to fight for its constitutional rights. GROSS: Do you thrive on making these complicated decisions or were these, like, Maalox moments for you? I think that's true not only of me. But it didn't take him long to figure out - well, for us all to figure out. The military bureaucracy takes it on the chin in this comedy, made for HBO and based on the true story of an Army weapons project that spent a . Copyright 2021 NPR. But at that time, you were - you respected all of the high-level security clearances that you had. Builders broke ground for the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 1941, exactly 60 years before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks . Meanwhile, Richard Benjamin's concise little drama mit schlag shows range of Kelsey Grammer, who is as terrifying a monster here in General's role as you will ever wish to see. You took action to disclose government secrets then that you felt the American public needed to know. Sign in to rate and Watchlist for personalized recommendations. The biggest story covered under Bradlee's watch was Watergate, which forced the resignation of President Nixon. Now reviewing it : I'm Brazilian and knowing how politics works down here it's very believable whats happening on screen. To pick up the story, let's listen to an excerpt of an interview Terry did with Ben Bradlee, who, with Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham, made the decision to publish the Pentagon Papers. An update on major political events, candidates, and parties twice a week. ELLSBERG: Not at all. The vehicle started off from a simple design but, due to Army meddling and Committee-Think, it has morphed into something different, something potentially sub-optimal. We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. Clearly i'm not up to date on civic problems. Richard Benjamin directed. I was vaguely familiar with the facts behind the story, but I intend to read Mr. Burton's book now. So it was to deter it so that no war would occur. I slipped out a couple at a time. In short, this is a really good film that I highly recommend for anyone who has ever served or cares to see what goes on behind closed doors. No one ever read the Pentagon Papers. A weekly update on music, movies, cultural trends, and education solutions. Mike Lien/The New York Times. The trio of Quavo and Takeoff (uncle and nephew), along with their childhood friend Offset, shared a bloodlike bond, having been raised by Quavo's mother, Edna Marshall.The challenges of the industry solo ambitions and tangled relationships fractured the link between frontman Quavo and Offset. Groves later said of his time at the Pentagon that he was hoping to get to a war theater so I could find a little peace. Instead, he was assigned to direct the Manhattan Project Americas effort to build an atomic bomb. No cable box. Theos Historical/ real event films & episodes. And the women in this film keep it down to earth. And while politicians may shy away from counterinsurgency for a time, the awareness of the importance of winning over civilians in whats known as population-centric warfare is likely to stay with military leadership. Your session to The Christian And working on trying to avoid a nuclear attack by the Soviet Union, so nothing in the world seemed as important. Explain what the RAND Corporation was and what kind of work you did. ELLSBERG: Well, twice in that office, which was a small advertising office owned by a friend of a friend, really. And I'm wondering what your attitude is today towards classified information and how you regard the actions of, you know, Chelsea Manning, say, and Edward Snowden. Story of a cover up in the military. The Pentagon Wars is a 1998 HBO military comedy film directed by Richard Benjamin It's cable reimagined No DVR space limits. Is this really how our tax dollars are wasted? The nuclear information, I thought then and now, was actually more important. Twice during that period, police came to the door because she had turned the key the wrong way and set off the burglar alarm. GROSS: I mean a lawyer. goal of the organization often takes a back seat to the needs of its members. The New York Times had already published several installments. Colonel James Burton (Cary Elwes) knows this and he delivers a speech to the test-company that must make a demonstration of the Bradley troop transporter. The movie is a running commentary about how things really go on behind doors. Coming up, we'll hear about how the Nixon administration attempted to stop The Washington Post from publishing the Pentagon Papers with an interview from our archives with Ben Bradlee. Col. Leslie Groves, an Army Corps of Engineer officer, took charge of the Pentagons construction in August 1941. Fifty years ago, Daniel Ellsberg leaked classified information about U.S. policy in Vietnam to the press. Viola Davis, plays Sgt. And the idea was to assure retaliation for that. That was very nice to hear because I'd never gotten feedback like that. The MPAA rated the film "R for Language." Filming. The builders were frugal with their materials. The Best Early Prime Day 2023 Deals Available Now, You can Stream Are You There, God? . HAIG: There are just a few copies of this. This film is a case in point. I love it. You can't recall missiles. Builders broke ground for the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 1941, exactly 60 years before the. Were known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspapers founding in 1908. RHYS: (As Daniel Ellsberg) Well, we were all former government guys, top clearance, all that, McNamara wanted academics to have the chance to examine what had happened. That's what the Pentagon makers - Pentagon Papers were about. So at that point, had there been what he thought was an attack - for example, an accident on some other base that he heard about or a crisis that was going on - he felt - he told me that he would send his planes off. In 1983, Air Force Lt. Col. James Burton (Cary Elwes) is assigned to oversee the testing of new military hardware at an Army testing post under Major General Partridge (Kelsey Grammer). Select stories from the Monitor that empower and uplift. We change lives. Then the Pentagon Papers were leaked to the Post. Crisply directed by Richard Benjamin, THE PENTAGON WARS delivers its best punches Richard Benjamin Directed an Entertaining FILM! By Rosa Brooks. And I shuttled between the two trying to make up my mind and learn the content and then trying to steer the conversation to the verdict I wanted. If demands on the military are to fund rockets and missile defense to help with an island-chain deterrent strategy in the Pacific, then thats where the money will go. A little footnote here, but once a go message was received at any level, there was no provision whatever for stopping that or rescinding it or bringing it back.
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