Kai Vilmi: creative directions

Daniel Ellsberg, Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers (2002)

Even in 1971, most people did not read what was in the Pentagon Papers. As Senator Fulbright said to Ellsberg: “After all, they’re only history.” The public was far more interested in the business of the leaks, in the Mafia-like quality of the Nixon White House, and in the resignation of a President facing the certainty of impeachment. If there was anything American militarists learned from the Vietnam War it was the need — and the way — to control and manipulate the news. The extent to which they have now become masters of damage control is evident when you consider the fact that US troops killed as many innocent bystanders in Afghanistan as New York office workers were killed on the morning of 11 September 2001. A future Watergate remains a possibility: there won’t, however, be another case like the Pentagon Papers.

— Chalmers Johnson, “Who’s in charge?” London Review of Books, Vol. 25, No. 3 (6 February 2003).

Not so long ago, a Scranton coal tycoon employed a chef named Napoleon whose roasts and sauces were famous for miles around. The president of a nearby university borrowed him one day to cook an important dinner, and Napoleon proudly set forth to fill the engagement, his trusty carving knives wrapped in a piece of old newspaper.

He just did catch his bus, and, breathing heavily, instructed the driver, “Step on the gas, mister. The president is waiting for me.” The driver looked warily at the carving knives, nodded, “You’re the boss,” and drove him straight to a lunatic asylum.

Thinking this must be the university, the cook unwrapped his knives and announced to the guard at the gate, “I’m Napoleon. Where’s the party?” Next thing Napoleon knew he was in a padded cell.

University officials — plus his employer — rescued Napoleon some eight hours later.

More of the same…