丹尼尔·艾尔斯伯格

丹尼尔·艾尔斯伯格 （英语：Daniel Ellsberg，1931年4月7日—2023年6月16日）是前美国军方分析师、海军陆战队退役军官，受雇于兰德公司，因1971年私自复制并向媒体提供五角大楼机密文件为世人所知。

生平

早年生平

丹尼尔·艾尔斯伯格1931年出生于芝加哥一户犹太人家庭，5岁时全家迁往斯普林菲尔德，后又迁往底特律，并就读于克兰布鲁克（Cranbrook）学校。其母曾一度希望他能成为钢琴家，但在其母1946年7月死于一场车祸后，艾尔斯伯格便告别钢琴生涯。车祸发生在艾尔斯伯格全家前往丹佛的路上，当时天气暑热，驾车的丹尼尔的父亲陷入瞌睡之中，将车开到了路沟里。坐在车另一侧的丹尼尔的母亲和姐妹在车祸中丧命，坐在驾驶座后的丹尼尔也昏迷数天才恢复意识。

1948年6月，艾尔斯伯格中学毕业，获得百事可乐公司提供的奖学金，进入哈佛大学学习经济，并于1952年获得学士学位。随后获得伍德罗·威尔逊奖学金，前往剑桥大学深造，一年后返回哈佛继续学习。1954年，他离开哈佛，为美国海军陆战队效力，最高官阶为陆战队中尉。1956年夏天艾尔斯伯格退役，返回哈佛大学，成为哈佛学会研究员，从事决策理论研究。1958年，加入兰德公司，并于次年成为全职雇员。1964年，艾尔斯伯格出任国防部国际安全事务助理部长约翰·麦克诺顿的特别助理，专注于核武开发与核武命令管制系统。

艾尔斯伯格在1962年在哈佛大学拿到经济学博士。他的论文研究于决策理论，发现人们在模糊与不确定性下做出的决策较缺乏一致性，即艾尔斯伯格悖论。1964年，艾尔斯伯格进入五角大厦工作。

Daniel Ellsberg (April 7, 1931 – June 16, 2023) was an American military analyst, whistleblower, and anti-war activist. While employed by the RAND Corporation, he precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released the Pentagon Papers – a top-secret Pentagon study of U.S. government decision-making regarding the Vietnam War – to The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other newspapers.

In January 1973, Ellsberg was charged under the Espionage Act of 1917 along with other charges of theft and conspiracy, carrying a maximum sentence of 115 years. As a result of governmental misconduct and illegal evidence-gathering (committed by the same people who were later involved in the Watergate scandal), along with his defense by attorney Leonard Boudin and Harvard Law School professor Charles Nesson, federal Judge William Matthew Byrne Jr. dismissed all charges against Ellsberg in May 1973.

Ellsberg was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 2006. He was also known for having formulated an important example in decision theory, the Ellsberg paradox; for his extensive studies on nuclear weapons and nuclear policy; and for voicing support for WikiLeaks, Chelsea Manning, and Edward Snowden. Ellsberg was awarded the 2018 Olof Palme Prize for his "profound humanism and exceptional moral courage". He was a founding member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. Ellsberg died of cancer in 2023.

Early life and career

Ellsberg was born in Chicago, Illinois, on April 7, 1931, the son of Harry and Adele (Charsky) Ellsberg. His parents were Ashkenazi Jews who had converted to Christian Science, and he was raised as a Christian Scientist. In 2008, Ellsberg told a journalist that his parents considered the family Jewish, "but not in religion."

Ellsberg grew up in Detroit, Michigan and attended the Cranbrook School in nearby Bloomfield Hills. His mother wanted him to be a concert pianist, but he stopped playing in July 1948, two years after both his mother and sister were killed when his father fell asleep at the wheel and crashed the family car into a bridge abutment.

Ellsberg entered Harvard College on a scholarship, graduating summa cum laude with an A.B. in economics in 1952. He studied at King's College, Cambridge, for a year through funding from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, initially for a diploma in economics, and then changed his credits toward a PhD in the subject, before returning to Harvard.

In 1954, Ellsberg enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and earned a commission. He served as a platoon leader and company commander in the 2nd Marine Division, and was discharged as a first lieutenant in 1957. He returned to Harvard as a Junior Fellow in the Society of Fellows for two years.

RAND Corporation and PhD

Ellsberg began working as a strategic analyst at the RAND Corporation for the summer of 1958 and then permanently in 1959. He concentrated on nuclear strategy, working with leading strategists such as Herman Kahn and challenging the existing plans of the United States National Security Council and Strategic Air Command.

Ellsberg completed a PhD in economics from Harvard in 1962. His dissertation on decision theory was based on a set of thought experiments that showed that decisions under conditions of uncertainty or ambiguity generally may not be consistent with well-defined subjective probabilities. Now known as the Ellsberg paradox, it formed the basis of a large literature that has developed since the 1980s, including approaches such as Choquet expected utility and info-gap decision theory.

Ellsberg worked in the Pentagon from August 1964 under Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara as special assistant to Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs John McNaughton. He then went to South Vietnam for two years, working for retired General Edward Lansdale as a member of the State Department.