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{{short description|U.S. defense report on 1945–1967 U.S. involvement in Vietnam}}
{{hatnote|Not to be confused with the [[Panama Papers]].}}
{{about|the U.S. government documents|the 2003 film about the documents|The Pentagon Papers (film){{!}}The Pentagon Papers (film)}}
{{italic title}}
{{Use American English|date=November 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2018}}
[[File:Dissident Activities in Indochina.svg|thumb|A November 1950 [[Central Intelligence Agency]] map of dissident activities in [[Indochina Wars|Indochina]], published as part of the ''Pentagon Papers'']]

The '''''Pentagon Papers''''', officially titled '''''Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force''''', is a [[United States Department of Defense]] history of the [[United States in the Vietnam War|United States' political and military involvement in Vietnam]] from 1945 to 1968. Released by [[Daniel Ellsberg]], who had worked on the study, it was made public on the front page of ''[[The New York Times]]'' in 1971.<ref name=upi1971yearinreview>{{cite news|title=The Pentagon Papers|publisher=[[United Press International|United Press International (UPI)]]|year=1971|url=http://www.upi.com/Audio/Year_in_Review/Events-of-1971/The-Pentagon-Papers/12295509436546-7/|access-date=2010-07-02|archive-date=July 29, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100729210439/http://www.upi.com/Audio/Year_in_Review/Events-of-1971/The-Pentagon-Papers/12295509436546-7|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Sheehan|first=Neil|author-link=Neil Sheehan|title=Vietnam Archive: Pentagon Study Traces 3 Decades of Growing U.S. Involvement|newspaper=The New York Times|date=1971-06-13|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/06/13/archives/vietnam-archive-pentagon-study-traces-3-decades-of-growing-u-s.html|access-date=2015-08-03|archive-date=January 27, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200127182108/https://www.nytimes.com/1971/06/13/archives/vietnam-archive-pentagon-study-traces-3-decades-of-growing-u-s.html|url-status=live}}</ref> A 1996 article in ''The New York Times'' said that the ''Pentagon Papers'' had demonstrated, among other things, that [[Lyndon B. Johnson's administration]] had "systematically lied, not only to the public but also to Congress".<ref>{{cite news|last=Apple|first=R.W.|author-link=R. W. Apple, Jr.|title=25 Years Later;Lessons From the Pentagon Papers|newspaper=The New York Times|date=1996-06-23|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/06/23/weekinreview/25-years-later-lessons-from-the-pentagon-papers.html|access-date=2013-10-23|archive-date=January 27, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200127182114/https://www.nytimes.com/1996/06/23/weekinreview/25-years-later-lessons-from-the-pentagon-papers.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

The ''Pentagon Papers'' revealed that the U.S. had secretly enlarged the scope of its actions in the [[Vietnam War]] with coastal raids on [[North Vietnam]] and [[United States Marine Corps|Marine Corps]] attacks—none of which were reported in the mainstream media. For his disclosure of the ''Pentagon Papers'', Ellsberg was initially charged with conspiracy, espionage, and theft of government property; these charges were later dismissed, after prosecutors investigating the [[Watergate scandal]] discovered that staff members in the [[Nixon White House]] had ordered the so-called [[White House Plumbers]] to engage in unlawful efforts to discredit Ellsberg.<ref>{{cite news|title=The Watergate Story|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/watergate/timeline.html|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|access-date=October 26, 2013|quote=Watergate prosecutors find a memo addressed to [[John Ehrlichman]] describing in detail the plans to burglarize the office of Pentagon Papers defendant Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist, ''The Post'' reports.|archive-date=October 16, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121016041446/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/watergate/timeline.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/11/may-11-1973-charges-dropped-against-pentagon-papers-leakers/ |title=Pentagon Papers Charges Are Dismissed; Judge Byrne Frees Ellsberg and Russo, Assails 'Improper Government Conduct' |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=May 11, 1973 |access-date=2018-11-04 |archive-date=February 20, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230220034056/https://archive.nytimes.com/learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/11/may-11-1973-charges-dropped-against-pentagon-papers-leakers/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

In June 2011, the documents forming the ''Pentagon Papers'' were declassified and publicly released.<ref name="historypentagon">{{cite web |title=Pentagon Papers |url=http://www.history.com/topics/pentagon-papers |publisher=[[History (U.S. TV channel)]] |access-date=October 26, 2013 |archive-date=October 29, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029190748/http://www.history.com/topics/pentagon-papers |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.npr.org/2011/06/13/137150344/after-40-years-pentagon-papers-declassified-in-full |title=After 40 Years, Pentagon Papers Declassified In Full |publisher=[[NPR]] |access-date=2018-11-04 |archive-date=January 27, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200127181725/https://www.npr.org/2011/06/13/137150344/after-40-years-pentagon-papers-declassified-in-full |url-status=live}}</ref>

== Contents ==
[[File:Ime Magazine Pentagon Papers.jpg|thumb|Shortly after their release in June 1971, the ''Pentagon Papers'' were featured on the cover of [[Time (magazine)|''Time'' magazine]] for revealing "The Secret War" of the United States in Vietnam.]]
[[United States Secretary of Defense|Secretary of Defense]] [[Robert McNamara]] created the Vietnam Study Task Force on June 17, 1967, for the purpose of writing an "encyclopedic history of the [[Vietnam War]]".<ref name="rmcn 280" /> McNamara claimed that he wanted to leave a written record for historians, to prevent policy errors in future administrations,<ref>{{harvnb|McNamara|1996|p=256}}</ref> although [[Leslie H. Gelb]], then director of Policy Planning at the Pentagon, has said that the notion that they were commissioned as a "cautionary tale" is a motive that McNamara only used in retrospect. McNamara told others, such as Secretary of State [[Dean Rusk]], that he only asked for a collection of documents rather than the studies he received.<ref name="Gelb1">{{cite podcast |last=Gladstone |first=Brooke |author-link=Brooke Gladstone |title=What the Press and "The Post" Missed |url=https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/what-post-missed-episode |website=[[On the Media]] |publisher=[[WNYC Studios]] |date=January 12, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190801024730/https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/what-post-missed-episode |archive-date=August 1, 2019}}</ref> Motives aside, McNamara did not inform either Rusk or President [[Lyndon Johnson]] about the study.<ref name="rmcn 280" /> One report claimed that McNamara had planned to give the work to his friend, [[Robert F. Kennedy]], who was seeking the [[Democratic Party (United States) presidential primaries, 1968|Democratic presidential nomination in 1968]].<ref name="correll200702" /><ref name="rmcn 282">{{harvnb|McNamara|1996|p=282}}</ref> McNamara later denied this, though he admitted that he ought to have informed Johnson and Rusk.<ref name="rmcn 282" />

Instead of using existing Defense Department historians, McNamara assigned his close aide and [[Assistant Secretary of Defense]] [[John McNaughton (government official)|John McNaughton]] to collect the papers.<ref name="rmcn 280">{{harvnb|McNamara|1996|p=280}}</ref> McNamara wanted the study done in three months.<ref name="Gelb 1991"/> McNaughton died in a [[Piedmont Airlines Flight 22|plane crash]] one month after work began in June 1967, but the project continued under the direction of Defense Department official Les Gelb.<ref name="rmcn 280" />

Thirty-six analysts—half of them active-duty military officers, the rest academics and civilian federal employees—worked on the study.<ref name="rmcn 280" /> They worked to produce 47 volumes answering a list of 100 questions that McNamara (via his secretaries) had sent them, which included questions such as "How confident can we be about body counts of the enemy? Were programs to pacify the Vietnamese countryside working? What was the basis of President Johnson's credibility gap? Was [[Ho Chi Minh]] an Asian [[Tito]]? Did the U.S. violate the [[1954 Geneva Conference|Geneva Accords]] on Indochina?"<ref name="Gelb 1991"/> Some of the analysts included Daniel Ellsberg, [[Morton Halperin]],<ref name="Gelb 1991">{{cite web |last=Gelb |first=Leslie H. |title=Remembering the genesis of the Pentagon Papers (originally in The New York Times, June 18, 1991) |website=Tampa Bay Times |date=October 13, 2005 |url=https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1991/06/18/remembering-the-genesis-of-the-pentagon-papers/ |access-date=June 27, 2023 |archive-date=June 27, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230627044350/https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1991/06/18/remembering-the-genesis-of-the-pentagon-papers/ |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Paul Warnke]],<ref name="Kaufman 2001">{{cite web |last=Kaufman |first=Michael T. |title=Paul C. Warnke, Johnson Pentagon Official Who Questioned Vietnam War, Dies |website=The New York Times |date=October 31, 2001 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/31/obituaries/paul-c-warnke-johnson-pentagon-official-who-questioned-vietnam.html |access-date=June 27, 2023 |archive-date=June 27, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230627044351/https://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/31/obituaries/paul-c-warnke-johnson-pentagon-official-who-questioned-vietnam.html |url-status=live}}</ref> future generals [[Paul F. Gorman]]<ref name="Guardia 2021">{{cite book |last=Guardia |first=Mike |title=Danger Forward |publisher=Magnum Books |date=2021-11-08 |isbn=978-0-9996443-8-6}}</ref> and [[John Galvin (general)|John Galvin]],<ref name="Prados Porter 2004">{{cite book |editor1-last=Prados |editor1-first=John |editor2-last=Porter |editor2-first=Margaret Pratt |title=Inside the Pentagon Papers |publisher=Modern War Studies (Paperback) |date=2004 |isbn=978-0-7006-1423-3 |page=}}</ref><ref name="Roberts 2015">{{cite web |last=Roberts |first=Sam |title=Gen. John Galvin, a NATO Supreme Allied Commander, Dies at 86 |website=The New York Times |date=October 1, 2015 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/01/us/gen-john-galvin-a-nato-supreme-allied-commander-dies-at-86.html |access-date=June 27, 2023 |archive-date=June 27, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230627044350/https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/01/us/gen-john-galvin-a-nato-supreme-allied-commander-dies-at-86.html |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Gelb 1991"/> historian Melvin Gurtov, economists Hans Heymann and Richard Moorstein, and future top diplomat [[Richard Holbrooke]], who drafted a volume.<ref name="Rogin 2010">{{cite web |last=Rogin |first=Josh |title=Holbrooke: I helped write the Pentagon Papers |website=Foreign Policy |date=July 29, 2010 |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2010/07/29/holbrooke-i-helped-write-the-pentagon-papers/ |access-date=June 26, 2023 |archive-date=June 26, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230626093059/https://foreignpolicy.com/2010/07/29/holbrooke-i-helped-write-the-pentagon-papers/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Gelb 1991"/><ref name="Sheehan on authors 1971">{{cite web |last=Sheehan |first=Neil |title=Most Authors Were Given A Promise of Anonymity |website=The New York Times |date=June 18, 1971 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/06/18/archives/most-authors-were-given-a-promise-of-anonymity-pledge-was-given.html |access-date=June 27, 2023 |archive-date=June 27, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230627085443/https://www.nytimes.com/1971/06/18/archives/most-authors-were-given-a-promise-of-anonymity-pledge-was-given.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

The analysts largely used existing files in the [[Office of the Secretary of Defense]]. To keep the study secret from others, including [[National Security Advisor (United States)|National Security Advisor]] [[Walt Rostow]], they conducted no interviews or consultations with the armed forces, with the White House, or with other federal agencies.<ref name="correll200702" /><ref name="Gelb 1991"/>

McNamara left the Defense Department in February 1968, and his successor [[Clark Clifford]] received the finished study on January 15, 1969, five days before [[Richard Nixon]]'s inauguration, although Clifford claimed he never read it. Gelb said in 1991 that he presented the study to McNamara in early 1969, when the latter was president of the [[World Bank]], but McNamara did not read it then, and as late as 2018 Gelb did not know if McNamara ever read the study later in his life.<ref name="Gelb1"/><ref name="Gelb 1991"/>

The study consisted of 3,000 pages of historical analysis and 4,000 pages of original government documents in 47 volumes, and was classified as "Top Secret – Sensitive". ("Sensitive" is not an [[Classified information in the United States|official security designation]]; it meant that access to the study should be controlled.) The task force published 15 copies; the think tank [[RAND Corporation]] received two of the copies from Gelb, Morton Halperin and Paul Warnke, with access granted if at least two of the three approved.<ref name="correll200702">{{cite magazine |last=Correll |first=John T. |url=http://www.airforcemag.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/2007/February%202007/0207pentagon.aspx |title=The Pentagon Papers |magazine=Air Force Magazine |date=February 2007 |access-date=2018-11-04 |archive-date=November 5, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191105020320/http://www.airforcemag.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/2007/February%25202007/0207pentagon.aspx |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Correll |first=John T. |url=http://www.airforcemag.com/MagazineArchive/Documents/2007/February%202007/0207pentagon.pdf |title=The Pentagon Papers |magazine=Air Force Magazine |date=February 2007 |access-date=2018-11-04 |archive-date=December 23, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181223053833/http://www.airforcemag.com/MagazineArchive/Documents/2007/February%202007/0207pentagon.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Organization and content of the documents ===
[[File:Rolling Thunder Route Package Organisation.gif |thumb|220x124px|right |alt=A map of North Vietnam divided into red areas for bombing strategy, as duplicated by the US Military Academy|[[Route Package]]s, areas of bombing over North Vietnam, for [[Operation Rolling Thunder]], mentioned in the Papers]]
The 47 volumes of the papers were organized as follows:<ref name="PP-index">{{cite report |author=Vietnam Task Force, Office of the Secretary of Defense |title=United States-Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967 (The Pentagon Papers), Index |url=https://nara-media-001.s3.amazonaws.com/arcmedia/research/pentagon-papers/Pentagon-Papers-Index.pdf |url-status=live |date=1969 |access-date=November 17, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220108025011/https://nara-media-001.s3.amazonaws.com/arcmedia/research/pentagon-papers/Pentagon-Papers-Index.pdf |archive-date=January 8, 2022}}</ref>

I. Vietnam and the U.S., 1940–1950 (1 Vol.)<br />
:A. U.S. Policy, 1940–50
:B. The Character and Power of the Viet Minh
:C. Ho Chi Minh: Asian Tito?

II. U.S. Involvement in the Franco–Viet Minh War, 1950–1954 (1 Vol.)<br />
:A. U.S., France and Vietnamese Nationalism
:B. Toward a Negotiated Settlement

III. The Geneva Accords (1 Vol.)<br />
:A. U.S. Military Planning and Diplomatic Maneuver
:B. Role and Obligations of State of Vietnam
:C. Viet Minh Position and Sino–Soviet Strategy
:D. The Intent of the Geneva Accords

IV. Evolution of the War (26 Vols.) <br />
:A. U.S. MAP for Diem: The Eisenhower Commitments, 1954–1960 (5 Vols.)
::1. NATO and SEATO: A Comparison
::2. Aid for France in Indochina, 1950–54
::3. U.S. and France's Withdrawal from Vietnam, 1954–56
::4. U.S. Training of Vietnamese National Army, 1954–59
::5. Origins of the Insurgency

:B. Counterinsurgency: The Kennedy Commitments, 1961–1963 (5 Vols.)
::1. The Kennedy Commitments and Programs, 1961
::2. Strategic Hamlet Program, 1961–63
::3. The Advisory Build-up, 1961–67
::4. Phased Withdrawal of U.S. Forces in Vietnam, 1962–64
::5. The Overthrow of Ngo Dinh Diem, May–Nov. 1963

:C. Direct Action: The Johnson Commitments, 1964–1968 (16 Vols.)
::1. U.S. Programs in South Vietnam, November 1963–April 1965: NSAM 273 – NSAM 288 – Honolulu
::2. Military Pressures Against NVN (3 Vols.)
:::a. February–June 1964
:::b. July–October 1964
:::c. November–December 1964
::3. Rolling Thunder Program Begins: January–June 1965
::4. Marine Combat Units Go to DaNang, March 1965
::5. Phase I in the Build-Up of U.S. Forces: March–July 1965
::6. U.S. Ground Strategy and Force Deployments: 1965–1967 (3 Vols.)
:::a. Volume I: Phase II, Program 3, Program 4
:::b. Volume II: Program 5
:::c. Volume III: Program 6
::7. Air War in the North: 1965–1968 (2 Vols)
:::a. Volume I
:::b. Volume II
::8. Re-emphasis on Pacification: 1965–1967
::9. U.S.–GVN Relations (2 Vols.)
:::a. Volume 1: December 1963 – June 1965
:::b. Volume 2: July 1965 – December 1967
::10. Statistical Survey of the War, North and South: 1965–1967

V. Justification of the War (11 Vols.) <br />
:A. Public Statements (2 Vols.)
::Volume I:  A – The Truman Administration
:::::B – The Eisenhower Administration
:::::C – The Kennedy Administration
::Volume II:  D – The Johnson Administration
:B. Internal Documents (9 Vols.)
::1. The Roosevelt Administration
::2. The Truman Administration: (2 Vols.)
:::a. Volume I: 1945–1949
:::b. Volume II: 1950–1952
::3. The Eisenhower Administration: (4 Vols.)
:::a. Volume I: 1953
:::b. Volume II: 1954–Geneva
:::c. Volume III: Geneva Accords – 15 March 1956
:::d. Volume IV: 1956 French Withdrawal – 1960
::4. The Kennedy Administration (2 Vols.)
:::Book I
:::Book II

VI. Settlement of the Conflict (6 Vols.) <br />
:A. Negotiations, 1965–67: The Public Record
:B. Negotiations, 1965–67: Announced Position Statements
:C. Histories of Contacts (4 Vols.)
::1. 1965–1966
::2. Polish Track
::3. Moscow–London Track
::4. 1967–1968

=== Actual objective of the Vietnam War: Containment of China ===
{{main|China containment policy}}
[[File:Containment of China.jpg|upright=1.5|thumb|As laid out by U.S. Secretary of Defense [[Robert McNamara]], the [[China containment policy|Chinese containment policy]] of the United States was a long-run strategic effort to surround [[Beijing]] with the [[Soviet Union|USSR]], its [[satellite state]]s, as well as:{{ordered list|type=lower-alpha
| The [[Japan]]–[[Korea]] front,
| The [[India]]–[[Pakistan]] front, and
| The [[Southeast Asia]] front}}]]

