I have spent several August days in Truro with the noted Canadian documentary filmmaker Paul Jay to explore the possibility of joining forces with him to develop his remarkable new film, How to Stop a Nuclear War. The film is based on the critical disclosures on nuclear history by the courageous whistleblower, Daniel Ellsberg, famed for his exposure of the Vietnam War in the Pentagon Papers. Many are recounted in his book The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner, with extensive new material gathered over forty-plus hours in interviews with Dan, which Paul conducted with him in the last few years (sadly Dan passed away in January 2023). I first met Dan when he participated in our Institute’s Covert Action and Democracy year, when he and historian George McHahan questioned former CIA director William Colby on the CIA’s counterinsurgency program in Indonesia, PEMESTA, and whether it presaged the CIA’s Phoenix program in Vietnam. Bill, subsequently wrote that he respected that he was treated fairly, without an ad hominem attack, but in debate over a careful rendering of facts. It is this balance that I seek in this curriculum.

This opportunity will touch on the enduring themes that have preoccupied me for decades — the mythology and legacies of the Cold War, the influence of the military-industrial complex, and questions of secrecy, ethics, policy, and the moral dimensions of both public decisions and personal responsibility.

(It’s extended trailer’s How to Stop a Nuclear War access code is stopnuke321)

Paul had explored EPIIC symposia that he believed “brought together science, ethics, and global security—most notably on nuclear proliferation,” and believed that “Our Nuclear Age" forums provided “a rare synthesis of educational innovation and real-world insight.”

Paul had learned about me from James Hershberg, the director of George Washington University’s Cold War Project. Jim had been my teaching assistant in EPIIC’s 1988 Covert Action and Democracy program. He was also Professor Martin “Marty” Sherwin’s TA, and we were both involved in the Space Bridge program with Moscow State University, focusing on nuclear issues.

I have accepted the role of the film’s Curricular Director and Academic Advisor. This has happily delayed my fiction plans. It has the potential to be a wonderful capstone, integrating much of my life’s intellectual interests and activism, enduring themes that have preoccupied me for decades — the mythology and historical legacies of the Cold War, the pervasive influence of the military-industrial complex on policy, and questions of secrecy, ethics, and the moral dimensions of both public decisions and personal responsibility.