Pentagon Papers
7,000 pages of classified documents proved that four successive administrations systematically lied to Congress and the public about the Vietnam War. The Supreme Court's ruling in their favor remains a landmark for press freedom.
A single military analyst decided that the American public had a right to know that four presidents had lied to them about Vietnam. Daniel Ellsberg copied 7,000 pages of classified documents, gave them to the New York Times, and faced 115 years in prison. The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the government could not stop the press from publishing the truth.
Overview
The Pentagon Papers — officially titled "United States – Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense" — were a 7,000-page classified history of US involvement in Vietnam commissioned by Defense Secretary Robert McNamara in 1967. The study revealed that four successive presidential administrations had systematically deceived Congress and the American public about the scope, progress, and prospects of the war.
Daniel Ellsberg, a military analyst at the RAND Corporation who had worked on the study, became convinced that the continued deception was costing lives. He first attempted to release the documents through congressional channels, approaching Senators J. William Fulbright and George McGovern, but was unable to generate action. He then provided copies to New York Times reporter Neil Sheehan.
The Times began publishing the papers on June 13, 1971. The Nixon administration obtained a federal court injunction to halt publication — the first time in American history the federal government had imposed prior restraint on a newspaper. The case moved rapidly to the Supreme Court, which ruled 6-3 in New York Times Co. v. United States that the government had not met the heavy burden required to justify prior restraint, a landmark victory for press freedom.
Ellsberg was charged under the Espionage Act with theft, conspiracy, and espionage, facing up to 115 years in prison. The charges were dismissed in 1973 after it was revealed that Nixon's "Plumbers" unit had broken into Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office seeking information to discredit him, and that the government had engaged in illegal wiretapping. The Plumbers unit, created in response to the Pentagon Papers leak, later carried out the Watergate break-in.
"I felt that as an American citizen, as a responsible citizen, I could no longer cooperate in concealing this information from the American public." — Daniel Ellsberg, on his decision to leak the Pentagon Papers
Timeline
Study Commissioned
Defense Secretary McNamara commissions a secret history of US decision-making in Vietnam, later known as the Pentagon Papers.
Ellsberg Copies Documents
Daniel Ellsberg, disillusioned by the war, spends months photocopying the 7,000-page study.
Ellsberg's account, trial records
Times Begins Publishing
The New York Times publishes the first installment of the Pentagon Papers, revealing decades of government deception.
Nixon Obtains Injunction
Federal court issues injunction halting publication — the first prior restraint against a newspaper in US history.
Supreme Court Rules 6-3
Supreme Court rules in New York Times Co. v. United States that the government cannot impose prior restraint.
403 U.S. 713
Charges Dismissed
All charges against Ellsberg dismissed due to government misconduct, including the Plumbers break-in.
Court records
Key Players
Daniel Ellsberg
Leaked the Pentagon Papers to the press. Faced 115 years in prison before charges were dismissed. Became a lifelong peace activist. Died in 2023.
Neil Sheehan
Received the Pentagon Papers from Ellsberg and led the Times's publication effort.
Robert McNamara
Commissioned the study while harboring private doubts about the war. Later admitted the war was wrong in his memoir.
What the Papers Revealed
The Pentagon Papers documented systematic deception across four administrations — Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson. Key revelations included:
The Truman administration provided military aid to France's colonial war in Indochina while publicly opposing colonialism. The Eisenhower administration undermined the 1954 Geneva Accords and helped install Ngo Dinh Diem in South Vietnam. The Kennedy administration was deeply involved in the 1963 coup that killed Diem.
Most damagingly, the papers showed that the Johnson administration had planned the escalation of the war well before the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident and that officials consistently knew the war was going poorly while publicly claiming progress. Internal assessments showed that the primary motivation for continuing the war was not to help South Vietnam but to avoid the political humiliation of defeat.
The study did not cover the Nixon administration (it ended in 1967), which is why Nixon's extreme reaction — including the creation of the Plumbers unit — was particularly revealing of his own vulnerabilities regarding the war.
The Bottom Line
The Pentagon Papers proved what the antiwar movement had alleged for years: the government knew the war was unwinnable and continued to send Americans to die to avoid political embarrassment. Four presidents — Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson — systematically misled Congress and the public about the scope, progress, and prospects of US involvement in Vietnam.
Daniel Ellsberg's act of conscience — and the Nixon administration's illegal response to it, including the Plumbers break-in that led directly to Watergate — established the principle that government secrecy does not override the public's right to know when its government is lying. The Supreme Court's ruling remains the most important press freedom decision in American history.
Ellsberg spent the rest of his life arguing that other insiders with knowledge of government deception had a moral obligation to come forward. Before his death in 2023, he drew direct parallels between the Pentagon Papers and the post-9/11 era of classification, surveillance, and the prosecution of whistleblowers under the same Espionage Act once used against him.
Primary Sources4 cited
Pentagon Papers (National Archives)
The full declassified Pentagon Papers, available through the National Archives.
New York Times Co. v. United States
Landmark 1971 Supreme Court decision (403 U.S. 713) protecting press freedom.
Daniel Ellsberg Trial Documents
Records from Ellsberg's criminal trial and the government misconduct that led to dismissal.
National Archives Vietnam Records
Declassified Vietnam-era records providing context for the Pentagon Papers.
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