Although President Johnson stated that the aim of the Vietnam War was to secure an "independent, non-Communist [[South Vietnam]]", a January 1965 memorandum by Assistant Secretary of Defense John McNaughton stated that an underlying justification was "not to help friend, but to contain China".<ref name="cnnpentagonpapers">{{cite web|title=Cover Story: Pentagon Papers: The Secret War|url=http://edition.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/analysis/back.time/9606/28/index.shtml|publisher=[[CNN]]|date=June 28, 1971|access-date=October 26, 2013|archive-date=October 26, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131026125402/http://edition.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/analysis/back.time/9606/28/index.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/printout/0,8816,905234,00.html |title=The Nation: Pentagon Papers: The Secret War |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=June 28, 1971 |access-date=2018-11-04 |archive-date=August 21, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200821152706/http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/printout/0,8816,905234,00.html |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="mcnaughton">{{cite web |last=McNaughton |first=John |author-link=John McNaughton (government official) |date=January 27, 1965 |title=Draft Memorandum by J.T. McNaughton, "Observations About South Vietnam After Khanh's 'Re-Coup'" |url=https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon3/doc249.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110714130228/http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon3/doc249.htm |archive-date=July 14, 2011 |access-date=December 30, 2022}}</ref>

On November 3, 1965, Secretary of Defense McNamara sent a memorandum to Johnson, in which he explained the "major policy decisions with respect to our course of action in Vietnam". The memorandum begins by disclosing the rationale behind the bombing of North Vietnam in February 1965:

{{blockquote|The February decision to bomb North Vietnam and the July approval of Phase I deployments make sense only if they are in support of a long-run United States policy to contain [[China]].<ref name="mcnamarachina">{{cite web|last=Robert McNamara|author-link=Robert McNamara|title=Draft Memorandum From Secretary of Defense McNamara to President Johnson|url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v03/d189|publisher=[[Office of the Historian]]|date=November 3, 1965|access-date=June 14, 2017|archive-date=May 20, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170520215821/https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v03/d189|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

McNamara accused China of harboring [[imperialism|imperial]] aspirations like those of the [[German Empire]], [[Nazi Germany]], [[Empire of Japan|Imperial Japan]] and the [[Soviet Union]]. According to McNamara, the Chinese were conspiring to "organize all of Asia" against the United States:

{{blockquote|China—like Germany in 1917, like Germany in the West and Japan in the East in the late 30s, and like the USSR in 1947—looms as a major power threatening to undercut our importance and effectiveness in the world and, more remotely but more menacingly, to organize all of Asia against us.<ref name="mcnamarachina" />}}

To encircle the Chinese, the United States aimed to establish "three fronts" as part of a "long-run effort to contain China":

{{blockquote|There are three fronts to a long-run effort to contain China (realizing that the USSR "contains" China on the north and northwest):

(a) the Japan–Korea front;

(b) the India–Pakistan front; and

(c) the [[Southeast Asia]] front.<ref name="mcnamarachina" />}}

However, McNamara admitted that the [[China containment policy|containment of China]] would ultimately sacrifice a significant amount of America's time, money and lives.<ref name="mcnamarachina" />

=== Internal affairs of Vietnam ===
Years before the [[Gulf of Tonkin incident]] occurred on August 2, 1964, the U.S. government was indirectly involved in Vietnam's affairs by sending advisers or (military personnel) to train the South Vietnamese soldiers:
* Under President [[Harry S. Truman]], the U.S. government aided [[France]] and its associated [[State of Vietnam]] against the communist-led [[Viet Minh]] from 1950 during the [[First Indochina War]].<ref name="nytimespen1">{{cite news|last=Sheehan|first=Neil|author-link=Neil Sheehan|title=Vietnam Archive: Pentagon Study Traces 3 Decades of Growing U.S. Involvement|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/97/04/13/reviews/papers-overview.html|work=The New York Times|date=June 13, 1971|access-date=February 18, 2017|archive-date=February 16, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170216224808/http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/04/13/reviews/papers-overview.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
* Under President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]], the U.S. government played a "direct role in the ultimate breakdown of the [[Geneva Conference (1954)|Geneva settlement]]" in 1954 by supporting the fledgling South under the State of Vietnam (later becoming the [[Republic of Vietnam]]) and covertly undermining the communist country of the [[North Vietnam|North]].<ref name="nytimespen1" />
* Under President [[John F. Kennedy]], the U.S. government transformed its policy towards Vietnam from a limited "gamble" to a broad "commitment".<ref name="nytimespen1" />
* Under President Johnson, the U.S. government began waging covert military operations against communist North Vietnam in defense of South Vietnam.<ref name="nytimespen1" />

==== Role of the United States in the rise of President Diem ====
[[File:Ngo Dinh Diem at Washington - ARC 542189.jpg|thumb|right|U.S. President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] greets South Vietnam's President [[Ngo Dinh Diem]], whose rise to power was backed by the United States, according to the ''Pentagon Papers'']]

In a section of the ''Pentagon Papers'' titled "Kennedy Commitments and Programs", American commitment to South Vietnam was attributed to the "creation" of the country by the United States to prevent the spread of [[communism]] during the global [[Cold War]]. As acknowledged by the papers:

{{blockquote|We must note that South Vietnam (unlike any of the other countries in Southeast Asia) was essentially the creation of the United States.<ref name="nara1">{{cite web|title=Evolution of the War. Counterinsurgency: The Kennedy Commitments and Programs, 1961|url=http://media.nara.gov/research/pentagon-papers/Pentagon-Papers-Part-IV-B-1.pdf|publisher=[[National Archives and Records Administration]]|access-date=October 28, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130809120534/http://media.nara.gov/research/pentagon-papers/Pentagon-Papers-Part-IV-B-1.pdf|archive-date=August 9, 2013|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref>}}

In a sub-section titled "Special American Commitment to Vietnam", the papers emphasized once again the role played by the United States:

{{blockquote
|
* Without U.S. support [[Ngo Dinh Diem|[Ngo Dinh] Diem]] almost certainly could not have consolidated his hold on the South during 1955 and 1956.
* Without the threat of U.S. intervention, South Vietnam could not have refused to even discuss the elections called for in 1956 under the Geneva settlement without being immediately overrun by the Viet Minh armies.
* Without U.S. aid in the years following, the Diem regime certainly, and an independent South Vietnam almost as certainly, could not have survived.<ref name="nara1" />}}

More specifically, the United States sent US$28.4&nbsp;million worth of equipment and supplies to help the Diem regime strengthen its army. In addition, 32,000 men from [[South Vietnamese Regional Force|South Vietnam's Civil Guard]] were trained by the United States at a cost of US$12.7&nbsp;million. It was hoped that Diem's regime, after receiving a significant amount of U.S. assistance, would be able to withstand the [[Viet Cong]].<ref name="nara1" />

The papers identified General [[Edward Lansdale]], who served in the [[Office of Strategic Services]] (OSS) and worked for the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA), as a "key figure" in the establishment of Diem as the President of South Vietnam, and the backing of Diem's regime thereafter. As written by Lansdale in a 1961 memorandum: "We (the U.S.) must support Ngo Dinh Diem until another strong executive can replace him legally."<ref name="nara1" />

==== Role of the United States in the overthrow of Diem's regime ====
[[File:Corpse of Ngô Đình Diệm in the 1963 coup.jpg|The body of President Diệm after he was assassinated in the [[1963 South Vietnamese coup]], which was backed by the United States government|right|thumb]]
According to the ''Pentagon Papers'', the U.S. government played a key role in the [[1963 South Vietnamese coup]], in which Diem was assassinated. While maintaining "clandestine contact" with Vietnamese generals planning a coup, the U.S. cut off its aid to President Diem and openly supported a successor government in what the authors called an "essentially leaderless Vietnam":

{{blockquote|For the military [[coup d'etat]] against Ngo Dinh Diem, the U.S. must accept its full share of responsibility. Beginning in August 1963 we variously authorized, sanctioned and encouraged the coup efforts of the Vietnamese generals and offered full support for a successor government.

In October we cut off aid to Diem in a direct rebuff, giving a green light to the generals. We maintained clandestine contact with them throughout the planning and execution of the coup and sought to review their operational plans and proposed new government.

Thus, as the nine-year rule of Diem came to a bloody end, our complicity in his overthrow heightened our responsibilities and our commitment in an essentially leaderless Vietnam.<ref name="PP2-4-201">{{cite web |url=http://media.nara.gov/research/pentagon-papers/Pentagon-Papers-Part-IV-B-5.pdf |title=The Pentagon Papers, Vol. 2, Chapter 4, "The Overthrow of Ngo Dinh Diem, May–November, 1963" |publisher=[[National Archives and Records Administration]] |access-date=2013-10-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130809132314/http://media.nara.gov/research/pentagon-papers/Pentagon-Papers-Part-IV-B-5.pdf |archive-date=2013-08-09 |url-status=dead}}</ref>}}

As early as August 23, 1963, an unnamed U.S. representative had met with Vietnamese generals planning a coup against Diem.<ref name="PP2-4-201" /> According to ''The New York Times'', this U.S. representative was later identified to be CIA officer [[Lucien Conein]].<ref>{{cite news|author=Tim Weiner|title=Lucien Conein, 79, Legendary Cold War Spy|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/07/world/lucien-conein-79-legendary-cold-war-spy.html|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=June 7, 1998|quote=He ran agents behind the Iron Curtain in the early 1950s. He was the C.I.A.'s contact with friendly generals in Vietnam as the long war took shape there. He was the man through whom the United States gave the generals tacit approval as they planned the assassination of South Vietnam's President, Ngo Dinh Diem, in November 1963.|access-date=February 18, 2017|archive-date=August 1, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170801085721/http://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/07/world/lucien-conein-79-legendary-cold-war-spy.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Proposed operations ===
The [[Director of Central Intelligence]], [[John A. McCone]], proposed the following categories of military action:
* Category 1 – Air raids on major Viet Cong supply centers, conducted simultaneously by the [[Republic of Vietnam Air Force]] and the United States Air Force (codenamed [[Farm Gate (military operation)|Farmgate]])<ref name=statepentagon>{{cite web|last=John A. McCone|title=Probable Communist Reactions to Certain US or US-Sponsored Courses of Action in Vietnam and Laos|url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v01/d253|publisher=[[Office of the Historian]]|access-date=October 26, 2013|date=July 28, 1964|archive-date=October 29, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029191024/http://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v01/d253|url-status=live}}</ref>
* Category 2 – Cross-border raids on major Viet Cong supply centers, conducted by South Vietnamese units and US military advisers.<ref name=statepentagon />
* Category 3 – Limited air strikes on North Vietnamese targets by unmarked planes flown exclusively by non-US aircrews.<ref name=statepentagon />

However, McCone did not believe these military actions alone could lead to an escalation of the situation because the "fear of escalation would probably restrain the Communists".<ref name=statepentagon /> In a memorandum addressed to President Johnson on July 28, 1964, McCone explained:

{{blockquote|In response to the first or second categories of action, local Communist military forces in the areas of actual attack would react vigorously, but we believe that none of the Communist powers involved would respond with major military moves designed to change the nature of the conflict ...

Air strikes on North Vietnam itself (Category 3) would evoke sharper Communist reactions than air strikes confined to targets in Laos, but even in this case fear of escalation would probably restrain the Communists from a major military response ...<ref name=statepentagon />}}

Barely a month after the Gulf of Tonkin incident on August 2, 1964, National Security Advisor [[McGeorge Bundy]] warned that further provocations should not be undertaken until October, when the government of South Vietnam (GVN) would become fully prepared for a full-scale war against North Vietnam. In a memorandum addressed to President Johnson on September 8, 1964, Bundy wrote:

{{blockquote|The main further question is the extent to which we should add elements to the above actions that would tend deliberately to provoke a [[North Vietnam|DRV]] reaction, and consequent retaliation by us.

Examples of actions to be considered were running US naval patrols increasingly close to the North Vietnamese coast and/or {{sic}} associating them with [[Operation 34A|34A operations]].

We believe such deliberately provocative elements should not be added in the immediate future while the GVN is still struggling to its feet. By early October, however, we may recommend such actions depending on GVN progress and Communist reaction in the meantime, especially to US naval patrols.<ref>{{cite web|last=McGeorge Bundy|author-link=McGeorge Bundy|title=Courses of action for South Vietnam|url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v01/d342|publisher=[[Office of the Historian]]|access-date=October 26, 2013|date=September 8, 1964|archive-date=October 29, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029185036/http://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v01/d342|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

While maritime operations played a key role in the provocation of North Vietnam, U.S. military officials had initially proposed to fly a [[Lockheed U-2]] reconnaissance aircraft over the country, but this was to be replaced by other plans.<ref name="cnnpentagonpapers" />

==Leak==

=== Ellsberg meets Sheehan ===
Daniel Ellsberg knew the leaders of the task force well. He had worked as an aide to McNaughton from 1964 to 1965, had worked on the study for several months in 1967, and Gelb and Halperin approved his access to the work at RAND in 1969.{{r|correll200702}} Now opposing the war, Ellsberg and his friend [[Anthony Russo (whistleblower)|Anthony Russo]]<ref name="ellsberg20080807">{{cite web |url=http://www.antiwar.com/blog/2008/08/07/ellsberg-remembering-anthony-russo/ |title=Ellsberg: Remembering Anthony Russo |publisher=Antiwar.com |date=2008-08-07 |access-date=April 17, 2011 |last=Ellsberg |first=Daniel |archive-date=March 7, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110307102128/http://www.antiwar.com/blog/2008/08/07/ellsberg-remembering-anthony-russo/ |url-status=live}}</ref> photocopied the study in October 1969 intending to disclose it. Ellsberg approached Nixon's National Security Advisor [[Henry Kissinger]], Senators [[William Fulbright]] and [[George McGovern]], and others, but none were interested.<ref name="correll200702"/>

Ellsberg showed some of the documents privately to sympathetic policy experts [[Marcus Raskin]] and Ralph Stavins of the [[Institute for Policy Studies]].<ref name=wildmanreviewinreason>{{cite news |last=Young |first=Michael |title=The devil and Daniel Ellsberg: From archetype to anachronism (review of ''Wild Man: The Life and Times of Daniel Ellsberg'') |newspaper=[[Reason (magazine)|Reason]] |page=2 |date=June 2002 |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1568/is_2_34/ai_85701104 |access-date=July 2, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090830070005/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1568/is_2_34/ai_85701104/ |archive-date=August 30, 2009}}</ref><ref name="AP obituary 2023"/> They declined to publish the papers, but passed on some of them to, and recommended he seek ''The New York Times'' reporter [[Neil Sheehan]], whom Ellsberg had first met in Vietnam<ref name="Sanger Scott 2021"/> and was reintroduced to by Raskin and Stavins.<ref name="AP obituary 2023">{{cite web|last=Italie|first=Hillel|url=https://apnews.com/article/daniel-ellsberg-vietnam-war-pentagon-papers-12f57b417c372c1b8760a21d447cb502|title=Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked Pentagon Papers exposing Vietnam War secrets, dies at 92|publisher=Associated Press of New York|date=June 16, 2023|access-date=June 26, 2023|archive-date=June 29, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230629094906/https://apnews.com/article/daniel-ellsberg-vietnam-war-pentagon-papers-12f57b417c372c1b8760a21d447cb502|url-status=live}}</ref> After discussing them in February 1971, Ellsberg gave 43 of the volumes to Sheehan on March 2.<ref name="Chokshi 2017">{{cite web |title=Behind the Race to Publish the Top-Secret Pentagon Papers |last=Chokshi |first=Niraj |website=The New York Times |date=December 20, 2017 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/20/us/pentagon-papers-post.html |access-date=June 26, 2023 |archive-date=July 5, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230705164947/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/20/us/pentagon-papers-post.html |url-status=live}}</ref> 

=== Sheehan makes copies ===
Ellsberg had initially requested that Sheehan only take notes of the study in Ellsberg's apartment; Sheehan disobeyed, frantically copying them in numerous shops in the Boston area at the urging of and with help from his wife [[Susan Sheehan]], and flying with the copies to Washington, where he and an editor there worked in a hotel room at [[The Jefferson]] to organize and read them. Editors [[A. M. Rosenthal]] and [[James L. Greenfield]] had the copies delivered by mail first to Greenfield's apartment, then Greenfield and his wife drove them to multiple rooms at the [[New York Hilton Midtown]]. There, Sheehan, Rosenthal, Greenfield, deputy foreign editors Gerald Gold and [[Allan M. Siegal]], a team of three writers—[[Fox Butterfield]], [[Hedrick Smith]], and E. W. Kenworthy—and researcher Linda Amster worked around the clock to organize and summarize them for publication.<ref name="Scott 2021">{{cite web |title=How Neil Sheehan Got the Pentagon Papers |last=Scott |first=Janny |website=The New York Times |date=January 7, 2021 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/07/us/pentagon-papers-neil-sheehan.html |access-date=June 25, 2023 |archive-date=January 10, 2021 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20210110220739/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/07/us/pentagon-papers-neil-sheehan.html | url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Sanger Scott 2021"/> Sheehan would also give some copies to the ''Times'' Washington bureau chief [[Max Frankel]], who would then help shepherd the papers into print.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2025/03/23/max-frankel-new-york-times-dead/|title=Max Frankel, Pulitzer Prize winner who led New York Times, dies at 94|publisher=The Washington Post|date=March 23, 2025|accessdate=March 25, 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://magazine.columbia.edu/article/columbia-guide-pentagon-papers-case|title=The Columbia Guide to the Pentagon Papers Case|first=Paul|last=Hond|publisher=Columbia University|date=Spring–Summer 2021|accessdate=March 23, 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://archives.nypl.org/mss/17798|title=New York Times Company records. Max Frankel papers 1955-1995 [bulk 1976-1993]|publisher=New York Public Library|accessdate=March 23, 2025}}</ref> Before publication, ''The New York Times'' sought legal advice. The paper's regular outside counsel, [[Lord Day & Lord]], advised against publication,<ref name="correll200702"/> but in-house counsel [[James Goodale]] prevailed with his argument that the press had a [[First Amendment to the United States Constitution|First Amendment]] right to publish information significant to the people's understanding of their government's policy.<ref name="Sanger Scott 2021">{{cite web |last1=Sanger |first1=David E. |last2=Scott |first2=Janny |last3=Harlan |first3=Jennifer |last4=Gallagher |first4=Brian |title='We're Going to Publish': An Oral History of the Pentagon Papers |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/06/09/us/pentagon-papers-oral-history.html |website=The New York Times |date=June 9, 2021 |access-date=June 26, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210613071158/https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/06/09/us/pentagon-papers-oral-history.html |archive-date=June 13, 2021}}</ref>

[[File:USA-NYC-Hilton Hotel.jpg |thumb|220x124px|right |alt=A large skyscraper called the New York Hilton Midtown, in daylight in 2013|The [[New York Hilton Midtown]] (pictured in 2013), where ''Times'' reporters organized the Papers for publication in spring 1971]]

=== Start of publication ===
''The New York Times'' began publishing excerpts on June 13, 1971; the first article in the series was titled "Vietnam Archive: Pentagon Study Traces Three Decades of Growing US Involvement". The study was dubbed the Pentagon Papers during the resulting media publicity.<ref name="correll200702"/><ref>{{cite web|title=Introduction to the Court Opinion on The New York Times Co. v. United States Case|publisher=United States Department of State|url=http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/48.htm|access-date=2005-12-05|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051204121721/https://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/48.htm|archive-date=2005-12-04}}</ref> Street protests, political controversy, and lawsuits followed.

=== Entry into the ''Congressional Record'' ===
To ensure the possibility of public debate about the papers' content, on June 29, [[United States Senate|US Senator]] [[Mike Gravel]], an Alaska Democrat, entered 4,100 pages of the papers into the record of his Subcommittee on Public Buildings and Grounds. These portions of the papers, which were edited for Gravel by [[Howard Zinn]] and [[Noam Chomsky]], and given directly to Gravel by [[Ben Bagdikian]], the then national editor of ''[[The Washington Post]]'' in a June 26<ref name="wapo090907">{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/04/AR2007090401794.html?sid=ST2007101600688|title=Last|author=Leahy, Michael|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=September 9, 2007|access-date=June 26, 2023|author-link=Michael Leahy (author)|archive-date=March 4, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304214208/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/04/AR2007090401794.html?sid=ST2007101600688|url-status=live}}</ref> meeting in front of the [[Mayflower Hotel]] at midnight,<ref name="McFadden 2016"/><ref name="WaPo 2016"/><ref name="Democracy Now 2016"/><ref name="Democracy Now 2007"/><ref name="uu2001"/> were smuggled into Gravel's congressional office and guarded zealously by disabled Vietnam veterans beforehand,<ref name="Democracy Now 2007"/> and subsequently published by [[Beacon Press]], the publishing arm of the [[Unitarian Universalist Association]] of Congregations.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Pentagon Papers |edition=Senator Gravel|editor1-first=Noam |editor1-last=Chomsky |editor2-first=Howard |editor2-last=Zinn |publisher=Beacon Press|oclc=248181}}</ref> A federal [[grand jury]] was subsequently empaneled to investigate possible violations of federal law in the release of the report. Leonard Rodberg, a Gravel aide, was [[subpoena]]ed to testify about his role in obtaining and arranging for publication of the ''Pentagon Papers''. Gravel asked the court (in ''[[Gravel v. United States]]'') to quash the subpoena on the basis of the [[Speech or Debate Clause]] in [[Article One of the United States Constitution|Article I, Section 6]] of the [[United States Constitution]].

That clause provides that "for any Speech or Debate in either House, [a Senator or Representative] shall not be questioned in any other Place", meaning that Gravel could not be prosecuted for anything said on the Senate floor, and, by extension, for anything entered to the ''Congressional Record'', allowing the papers to be publicly read without threat of a [[treason]] trial and conviction. When Gravel's request was reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Court denied the request to extend this protection to Gravel or Rodberg because the grand jury subpoena served on them related to a third party rather than any act they themselves committed for the preparation of materials later entered into the Congressional Record. Nevertheless, the grand jury investigation was halted, and the publication of the papers was never prosecuted.

Later, Ellsberg said the documents "demonstrated unconstitutional behavior by a succession of presidents, the violation of their oath and the violation of the oath of every one of their subordinates."<ref name="Democracy Now 2007">{{cite web |url=https://www.democracynow.org/2007/7/2/how_the_pentagon_papers_came_to |title=How the ''Pentagon Papers'' Came to be Published by the Beacon Press: A Remarkable Story Told by Whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, Dem Presidential Candidate Mike Gravel and Unitarian Leader Robert West |work=[[Democracy Now!]] |date=July 2, 2007 |access-date=February 14, 2021 |archive-date=February 25, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225185112/https://www.democracynow.org/2007/7/2/how_the_pentagon_papers_came_to |url-status=live}}</ref> He added that he leaked the Papers to end what he perceived to be "a wrongful war";<ref name="Democracy Now 2007" /><ref name="Sanger Scott 2021"/> in an interview in 2015, Neil Sheehan described Ellsberg's state of mind at the time as "totally conflicted" between getting the Papers published and not wanting to go to prison.<ref name="Scott 2021"/>

=== The Nixon administration's restraint of the media ===
President Nixon at first planned to do nothing about publication of the study, since it embarrassed the Johnson and Kennedy administrations rather than his; however, Kissinger convinced the president that not opposing the publication set a negative precedent for future secrets.<ref name="correll200702"/> It has also been suggested that Kissinger's previous work with Ellsberg at Rand would damage his standing in Nixon's eyes and that he therefore sought to distance himself from Ellsberg, in addition Kissinger feared that Ellsberg could leak other defense secrets, including nuclear targeting.<ref name=Rand>{{cite book|last=Elliott|first=Mai|title=RAND in Southeast Asia: A History of the Vietnam War Era|publisher=The Rand Corporation|year=2010|isbn=9780833047540|url=https://www.rand.org/pubs/corporate_pubs/CP564.html|access-date=October 10, 2023|archive-date=September 1, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230901051619/https://www.rand.org/pubs/corporate_pubs/CP564.html|url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|475}} The administration argued Ellsberg and Russo were guilty of a [[felony]] under the [[Espionage Act of 1917]], because they had no authority to publish classified documents.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Pentagon Papers Case|url=http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB48/nixon.html|access-date=2005-12-05|publisher=National security Archives, George Washington University|archive-date=March 18, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110318192603/http://www.america.gov/st/democracyhr-english/2008/June/20080630215145eaifas0.6333842.html|url-status=live}}</ref> After failing to persuade ''The New York Times'' to voluntarily cease publication on June 14,<ref name="correll200702"/> [[United States Attorney General|Attorney General]] [[John N. Mitchell]] and Nixon obtained a federal court injunction forcing ''The New York Times'' to cease publication after three articles.<ref name="correll200702"/><ref>{{cite court|litigants=United States v. New York Times Co.|vol=328|reporter=F. Supp.|opinion=324|url=https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/328/324/1428158/|court=S.D.N.Y.|date=1971|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230611232613/https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/328/324/1428158/|url-status=live}}</ref> ''The New York Times'' publisher [[Arthur Ochs Sulzberger]] said:

{{blockquote|These papers, as our editorial said this morning, were really a part of history that should have been made available considerably longer ago. I just didn't feel there was any breach of national security, in the sense that we were giving secrets to the enemy.<ref name="upi.com"/>}}

The newspaper appealed the injunction, and the case ''[[New York Times Co. v. United States]]'' quickly rose through the U.S. legal system to the [[United States Supreme Court|Supreme Court]].<ref name="case">{{cite court|litigants=New York Times Co. v. United States|vol=403|reporter=U.S.|opinion=713|date=1971|url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=17571244799664973711|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230611233118/https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=17571244799664973711|url-status=live}}</ref>

On June 18, 1971, ''The Washington Post'' began publishing its own series of articles based upon the ''Pentagon Papers'';<ref name="correll200702"/> Ellsberg had given portions to ''The Washington Post'' reporter and former RAND Corporation colleague Ben Bagdikian in a Boston-area motel earlier that week.<ref name="Secrets Chapter 29"/> Bagdikian flew with the portions to Washington and physically presented them to executive editor [[Ben Bradlee]] at the latter's house in the [[Georgetown (Washington, D.C.)|Georgetown]] neighborhood; Bradlee set up a team of writers, lawyers and editors to hide out in his house and organize the portions.<ref name="NPR 1995">{{cite web |title=Former 'Post' Executive Editor Ben Bradlee in 1995 On Publishing The Pentagon Papers |last=Gross |first=Terry |publisher=NPR |date=October 9, 1995 |url=https://www.npr.org/2017/12/15/571098752/former-post-executive-editor-ben-bradlee-on-publishing-the-pentagon-papers | access-date=June 26, 2023}}</ref> Bagdikian later met with Mike Gravel in front of the Mayflower Hotel on June 26<ref name="wapo090907"/> to give him copies.<ref name="uu2001">{{cite news |url=http://www.uuworld.org/ideas/articles/6394.shtml |title=A courageous press confronts a deceptive government |author=Warren R. Ross |magazine=[[UU World]] |date=September–October 2001 |access-date=June 25, 2023 |archive-date=June 25, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230625082158/http://www.uuworld.org/ideas/articles/6394.shtml |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="McFadden 2016">{{cite news |last=McFadden |first=Robert D. |author-link=Robert D. McFadden |title=Ben H. Bagdikian, Reporter of Broad Range and Conscience, Dies at 96 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/12/business/media/ben-h-bagdikian-reporter-of-broad-range-and-conscience-dies-at-96.html?_r=1 |url-status=live |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=March 11, 2016 |access-date=June 25, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101233101/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/12/business/media/ben-h-bagdikian-reporter-of-broad-range-and-conscience-dies-at-96.html?_r=1 |archive-date=November 1, 2020}}</ref><ref name="WaPo 2016">{{cite news|last=Schudel|first=Matt|title=Ben H. Bagdikian, journalist with key role in Pentagon Papers case, dies at 96|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/ben-h-bagdikian-media-critic-and-journalist-with-key-role-in-pentagon-papers-case-dies-at-96/2016/03/11/9515bb8c-e7bb-11e5-bc08-3e03a5b41910_story.html|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=March 11, 2016|access-date=June 25, 2023|archive-date=November 2, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201102084138/https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/ben-h-bagdikian-media-critic-and-journalist-with-key-role-in-pentagon-papers-case-dies-at-96/2016/03/11/9515bb8c-e7bb-11e5-bc08-3e03a5b41910_story.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Democracy Now 2016">{{cite news|last=Goodman|first=Amy|author-link=Amy Goodman|title=Remembering Journalist & Media Critic Ben Bagdikian, Author of "The Media Monopoly"|url=https://www.democracynow.org/2016/3/16/remembering_journalist_media_critic_ben_bagdikian|work=[[Democracy Now!]]|date=March 16, 2016|access-date=June 25, 2023|archive-date=June 25, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230625071449/https://www.democracynow.org/2016/3/16/remembering_journalist_media_critic_ben_bagdikian|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Democracy Now 2007"/> On June 18, Assistant U.S. Attorney General [[William Rehnquist]] asked ''The Washington Post'' to cease publication. After the paper refused, Rehnquist sought an injunction in U.S. district court. Judge [[Murray Gurfein]] declined to issue such an injunction, writing that "[t]he security of the Nation is not at the ramparts alone. Security also lies in the value of our free institutions. A cantankerous press, an obstinate press, a ubiquitous press must be suffered by those in authority to preserve the even greater values of freedom of expression and the right of the people to know."<ref>''[[United States v. N.Y. Times Co.]]'', 328 F. Supp. 324, 331 (S.D.N.Y. 1971).</ref> The government appealed that decision, and on June 26 the Supreme Court agreed to hear it jointly with ''The New York Times'' case.<ref name="case"/> Fifteen other newspapers received copies of the study and began publishing it.<ref name="correll200702"/> According to Ellsberg in 2017 and 2021, 19 newspapers in total eventually drew on the ''Papers'' for their investigative work;<ref name="Vinciguerra 2017">{{cite web |last=Vinciguerra |first=Thomas |title=Hell hath no fury like The New York Times scorned by Hollywood |website=Columbia Journalism Review |date=May 1, 2017 |url=https://www.cjr.org/the_feature/tom-hanks-meryl-streep-new-york-times-washington-post.php |access-date=June 25, 2023 |archive-date=April 29, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210429050831/https://www.cjr.org/the_feature/tom-hanks-meryl-streep-new-york-times-washington-post.php |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Sanger Scott 2021"/> the ''Post''{{'s}} then court reporter [[Sanford J. Ungar]] wrote in his May 1972 book ''The Papers and The Papers'' that aside from the ''Times'' and the ''Post'', ''[[The Boston Globe]]'' and the ''[[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]]'' had also been brought to court by the Nixon administration over coverage of the ''Papers''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ungar |first=Sanford J. |author-link=Sanford J. Ungar |date=May 1, 1972 |title=The Papers and the Papers: An Account of the Legal and Political Battle Over the Pentagon Papers |location=New York, NY |publisher=E. P. Dutton |isbn=978-0525041559}}</ref>

