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May 25, 2021

Daniel Ellsberg Leaks Documents Showing U.S. Military Sought Nuclear Strike on China in 1958
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A top-secret study leaked to The New York Times by famed Pentagon Papers
whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg reveals the U.S. military pressed
then-President Dwight Eisenhower to prepare a nuclear first strike
against mainland China during the Taiwan Strait crisis of 1958. The
document shows U.S. military planners were ready to accept the risk that
the Soviet Union would launch its own nuclear retaliation on behalf of
its ally China and that millions of people would die. Daniel Ellsberg
told the Times he decided to disclose the document now due to rising
tensions between the United States and China over Taiwan.


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