Fire and Rain: Nixon, Kissinger, and the Wars in Southeast Asia

by Carolyn Woods Eisenberg

But Daniel Ellsberg had a more specific question: had the administration prepared any estimates of the number of Indochinese dead and wounded, including civilians, that would result from another year of war? Could Kissinger provide them with some numbers? Recognizing the speaker, Kissinger halted for a moment and then replied, “That is a very clever question . . . I answer even if I don’t answer.” Ellsberg interrupted to say that he was not intending to be clever, he was simply asking a basic question: Did Kissinger have such an estimate? Kissinger suggested that Ellsberg was accusing the White House of a racist policy. Race wasn’t the issue, Ellsberg insisted; he just wanted to know “how many human beings we will kill under your policy.” This was indeed a “clever” question because the consultant already knew that the administration had no desire to know how many Indochinese people would be killed, especially if they were civilians. However, Kissinger could not simply say to this esteemed audience that they had no interest in gathering such data. He strategically deflected the issue, pressing Ellsberg to offer an alternative policy. The latter tartly replied, “I know the language of alternatives and options very well and it has nothing to do with the question. . . . Do you have an estimate or not?”