=== The Supreme Court allows further publication ===
{{main|New York Times Co. v. United States}}
On June 30, 1971, the Supreme Court decided, 6–3, that the government failed to meet the heavy [[Legal burden of proof|burden of proof]] required for [[prior restraint]] injunction. The nine justices wrote nine opinions disagreeing on significant, substantive matters.

{{blockquote|Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell.|Justice Black<ref>{{cite web|title=New York Times Co. v. United States, 403 U.S. 713 (1971)|url=http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=403&invol=713|work=Findlaw|access-date=December 8, 2010|archive-date=July 10, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110710155545/http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=403&invol=713|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

Thomas Tedford and Dale Herbeck summarized the reaction of editors and journalists at the time:

{{blockquote|As the press rooms of the ''Times'' and the ''Post'' began to hum to the lifting of the censorship order, the journalists of America pondered with grave concern the fact that for fifteen days the 'free press' of the nation had been prevented from publishing an important document and for their troubles had been given an inconclusive and uninspiring 'burden-of-proof' decision by a sharply divided Supreme Court. There was relief, but no great rejoicing, in the editorial offices of America's publishers and broadcasters.|Tedford and Herbeck, pp. 225–226.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Thomas L. |last1=Tedford |first2=Dale A. |last2=Herbeck |title=Freedom of Speech in the United States |edition=5th |url=http://www.stratapub.com/TH8/preface.htm |access-date=February 13, 2021 |archive-date=April 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210427043549/http://www.stratapub.com/TH8/preface.htm |url-status=live}}</ref>}}

=== Legal charges against Ellsberg ===
Ellsberg surrendered to authorities at the U.S. Attorney's office in Boston on June 28,<ref name="Secrets Chapter 29">{{cite book|last=Ellsberg|first=Daniel|author-link=Daniel Ellsberg|title=Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers|chapter=Chapter 29: Going Underground|publisher=Viking Press|location=New York|year=2002|isbn=978-0-670-03030-9|url=https://archive.org/details/secretsmemoirofv02ells}}</ref> and admitted that he had given the papers to the press: "I felt that as an American citizen, as a responsible citizen, I could no longer cooperate in concealing this information from the American public. I did this clearly at my own jeopardy and I am prepared to answer to all the consequences of this decision".<ref name="upi.com"/> He was indicted by a grand jury in Los Angeles on charges of stealing and holding secret documents.<ref name="upi.com">{{cite web |url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/Audio/Events-of-1971/The-Pentagon-Papers/ |title=The Pentagon Papers |work=1971 Year in Review |publisher=United Press International |year=1971 |access-date=February 13, 2021 |archive-date=February 12, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210212142328/https://www.upi.com/Archives/Audio/Events-of-1971/The-Pentagon-Papers/ |url-status=live}}</ref> Federal District Judge [[William Matthew Byrne, Jr.]] declared a [[Mistrial (law)|mistrial]] and dismissed all charges against Ellsberg and Russo on May 11, 1973, after it was revealed that agents acting on the orders of the Nixon administration illegally broke into the office of Ellsberg's psychiatrist and attempted to steal files; representatives of the Nixon administration approached the Ellsberg trial judge with an offer of the job of FBI directorship; and several irregularities appeared in the government's case, including its claim that it had lost records of illegal wiretapping against Ellsberg conducted by the [[White House Plumbers]] in the contemporaneous [[Watergate scandal]]. Byrne ruled: "The totality of the circumstances of this case which I have only briefly sketched offend a sense of justice. The bizarre events have incurably infected the prosecution of this case." Ellsberg and Russo were freed due to the mistrial; they were not acquitted of violating the Espionage Act.<ref name="correll200702"/>

In March 1972, political scientist [[Samuel L. Popkin]], then assistant professor of Government at [[Harvard University]], was jailed for a week for his refusal to answer questions before a grand jury investigating the ''Pentagon Papers'' case, during a hearing before the [[Boston]] [[Federal District Court]]. The Faculty Council later passed a resolution condemning the government's interrogation of scholars on the grounds that "an unlimited right of grand juries to ask any question and to expose a witness to citations for contempt could easily threaten scholarly research".<ref name=Meislin>{{cite news |last=Meislin |first=Richard J.|url=http://theharvardcrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=495202 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130204085944/http://theharvardcrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=495202 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2013-02-04 |title=Popkin Faces Jail Sentence In Contempt of Court Case |work=[[The Harvard Crimson]] |date=March 22, 1972}}</ref>

Gelb estimated that ''The New York Times'' only published about five percent of the study's 7,000 pages. The Beacon Press edition was also incomplete. Halperin, who had originally classified the study as secret, obtained most of the unpublished portions under the [[Freedom of Information Act (United States)|Freedom of Information Act]] and the [[University of Texas]] published them in 1983. The [[National Security Archive]] published the remaining portions in 2002. The study itself remained formally classified until 2011.<ref name="correll200702"/>

== Impact ==
The ''Pentagon Papers'' revealed that the United States had expanded its war with the bombing of Cambodia and Laos, coastal raids on North Vietnam, and Marine Corps attacks, none of which had been reported by the American media.<ref name="'70s 43">{{cite book|title=How We Got Here: The '70s|last=Frum|first=David|author-link=David Frum|year=2000|publisher=Basic Books|location=New York City|isbn=978-0-465-04195-4|page=[https://archive.org/details/howwegothere70sd00frum/page/43 43]|url=https://archive.org/details/howwegothere70sd00frum/page/43}}</ref> The most damaging revelations in the papers revealed that four administrations (Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson) had misled the public regarding their intentions. For example, the Eisenhower administration actively worked against the Geneva Accords. The Kennedy administration knew of plans to overthrow South Vietnamese leader Ngo Dinh Diem before his death in the November 1963 coup. Johnson had decided to expand the war while promising "we seek no wider war" during his 1964 presidential campaign,<ref name="correll200702" /> including plans to bomb North Vietnam well before the [[1964 United States presidential election]]. President Johnson had been outspoken against doing so during the election and claimed that his opponent [[Barry Goldwater]] was the one that wanted to bomb North Vietnam.<ref name="upi.com"/>

In another example, a memo from the Defense Department under the Johnson Administration listed the reasons for American persistence:
* 70% – To avoid a humiliating U.S. defeat (to our reputation as a guarantor).
* 20% – To keep [South Vietnam] (and the adjacent) territory from Chinese hands.
* 10% – To permit the people [of South Vietnam] to enjoy a better, freer way of life.
* ALSO – To emerge from the crisis without unacceptable taint from methods used.
* NOT – To help a friend, although it would be hard to stay in if asked out.<ref name="correll200702" /><ref>{{cite book|last=Perlstein|first=Rick|author-link=Rick Perlstein|title=Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America|year=2008|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-0-7432-4302-5|title-link=Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=John McNaughton|author-link=John McNaughton (government official)|title=Paper Prepared by the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs (McNaughton)|url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v02/d193|date=March 10, 1965|access-date=March 17, 2021|archive-date=April 5, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210405135413/https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v02/d193|url-status=live}}</ref>

