Learn about the Pentagon Papers and their revelations about the war in Vietnam. