Pentagon Papers

This article is about the U.S. government documents. For the 2003 film about the documents, see The Pentagon Papers (film).

A November 1950 Central Intelligence Agency map of dissident activities in 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' political and military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1968. Released by Daniel Ellsberg, who had worked on the study, they were first brought to the attention of the public on the front page of The New York Times in 1971.[1][2] 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."[3]

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 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; charges were later dismissed, after prosecutors investigating the Watergate scandal discovered that the staff members in the Nixon White House had ordered the so-called White House Plumbers to engage in unlawful efforts to discredit Ellsberg.[4][5]

In June 2011, the documents forming the Pentagon Papers were declassified and publicly released.[6][7]

  1. ^ "The Pentagon Papers". United Press International (UPI). 1971. Archived from the original on July 29, 2010. Retrieved July 2, 2010.
  2. ^ Sheehan, Neil (June 13, 1971). "Vietnam Archive: Pentagon Study Traces 3 Decades of Growing U.S. Involvement". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 27, 2020. Retrieved August 3, 2015.
  3. ^ Apple, R.W. (June 23, 1996). "25 Years Later;Lessons From the Pentagon Papers". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 27, 2020. Retrieved October 23, 2013.
  4. ^ "The Watergate Story". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on October 16, 2012. Retrieved October 26, 2013. 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.
  5. ^ "Pentagon Papers Charges Are Dismissed; Judge Byrne Frees Ellsberg and Russo, Assails 'Improper Government Conduct'". The New York Times. May 11, 1973. Archived from the original on February 20, 2023. Retrieved November 4, 2018.
  6. ^ "Pentagon Papers". History (U.S. TV channel). Archived from the original on October 29, 2013. Retrieved October 26, 2013.
  7. ^ "After 40 Years, Pentagon Papers Declassified In Full". NPR. Archived from the original on January 27, 2020. Retrieved November 4, 2018.