Another controversy was that Johnson sent combat troops to Vietnam by July 17, 1965, {{citation needed|date=January 2020|reason=relevance disputed, as the US were already providing support and may of been in line with prior commitments}} before pretending to consult his advisors on July 21–27, per the cable stating that "[[United States Deputy Secretary of Defense|Deputy Secretary of Defense]] [[Cyrus Vance]] informs McNamara that President had approved 34 Battalion Plan and will try to push through [[Reserve component of the Armed Forces of the United States|reserve]] call-up."<ref name="Mtholyoke2">{{cite book |url=http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon4/pent6.htm |chapter=U.S. Ground Strategy and Force Deployments, 1965–1968: Chronology |year=1971 |pages=277–604 |title=The Pentagon Papers |edition=Gravel |volume=4 |location=Boston |publisher=Beacon Press |via=Mount Holyoke College |access-date=February 13, 2021 |archive-date=February 24, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224144338/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon4/pent6.htm |url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1988, when that cable was declassified, it revealed "there was a continuing uncertainty as to [Johnson's] final decision, which would have to await Secretary McNamara's recommendation and the views of Congressional leaders, particularly the views of Senator [[Richard Russell, Jr.|[Richard] Russell]]."<ref>{{cite book |first1=John |last1=Burke |first2=Fred |last2=Greenstein |title=How Presidents Test Reality: Decisions on Vietnam, 1954 and 1965 |year=1989 |page=215}}</ref>

Nixon's [[Solicitor General of the United States|Solicitor General]] [[Erwin N. Griswold]] later called the ''Pentagon Papers'' an example of "massive overclassification" with "no trace of a threat to the national security". The Pentagon Papers' publication had little or no effect on the ongoing war because they dealt with documents written years before publication.<ref name="correll200702" />

After the release of the ''Pentagon Papers'', Barry Goldwater said:

{{blockquote|During the campaign, President Johnson kept reiterating that he would never send American boys to fight in Vietnam. As I say, he knew at the time that American boys were going to be sent. In fact, I knew about ten days before the Republican Convention. You see I was being called a trigger-happy, warmonger, bomb happy, and all the time Johnson was saying, he would never send American boys, I knew damn well he would.<ref name="upi.com"/>}}

Senator [[Birch Bayh]], who thought the publishing of the ''Pentagon Papers'' was justified, said:

{{blockquote|The existence of these documents, and the fact that they said one thing and the people were led to believe something else, is a reason we have a credibility gap today, the reason people don't believe the government. This is the same thing that's been going on over the last two-and-a-half years of this administration. There is a difference between what the President says and what the government actually does, and I have confidence that they are going to make the right decision, if they have all the facts.<ref name="upi.com" />}}
[[File:Leslie H. Gelb signature.png | thumb | 220x124px | right | alt= Signature of US DoD official Leslie Gelb, supervising editor of the Pentagon Papers |
Leslie H. Gelb's signature, taken from the index (page 7) of the Papers]]
In 1991, Les Gelb said the following:
{{blockquote|But I cannot say that I was pleased. I worried about the turmoil that would enter my life, then as a scholar at the Brookings Institution. I worried about the potential misuse of the papers by doves to stamp government leaders as liars and by hawks to brand war critics as traitors.

What troubled me was that the papers—a vast, undigested mass of fragmentary truths—in the newspapers would become like sticks of historical dynamite, damaging more than illuminating the ongoing struggle over Vietnam policy.

How publication affected that struggle is still unclear. But then and now and above all, the ''Times''{{'}} publication insured what mattered most to those of us who wrote the studies and to our democracy—that the papers would live.<ref name="Gelb 1991"/>}}

Gelb reflected in 2018 that many people have misunderstood the most important lessons of the ''Pentagon Papers'':

{{blockquote|Ellsberg created the myth that what the Papers show is that it all was a bunch of lies... [The truth] is, people actually believed in the war and were ignorant about what could and could not actually be done to do well in that war. That's what you see when you actually read the Papers, as opposed to talk about the Papers...

[M]y first instinct was that if they just hit the papers, people would think this was the definitive history of the war, which they were not, and that people would, would think it was all about lying, rather than beliefs. And look, because we'd never learned that darn lesson about believing our way into these wars, we went into Afghanistan and we went into Iraq...

You know, we get involved in these wars and we don't know a damn thing about those countries, the culture, the history, the politics, people on top and even down below. And, my heavens, these are not wars like World War II and World War I, where you have battalions fighting battalions. These are wars that depend on knowledge of who the people are, with the culture is like. And we jumped into them without knowing. That's the damned essential message of the Pentagon Papers...

I don't deny the lies. I just want [the American people] to understand what the main points really were.<ref name="Gelb1" />}}

==Full release in 2011==
[[File:Daniel Ellsberg cropped.jpg |thumb|220x124px|right |alt=An old man in black suit and striped shirt, the whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg|Ellsberg at a fundraiser in 2006]]
On May 4, 2011, the National Archives and Records Administration announced that the papers would be declassified and released to the [[Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum]] in [[Yorba Linda, California]], on June 13, 2011.<ref>{{cite web|title=Pentagon Papers to be Officially Released|author=Steven Aftergood|publisher=Federation of American Scientists, Secrecy News|date=May 2011|url=https://fas.org/blog/secrecy/2011/05/pentagon_papers/|access-date=2011-05-13|archive-date=October 30, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121030200431/http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2011/05/pentagon_papers.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{citation|title=Nixon Presidential Historical Materials: Opening of Materials|publisher=76 FR 27092 (2011-05-10)|url=http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-05-10/pdf/2011-11533.pdf|access-date=June 3, 2011|archive-date=May 5, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170505145048/https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-05-10/pdf/2011-11533.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> The release date included the Nixon, Kennedy, and Johnson Libraries and the Archives office in [[College Park, Maryland]].<ref name=Ukman>{{cite news |title=Pentagon Papers to be declassified at last |first=Ukman |last=Jason |author2=Jaffe, Greg |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/national-security/pentagon-papers-to-be-declassified-at-last/2011/06/08/AGA0VuOH_story.html |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=June 10, 2011 |access-date=June 13, 2011 |archive-date=June 30, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180630214337/https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/national-security/pentagon-papers-to-be-declassified-at-last/2011/06/08/AGA0VuOH_story.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

The full release was coordinated by the Archives's [[National Declassification Center]] (NDC) as a special project to mark the anniversary of the report.<ref name="O'Keefe">{{cite news |title=Pentagon Papers released: How they did it |first=Ed |last=O'Keefe |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/post/pentagon-papers-released-how-they-did-it/2011/06/13/AGpOnMTH_blog.html |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=June 13, 2011 |access-date=June 13, 2011 |archive-date=June 30, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180630214219/https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/post/pentagon-papers-released-how-they-did-it/2011/06/13/AGpOnMTH_blog.html |url-status=live}}</ref> There were still eleven words that the agencies having classification control over the material wanted to [[redaction|redact]], and the NDC worked with them, successfully, to prevent that redaction.<ref name="O'Keefe" /> It is unknown which 11 words were at issue and the government has declined requests to identify them, but the issue was made moot when it was pointed out that those words had already been made public, in a version of the documents released by the House Armed Services Committee in 1972.<ref>{{cite news|title=Finding the Secret 11 Words|first=Sam|last=Roberts|work=The New York Times|date=July 23, 2011|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/sunday-review/24words.html|access-date=2012-04-18|archive-date=October 22, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171022142139/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/sunday-review/24words.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

The Archives released each volume of the ''Pentagon Papers'' as a separate PDF file,<ref name="O'Keefe" /> available on their website.<ref name=Archives>{{cite web |url=https://www.archives.gov/research/pentagon-papers/ |title=Pentagon Papers |author=National Archives and Records Administration |date=June 13, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110612122933/http://www.archives.gov/research/pentagon-papers/ |archive-date=June 12, 2011 |access-date=June 13, 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

==In films and television==

===Films===
* ''[[The Pentagon Papers (film)|The Pentagon Papers]]'' (2003), directed by [[Rod Holcomb]] and executive produced by [[Joshua D. Maurer]], is a [[Historical drama film|historical film]] made for [[FX (TV Channel)|FX]], in association with [[Paramount Television]] and City Entertainment, about the ''Pentagon Papers'' and Daniel Ellsberg's involvement in their publication. The film chronicles Ellsberg's life, beginning with his work for the RAND Corporation, and ending with the day on which his espionage trial was declared a mistrial by a federal court judge. The film starred [[James Spader]] as Ellsberg, [[Paul Giamatti]] as Russo, [[Alan Arkin]] as RAND Corporation president [[Harry Rowen]], and [[Claire Forlani]] as Patricia Ellsberg.
* ''[[The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers]]'' (2009) is an Oscar-nominated [[documentary film]], directed by [[Judith Ehrlich]] and Rick Goldsmith, that follows Ellsberg and explores the events leading up to the publication of the ''Pentagon Papers''.
* ''[[The Post (film)|The Post]]'' (2017) is an historical drama film directed by [[Steven Spielberg]] from a script written by [[Liz Hannah]] and [[Josh Singer]] about the role ''The Washington Post'' played in the ''Pentagon Papers'' saga. The film stars [[Tom Hanks]] as ''Post'' editor Ben Bradlee and [[Meryl Streep]] as ''Post'' publisher [[Katharine Graham]]. Daniel Ellsberg is played by [[Matthew Rhys]].

