Daniel Ellsberg The Pentagon Papers

Daniel Ellsberg stood up against decisions made by the United States government during the Vietnam War by observing the truth of the government’s foreign policy, distributing classified documents eventually called the Pentagon Papers, and creating a crack in the Nixon administration. These actions resulted in an immense negative impact on the relationship between the U.S. government and American people in which citizens questioned the credibility of the government. The issues described in the Pentagon Papers were sparked because of the Vietnam War, which in turn was started because of Cold War tensions between the United States of America and the Soviet Union. Tensions between the U.S. and the USSR began due to postwar Soviet expansion and …show more content…
foreign policy by copying and distributing classified documents containing information of US. political and military involvement in Vietnam, eventually known as the Pentagon Papers. Ellsberg states, “...I eventually came to go beyond efforts to stop the war from within the executive branch, to be willing instead, to give up clearances and political access, the chance of serving future presidents, my whole career, and to accept the prospect of a life behind bars” (Secrets IX). Ellsberg was willing to commit treason against his own government and spend the rest of his life in jail in order to end the war and show the public the truth. Since no official involved with advising the Vietnam War would listen to Ellsberg, he turned to two senators against the Vietnam War in hopes that they would bring the Pentagon to the floor of the Senate. When talking about grounds for giving copies to Senators William Fulbright and George McGovern, Ellsberg states, “I told them the background of the McNamara study and why I thought Congress and the public ought to have it. The studies were classified top secret, but much of the information had been wrongfully withheld from Congress” (326). The senators were extremely impressed with Ellsberg’s study and willingness to release it to the public, but they believed it would be difficult to mobilize opposition in Congress. However, the senators did advise that Ellsberg give the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times …show more content…
The public’s response to the Pentagon Papers phenomenal, they were featured on nightly newscasts and in newspapers from all over the country. As a result there was a change in the public’s attitude, “Unfamiliar and painful as it was, no one really challenged it; the documentation was irrefutable. That was a change in American consciousness, reinforced two years later by the Watergate revelations…” (Secrets, 413). Not only does Ellsberg impact the public, he also impacts the Nixon Administration, “The leak of the Pentagon Papers was the catalyst behind the Nixon administration’s amplified willingness to break the law in pursuit of its own agenda. Rather than entering the history books as just another leak of classified material, Ellsberg’s actions managed to institutionalize a profound paranoia in the psyche of a presidential administration” (Moran, “The First Domino: Nixon and the Pentagon Papers”). The effects were not only long term, but they were seen almost immediately. This was seen when Ellsberg describes the government’s expected continued bombing in Vietnam, “Yet that bombing, fully intended by the White House, did not happen, for reasons, after all, that had everything to do with American democracy and the rule of law. The prosecution of Tony Russo and me… represented the public face of Nixon’s response