Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers, discusses his new film “The Most Dangerous Man in America,” simulations that indicate nuclear war would be more destructive than previously thought, how the practice of killing civilians en masse in WWII became the premise of U.S. nuclear war planning, cancellation of the European missile defense shield and the staggering difference in destructive force between an H-bomb and every other weapon preceding it.

MP3 here. (53:13)

Daniel Ellsberg is the author of Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers and the article “U.S. Nuclear War Planning for a Hundred Holocausts.”

In 1959 Daniel Ellsberg worked as a strategic analyst at the RAND Corporation, and consultant to the Defense Department and the White House, specializing in problems of the command and control of nuclear weapons, nuclear war plans, and crisis decision-making. He joined the Defense Department in 1964 as Special Assistant to Assistant Secretary of Defense (International Security Affairs), John McNaughton, working on Vietnam. He transferred to the State Department in 1965 to serve two years at the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, evaluating pacification on the front lines.

On return to the RAND Corporation in 1967, he worked on the Top Secret McNamara study of U.S. Decision-making in Vietnam, 1945-68, which later came to be known as the Pentagon Papers. In 1969, he photocopied the 7,000 page study and gave it to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; in 1971 he gave it to the New York Times, the Washington Post and 17 other newspapers. His trial, on twelve felony counts posing a possible sentence of 115 years, was dismissed in 1973 on grounds of governmental misconduct against him, which led to the convictions of several White House aides and figured in the impeachment proceedings against President Nixon.

Daniel Ellsberg, author of the article “Hiroshima Day: America Has Been Asleep at the Wheel for 64 Years,” discusses the 64 year cover-up of the destructive power of nuclear weapons, how the A-bomb is a mere trigger for the 1000X stronger H-bomb, the massive loss of civilian life in the allied fire-bombing of German and Japanese cities, the U.S. president’s free hand to commit atrocities in wartime and the need for government whistleblowers to step up and prevent the next false pretext for war.

MP3 here. (28:42)

Daniel Ellsberg is the author of Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers. In 1959 he worked as a strategic analyst at the RAND Corporation, and consultant to the Defense Department and the White House, specializing in problems of the command and control of nuclear weapons, nuclear war plans, and crisis decision-making. He joined the Defense Department in 1964 as Special Assistant to Assistant Secretary of Defense (International Security Affairs), John McNaughton, working on Vietnam. He transferred to the State Department in 1965 to serve two years at the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, evaluating pacification on the front lines.

On return to the RAND Corporation in 1967, he worked on the Top Secret McNamara study of U.S. Decision-making in Vietnam, 1945-68, which later came to be known as the Pentagon Papers. In 1969, he photocopied the 7,000 page study and gave it to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; in 1971 he gave it to the New York Times, the Washington Post and 17 other newspapers. His trial, on twelve felony counts posing a possible sentence of 115 years, was dismissed in 1973 on grounds of governmental misconduct against him, which led to the convictions of several White House aides and figured in the impeachment proceedings against President Nixon.

Greg Mitchell, editor of Editor and Publisher, discusses the suppressed documentary color footage of Hiroshima and Nagasaki devastation, today’s casual threats to use nuclear weapons without a serious understanding of the consequences, the continuing disagreement over the need to use atomic weapons to quickly defeat Japan in WWII and the surprising cast of characters (MacArthur, Eisenhower, John Foster Dulles) who were against using the bomb.

MP3 here. (38:30)

Greg Mitchell is the author of Hiroshima in America, So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits–and the President–Failed on Iraq and Why Obama Won: The Making of a President 2008.

(Scott Horton is on vacation. This interview is from the Antiwar Radio archives and was originally broadcast on July 23, 2008)

Pat Buchanan, political analyst, columnist and author of Churchill, Hitler and the Unnecessary War: How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World, discusses the British politicians’ colossal blunders that led them into World War I and II and the collapse of their empire, the consequences of American intervention in WWI and imposition of the Versailles Treaty, Hitler’s motive to regain the lands lost in the east and willingness to forsake former German provinces in the west out of his desire to avoid war with England and France, what really happened at Munich, the folly of the British war guarantee to Poland during their dispute with Hitler over Danzig and the real lessons of the second World War.

