Video: 'The Pentagon Papers'
(Sunday June 13, 1971; during the Vietnam War, part of the Indochina Wars and the Cold War)— The New York Times today began to publish the Pentagon Papers, a U.S. Department of Defense history of the United States’ political and military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967 that demonstrated, among other things, the Johnson Administration had “systematically lied, not only to the public but also to Congress.”
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The Pentagon Papers revealed that the U.S. had secretly enlarged the scope of its actions in the Vietnam War with the bombings of nearby Cambodia and Laos, coastal raids on North Vietnam, and Marine Corps attacks — none of which were reported in the mainstream media.
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The papers were released to reporter Neil Sheehan by Daniel Ellsberg, who had worked on the study.
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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.