===Television===
* {{cite AV media|title=The Pentagon Papers, Daniel Ellsberg and The Times|date=October 4, 2010|publisher=[[PBS]]|url= https://www.pbs.org/video/pov-the-pentagon-papers-daniel-ellsberg-and-the-times/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080828101935/http://www.nytimes.whsites.net/talk/podcasts.html |archive-date=August 28, 2008}} "On September 13, 2010, ''The New York Times'' Community Affairs Department and POV presented a panel discussion on the ''Pentagon Papers'', Daniel Ellsberg, and the ''Times''. The conversation, featuring Daniel Ellsberg, [[Max Frankel]], former ''The New York Times'' executive editor, and [[Adam Liptak]], ''The New York Times'' Supreme Court reporter, was moderated by [[Jill Abramson]], managing editor of ''The New York Times''" and former Washington bureau chief, marking the 35th anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling.
* {{cite AV media|title=Daniel Ellsberg: Secrets – Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers|publisher=University of California Television (UCTV)
|date=August 7, 2008|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF8nuvGyngU| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211114/OF8nuvGyngU| archive-date=2021-11-14 | url-status=live}}{{cbignore}}

==See also==
{{Portal|United States|Freedom of speech}}
{{div col|colwidth=18em}}
* [[Afghanistan Papers]]
* "[[Credibility gap]]"
* [[Edward Snowden]]
* [[Global surveillance disclosures (2013–present)|Global surveillance disclosures]]
* [[Israeli retaliation leak]]
* [[James L. Greenfield]]
* [[Operation Popeye]] — U.S. weather modification operation, revealed in the Pentagon Papers
* [[United States diplomatic cables leak]]
* [[WikiLeaks]]
* [[2023 Pentagon document leaks]]
{{div col end}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

===Works cited===
* {{Cite book |last=McNamara |first=Robert |title=In Retrospect |publisher=Random House |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-679-76749-7 |author-link=Robert McNamara |url=https://archive.org/details/inretrospecttra00mcna}}

==Further reading==
* ''The Pentagon Papers: The Defense Department History of United States Decisionmaking on Vietnam''. Boston: Beacon Press. 5 vols. "Senator Gravel Edition"; includes documents not included in government version. {{ISBN|0-8070-0526-6}} & {{ISBN|0-8070-0522-3}}.
* Neil Sheehan. ''The Pentagon Papers''. New York: [[Bantam Books]] (1971). {{ISBN|0-552-64917-1}}.
* Daniel Ellsberg. ''Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers''. New York: [[Viking Press|Viking]] (2002). {{ISBN|0-670-03030-9}}.
* "[[Marcus Raskin]]: For him, ideas were the seedlings for effective action" (obituary of Marcus Raskin), ''[[The Nation]]'', Jan 29. / Feb 5. 2018, pp.&nbsp;4, 8. Marcus Raskin in 1971, on receiving "from a source (later identified as ... [[Daniel Ellsberg]]) 'a mountain of paper' ... that became known as the Pentagon Papers ... [p]lay[ed] his customary catalytic role [and] put Ellsberg in touch with ''The New York Times'' reporter [[Neil Sheehan]] ... A longtime passionate proponent of [[nuclear disarmament]], [Raskin] would also serve in the 1980s as chair of the SANE / Freeze campaign." (p.&nbsp;4.)
*{{cite web |title=After the Pentagon Papers—A Month in the New Life of Daniel Ellsberg |last=Lukas |first=J. Anthony |website=The New York Times | date=December 12, 1971 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/12/12/archives/a-month-in-the-new-life-of-daniel-ellsberg-the-new-life-of-daniel.html | access-date=June 26, 2023}}
*{{cite book |editor-last1=Prados |editor-first1=John |editor-last2=Porter |editor-first2=Margaret Pratt |title=Inside the Pentagon Papers |publisher=Modern War Studies (Paperback) |date=2004 |isbn=978-0-7006-1423-3}}
* Sanford J. Ungar. ''The Papers and the Papers: An Account of the Legal and Political Battle Over the Pentagon Papers''. New York: [[E. P. Dutton]] (1972). {{ISBN|978-0525041559}}
* George C. Herring (ed.) ''The Pentagon Papers: Abridged Edition''. New York: [[McGraw-Hill]] (1993). {{ISBN|0-07-028380-X}}.
* George C. Herring (ed.) ''Secret Diplomacy of the Vietnam War: The Negotiating Volumes of the Pentagon Papers'' (1983).
* James Risen, "The secret History: How Neil Sheehan Really Got the ''Pentagon Papers''" [https://theintercept.com/2023/10/07/pentagon-papers-daniel-ellsberg-neil-sheehan/ online]

==External links==
{{wikisource|Pentagon Papers|''Pentagon Papers''}}
* {{cite book|url=https://www.archives.gov/research/pentagon-papers/|title= The Pentagon Papers|publisher=[[National Archives and Records Administration|U.S. National Archives]]|date= 2016-08-15}} The complete, unredacted report.
* {{cite book |url=http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/pent1.html |title=Pentagon Papers |edition=Complete Gravel |publisher=mtholyoke.edu |access-date=May 19, 2003 |archive-date=August 18, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180818075800/http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/pent1.html |url-status=dead}} Complete text with supporting documents, maps, and photos.
* {{cite web |title=Battle for the ''Pentagon Papers'' |url=http://www.topsecretplay.org/ |website=Top Secret |access-date=October 9, 2007 |archive-date=March 6, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210306153612/http://topsecretplay.org/ |url-status=dead}} a resource site that supports a currently playing docu-drama about the ''Pentagon Papers''. The site provides historical context, time lines, bibliographical resources, information on discussions with current journalists, and helpful links.
* {{cite news |last1=Gravel |first1=Mike |author1-link=Mike Gravel |last2=Ellsberg |first2=Daniel |author2-link=Daniel Ellsberg |title=Special: How the ''Pentagon Papers'' Came to Be Published by the Beacon Press |url=http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/02/1331255 |url-status=dead |publisher=[[Democracy Now!]] |date=July 7, 2002 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070703224833/http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07%2F07%2F02%2F1331255 |archive-date=July 3, 2007}} (audio/video and transcript).
* {{cite web|url=http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB48/supreme.html |title=Nixon Tapes & Supreme Court Oral Arguments|website=gwu.edu}}
* {{cite news|url=http://www.wcbs880.com/topic/play_window.php?audioType=Episode&audioId=851936 |date=1971 |title=''The Pentagon Papers'': A report|author=Holt, Steve|publisher=WCBS Newsradio 880 (WCBS-AM New York) |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080111014647/http://www.wcbs880.com/topic/play_window.php?audioType=Episode&audioId=851936 |archive-date=2008-01-11 |url-status=dead}} Part of WCBS 880's celebration of 40 years of newsradio.
* {{cite book|url=http://www.beacon.org/client/pentagonpapers.cfm|title=Beacon Press & The Pentagon Papers|author=Trzop, Allison|publisher=Beacon Press|access-date=August 1, 2008|archive-date=June 10, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140610071706/http://www.beacon.org/client/pentagonpapers.cfm|url-status=dead}}
* {{cite news|url=http://www.democracynow.org/2009/9/16/the_most_dangerous_man_in_america |date=September 16, 2009|title=The Most Dangerous Man in America: New Documentary Chronicles How Leak of the ''Pentagon Papers'' Helped End Vietnam War|publisher=[[Democracy Now!]]}}
* {{cite book|url=http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB48/ |publisher=The National Security Archive at The George Washington University |date=June 5, 2001 |title=The Pentagon Papers: Secrets, Lies and Audiotapes (The Nixon Tapes and the Supreme Court Tapes, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 48) |editor=Blanton, Thomas S.|others=Compiled by Prados, John; Meadows, Eddie; Burr, William & Evans, Michael}}
* Ellsberg's obituaries in:
** ''The New York Times'': {{cite web |last=McFadden |first=Robert D. | title=Daniel Ellsberg, Who Leaked the Pentagon Papers, Is Dead at 92 |website=The New York Times |date=June 16, 2023 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/16/us/daniel-ellsberg-dead.html |access-date=June 25, 2023}}
** the [[Associated Press]]: {{cite web |last=Italie |first=Hillel |url=https://apnews.com/article/daniel-ellsberg-vietnam-war-pentagon-papers-12f57b417c372c1b8760a21d447cb502 |title=Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked Pentagon Papers exposing Vietnam War secrets, dies at 92 |publisher=Associated Press of New York |date=June 16, 2023 |access-date=June 26, 2023}}
* ''[[On the Media]]'' episode on the ''Pentagon Papers'', Ellsberg and Gelb's roles in them, and the state of Vietnam War reporting: {{cite web |title=The Whistleblower Who Changed History - On the Media |website=WNYC Studios |date=June 23, 2023 |url=https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/episodes/on-the-media-the-whistleblower-who-changed-history |access-date=June 25, 2023}}

{{Vietnam War|state=collapsed}}
{{Anti-Vietnam}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Pentagon Papers| ]]
[[Category:1967 documents]]
[[Category:1968 documents]]
[[Category:1969 documents]]
[[Category:1971 in American politics]]
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[[Category:Nixon administration controversies]]
[[Category:Presidential scandals in the United States]]
[[Category:Reports of the United States government]]
[[Category:United States documents]]
[[Category:Vietnam War]]
[[Category:Whistleblowing in the United States]]
[[Category:Works subject to a lawsuit]]
[[Category:Works originally published in The New York Times]]
[[Category:Historical journalism]]