MP3 here. (43:37)

Pat Buchanan is an American politician, author, syndicated columnist and broadcaster. Buchanan was a senior adviser to American presidents, Nixon, Ford and Reagan, and was an original host on CNN’s Crossfire. He sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1992 and 1996. He ran on the Reform Party ticket in the 2000 presidential election. He co-founded The American Conservative magazine and launched a foundation named The American Cause. He has been published in Human Events, National Review, The Nation and Rolling Stone. His new book is called Churchill, Hitler, and The Unnecessary War: How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World.

(Scott Horton is on vacation. This show is from the Antiwar Radio archives and was recorded on April. 16, 2005)

Jim Powell, senior fellow at the Cato Institute and author of Wilson’s War: How Woodrow Wilson’s Great Blunder Led to Hitler, Lenin, Stalin and World War II, explains that it was American intervention, not a lack thereof, that created the circumstances which led to the Second World War and the unbroken chain of U.S. intervention overseas from Woodrow Wilson’s breaking of the stalemate of 1917.

MP3 here. (39:20)

Jim Powell, senior fellow at the Cato Institute, is an expert in the history of liberty. He has lectured in England, Germany, Japan, Argentina and Brazil as well as at Harvard, Stanford and other universities across the United States. He has written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Esquire, Audacity/American Heritage and other publications.

He is the author of several books, including The Triumph of Liberty: A 2,000 Year History Told Through The Lives Of Freedom’s Greatest Champions (Free Press, 2000), FDR’s Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression (2003), Wilson’s War: How Woodrow Wilson’s Great Blunder Led To Hitler, Lenin, Stalin And World War II (2005) and Bully Boy: The Truth About Theodore Roosevelt’s Legacy (2006).

Robert Higgs, senior fellow at the Independent Institute and author of Depression, War and Cold War, discusses his thesis of “regime uncertainty” as a major factor of the Great Depression, the crash and recovery of 1921-22, the bubble created by the Fed in the later “roaring” twenties in order to prop up British interests, how World War II provided the certainty big business needed to start investing again – in arms, why the Cold War buildup was still cheap enough for the economy to continue under its weight, who really benefits from empire, who pays, the irrelevance of trade deficits, the roots of the financial crisis in Wall St.’s bogus financial models, congressional and Federal Reserve polices and the cartelized ratings business, the all-important intertwined policy of inflation and war, his view of the extent of the collapse and whether the empire will be dismantled, the danger of high price inflation, danger of nationalization, and why government regulation of the market is responsible for – not the solution to – its failures.

MP3 here. (1:16:17)

Robert Higgs is Senior Fellow in Political Economy for The Independent Institute and Editor of the Institute’s quarterly journal The Independent Review. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Johns Hopkins University, and he has taught at the University of Washington, Lafayette College, Seattle University, and the University of Economics, Prague. He has been a visiting scholar at Oxford University and Stanford University, and a fellow for the Hoover Institution and the National Science Foundation. Dr. Higgs is the editor of The Independent Institute books Opposing the Crusader State, The Challenge of Liberty, Re-Thinking Green, Hazardous to Our Health? and Arms, Politics, and the Economy, plus the volume Emergence of the Modern Political Economy.

His authored books include Neither Liberty Nor Safety, Depression, War, and Cold War, Politická ekonomie strachu (The Political Economy of Fear, in Czech), Resurgence of the Warfare State, Against Leviathan, The Transformation of the American Economy 1865-1914, Competition and Coercion, and Crisis and Leviathan. A contributor to numerous scholarly volumes, he is the author of more than 100 articles and reviews in academic journals.

Thomas E. Woods, senior fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute, discusses the evidence that contradicts Paul Krugman’s opinion that war is good for the economy, the renewed skepticism on the cause-and-effect relationship between WWII production and U.S. economic recovery, the stifling of private investment during the Depression due to erratic governmental interventions, the centrality of managerial intransigence to current Big-3 automaker woes and the debate on the benefits of a global division of labor.

MP3 here. (38:15)

Thomas E. Woods. is a senior fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute, co-editor with Murray Polner of We Who Dared to Say No to War: American Antiwar Writing from 1812 to Now, and author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History and Meltdown: A Free-market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and the Government Bailout Will Make Things Worse.

