![]() It made shockingly clear to him that the United States had never been on the side of democracy and self-determination in Vietnam. That radical conclusion was based, in part, on a close reading of the Pentagon Papers – a study McNamara had commissioned and which Ellsberg had helped compile. He came to see it not only as a mistaken intervention, but as an American war of aggression – unjust, immoral, even criminal. Over the next two years his criticism of the war went far deeper. There his focus shifted to the Vietnam War, which he viewed as a just cause.īut after spending two years in Vietnam, from 1965 to 1967, Ellsberg concluded the war was an unwinnable stalemate from which the United States should seek a face-saving exit. In 1964 he was one of the “whiz kids” recruited to work for Defense Secretary Robert McNamara. Once a fervent Cold Warrior, Ellsberg joined the Marine Corps in the mid-1950s, earned his doctorate in economics from Harvard and, starting in 1959, worked on nuclear war policies for the Rand Corp., a think tank funded mostly by the Air Force. UMass Amherst Libraries Special Collections & University ArchivesĮllsberg’s decision to release the Pentagon Papers was the result of his profound transformation from war planner to peace activist, one of the most dramatic conversion stories in American history. All were inspired by UMass’ recent acquisition of Ellsberg’s papers – a treasure trove of some 500 boxes of materials.ĭaniel Ellsberg spent two years in Vietnam. #Pentagon papers seriesYet the details of his story have faded, and many remain unknown, although Ellsberg himself, at 90, remains remarkably sharp and politically engaged.Ī series of events sponsored by the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where I teach history, and The GroundTruth Project, a nonprofit, grassroots news organization, is focusing new attention on Ellsberg’s life and legacy: a yearlong seminar, the creation of a website, a five-part series of podcasts, and a two-day online conference. Today, many people still know Ellsberg as a famous whistleblower. More than that, Nixon’s crimes against Ellsberg led directly to the Watergate scandal and the downfall of his presidency. Instead, Nixon ordered a punitive attack on both the press and Ellsberg – a massive overreaction that kept the Pentagon Papers in the news for two years. officials were privately pessimistic about that war even as they told the public and Congress that it was essential and successful. The Pentagon Papers might have slipped as quietly from the news as the 2019 exposure of the Afghanistan Papers, which, like their predecessors, revealed that U.S. For many people, the Pentagon Papers simply confirmed, in vast detail, a history of treachery they had long discerned or imagined. One poll, a month earlier, showed that 71% of Americans believed it had been a mistake, and a remarkable 58% thought it immoral. New York Times reporter Harrison Salisbury’s first thought: “My God, the story is a bust.”īut over the days and weeks ahead, the White House whipped itself into a frenzy of outrage and paranoia over the press and the “treasonous” leaker who released the classified documents: Daniel Ellsberg.Įllsberg’s significance, in 1971 and now, 50 years later, might have been a lot less had Nixon ignored the Pentagon Papers.Īfter all, even before they were published most Americans had already turned decisively against the Vietnam War. Later that day, when Defense Secretary Melvin Laird appeared on “Face the Nation,” he didn’t get a single question about it. A major scoop, indeed, but the public might have found it as yawn-worthy as the headline. That “archive” soon became known as the Pentagon Papers – 7,000 pages of top-secret documents that exposed more than two decades of war-related deceit by four presidential administrations. Involvement” – not exactly an electrifying headline. Then, to the right of the front-page photograph, was a story titled “ Vietnam Archive: Pentagon Study Traces 3 Decades of Growing U.S. When Richard Nixon picked up the Sunday New York Times on June 13, 1971, he must have lingered on the smiling image of himself escorting Tricia – his “ethereal blond daughter,” as the paper described her – to her wedding in the White House’s Rose Garden. ![]()
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