Inside the RAND Corporation and Out (ii)
from Anthony Russo and Louise Kollenbaum in Ramparts
(Anthony Russo is a retired defense intellectual, formerly employed by the RAND Corporation. He and co-defendant Daniel Ellsberg together are facing a possible sentence of 150 years in prison on charges arising from the “leak” of the Pentagon Papers.—The Editors)
That’s a caption by the editors for the first 2 headshots of the author, explaining who he is. What is a defense intellectual? Can they retire? By 35? Am I being captious?
[I]
I grow up in a small Southern town and prepare for an imperial manhood amidst the rubble of slavery and the ruins of a colonial past; I become a helper at NASA and witness the death of Buck Rogers dreams. I seek greener pastures.
That is a legend. Not a photo caption. Anthony Russo advertises under those photographs by art director Louise Kollenbaum his first story in Ramparts, volume 10, number 10, April, 1972, pages 45-55, © 1971 (sic) by Noah’s Ark, Inc., with 7 legends.
[II]
I journey to cosmopolitan Princeton, study theory—and learn to love JFK. The world is a peculiar place and I decide it needs changing. I take on the liberal tone of my surroundings and become a fledgling defense intellectual. I envisage boring from within, and wind up in the belly of the whale.
Legend, from the gerundive of lego, legere, legi, lectum. I read, to read, I have read, it has been read, in the inflection which says you should read this but you won’t.
[III]
The belly of the whale turns out to be decorated in Holiday Inn Modern. I wander around in long corridors for several months, making a few friends and influencing nobody. I enhance my skills by reading from RAND’s top secret files. I find out about a classified study call the Vietcong Motivation and Morale Project. I practice corridor politics and by a stroke of luck I go to Saigon to interview the other side’s POW-MIAs.
Here be dragons is an ancient legend on maps meaning we don’t know what is there because no one has come back. We warned you.
[IV]
I learn about Charlie and his communism. I see the American war machinery grinding its way through the Vietnamese countryside. I see things I wasn’t prepared for and that I don’t like. I get a new view of the war and of RAND.
A legend in a narrative is a chapter summary. An abstract.
[V]
I meet one of General Lansdale’s right-hand men in Saigon reading a Lartéguy novel. I run into him again on Lavender Hill. I conduct my own Vietnam studies and get sacked for my pains.
Anthony’s recall Voltaire’s legends for the chapters of his Candide and those by Henry Fielding for Tom Jones, both stories about going out in the world and growing up.
[VI]
I do some thinking of my own about RAND. I visit the old place and find out that nothing has changed.
These are legends from the innocent himself.
[VII]
I leave RAND and set out to study my own country first hand. I walk the streets and meet diverse people not previously part of my culture. I tour colleges and share wine with denizens of the Bowery. The Pentagon Papers break all around me. I become an outlaw and a jailbird. They plan 150 years in prison for Dan and me, so we need help.
What did he learn? Tom Jones came into money and got married. Candide continues to speculate as he at last digs his own garden.
Without the help of Katherine [Anne] Barkley, my partner, this piece could not have been written.
They look happy.
Anthony [Joseph] Russo [Junior] is my favorite among the Pentagon paparazzi, those who pirated and published the papers on the war. Then comes Robert Ellsberg, the Catholic Worker author and editor. We published the first Viet Nam letter of 1 so far about his father Daniel on April 5, 2023.
This is the second of 2 letters so far about Tony. The first concerned Louise Kollenbaum’s design of his story, including the full-length portrait by Elihu Blotnik, on December 9, 2023.
Viet Nam letters respects the property of others under paragraph 107 of United States Code Title 17. If we asked for permission it wouldn’t be criticism. We explain our fair use at length in the letter of September 12, 2022.
The colophon of these Viet Nam letters, directly above, shows the janitor speaking with poet David A. Willson on a Veterans Day.