Jacob Hornberger, founder and president of the Future of Freedom Foundation, discusses Operation Keelhaul, the betrayal and repatriation of Russian hero Andrey Vlasov and his 50,000 men, how Roosevelt and Churchill’s demand of Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender prolonged the war and allowed the Soviet Union to conquer Eastern Europe, the similarities between FDR and the European fascists, the myth that the free market caused the Great Depression and the 20,000 American and 30,000 British POWs that Truman also let Stalin take to the Gulags to die. Watch the speeches from FFF’s Restoring the Republic conference here.

MP3 here. (48:03)

Jacob Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation. He was born and raised in Laredo, Texas, and received his B.A. in economics from Virginia Military Institute and his law degree from the University of Texas. He was a trial attorney for twelve years in Texas. He also was an adjunct professor at the University of Dallas, where he taught law and economics. In 1987, Mr. Hornberger left the practice of law to become director of programs at The Foundation for Economic Education in Irvington-on-Hudson, New York, publisher of The Freeman and Freedom Daily. Fluent in Spanish and conversant in Italian, he has delivered speeches and engaged in debates and discussions about free-market principles with groups all over the United States, as well as Canada, England, Europe, and Latin America, including Brazil, Cuba, Bolivia, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Argentina. He has also advanced freedom and free markets on talk-radio stations all across the country as well as on FOX New’s Neil Cavuto and Greta van Susteren shows. His editorials have appeared in the Washington Post, Charlotte Observer, La Prensa San Diego, El Nuevo Miami Herald, and many others, both in the United States and in Latin America. He is a co-editor or contributor to the eight books that have been published by the Foundation.

As part of Antiwar Radio’s week long series on the economic crisis in association with the Campaign for Liberty, Robert Higgs, senior fellow at the Independent Institute and author of Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government and Depression War and Cold War, discusses the relationship between the inflation of World War One, the roaring ‘20’s and the Great Depression, Fed chief Ben Strong’s deal with the Bank of England’s Montague Norman to inflate in the 1920s in order to help England and how this created the stock market bubble (and others) in the 20s, some of the ways that the near-totalitarian New Deal interventions of Wilsonian Republican Herbert Hoover and Wilsonian Democrat Franklin Roosevelt compounded and prolonged the depression, the myth that World War II ended the Great Depression, the Korean War and switch from World War to Cold War, the state’s scare tactics to strong-arm government growth, chaotic interventionism in the market and the status of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.

MP3 here. (43:37)

Robert Higgs is Senior Fellow in Political Economy for The Independent Institute and Editor of the Institute’s quarterly journal The Independent Review. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Johns Hopkins University, and he has taught at the University of Washington, Lafayette College, Seattle University, and the University of Economics, Prague. He has been a visiting scholar at Oxford University and Stanford University, and a fellow for the Hoover Institution and the National Science Foundation.

Dr. Higgs is the editor of The Independent Institute books Opposing the Crusader State, The Challenge of Liberty, Re-Thinking Green, Hazardous to Our Health? and Arms, Politics, and the Economy, plus the volume Emergence of the Modern Political Economy.

His authored books include Neither Liberty Nor Safety, Depression, War, and Cold War, Politická ekonomie strachu (The Political Economy of Fear, in Czech), Resurgence of the Warfare State, Against Leviathan, The Transformation of the American Economy 1865-1914, Competition and Coercion, and Crisis and Leviathan. A contributor to numerous scholarly volumes, he is the author of more than 100 articles and reviews in academic journals.

Lew Rockwell, president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, discusses Thomas Jefferson’s theory of inflationary money and the business cycle, the history of fiat money in America and around the world from Marco Polo’s adventures through Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Revolutionary War, 1812-14, Andrew Jackson’s battle with Biddle, Lincoln’s greenbacks, the Gilded Age, progressive era tyranny of Woodrow Wilson, passage of the Federal Reserve Act, the World Wars, Great Depression, Cold War, Terror War, the multi-trillion dollar bailout, end of the empire, and the heroic Ron Paul.

MP3 here. (57:33)

Lew Rockwell is the founder and President of the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, Vice President of the Center for Libertarian Studies in Burlingame, California, and publisher of the political Web site LewRockwell.com. He served as Ron Paul’s congressional chief of staff between 1978 and 1982. Check out his new podcast show here.