Pentagon Papers - 1945 to 1967 - Political Scandals

Books to Browse

Papers on the war by Daniel Ellsberg

Secrets: a memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers by Daniel Ellsberg

The papers & the papers: an account of the legal and political battle over the Pentagon Papers by Sanford J. Ungar

Most dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the secret history of the Vietnam War by Steve Sheinkin

The Pentagon Papers as published by the new york times

The Pentagon Papers: the secret history of the Vietnam War: as published by the New York Times by Neil Sheehan

Government Documents

Pentagon Papers
"The Pentagon Papers, officially titled 'Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force', was commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in 1967. In June of 1971, small portions of the report were leaked to the press and widely distributed. However, the publications of the report that resulted from these leaks were incomplete and suffered from many quality issues. On the 40th anniversary of the leak to the press, the National Archives, along with the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon Presidential Libraries, has released the complete report. There are 48 boxes and approximately 7,000 declassified pages. Approximately 34% of the report is available for the first time. What is unique about this, compared to other versions, is that: The complete report is now available with no redactions compared to previous releases. The report is presented as Leslie Gelb presented it to then Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford on January 15, 1969. All the supplemental back-documentation is included. In the Gravel Edition, 80% of the documents in Part V.B. were not included. This release includes the complete account of peace negotiations, significant portions of which were not previously available either in the House Armed Services Committee redacted copy of the report or in the Gravel Edition."

Newspaper Articles

Vietnam Archive: Pentagon Study Traces 3 Decades of Growing U. S. Involvement
The New York Times, June 13, 1971
Times is Criticized on Pentagon Papers
The New York Times, September 13, 1971
Pentagon Papers Become Evidence
The New York Times, January 24, 1973
Pentagon Papers Shown to Jurors
The New York Times, January 25, 1973
Defense Opens Its Case at the Pentagon Papers Trial
The New York Times, February 28, 1973
Pentagon Papers Ellsberg Gives His Reasons
The New York Times, April 22, 1973
Did the Pentagon Papers Change Anything?
The New York Times, June 23, 1991
After 40 Years, the Complete Pentagon Papers
The New York Times, June 7, 2011
The Pentagon Papers Team Tells How The Times Defied Censorship
The New York Times, January 20, 2018

More Resources

The Most Dangerous Man in America

Philip Zimbardo and Daniel Ellsberg in Conversation: "Psychology and the New Heroism"

Why The Pentagon Papers Still Matter Today

The Post

What Happened?

from History.com

What happened: "In 1967...a team of analysts working for the Department of Defense prepared a highly classified study of the U.S. political and military involvement in Vietnam from the end of World War II until the present day. Daniel Ellsberg, who had served as a U.S. Marine Corps officer... had been an early supporter... and had worked on the preparation of the 1967 study. By 1969, however, Ellsberg had come to believe that the war in Vietnam was unwinnable... Some of the most damning information in the Pentagon Papers indicate that the administration of John F. Kennedy had actively helped overthrow and assassinate South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem in 1963. The report also contradicted official U.S. government pronouncements about the intensive bombing of North Vietnam, which the report stated as having no real impact on the enemy’s will to fight. In 1971... Ellsberg gave portions of the report to Neil Sheehan, a reporter at The New York Times."

Why it was so scandalous: "These published portions revealed that the presidential administrations of Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson had all misled the public about the degree of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, from Truman’s decision to give military aid to France during its struggle against the communist-led Viet Minh to Johnson’s development of plans to escalate the war in Vietnam as early as 1964, even as he claimed the opposite during that year’s presidential election."

Political Scandals: Pentagon Papers - 1945 to 1967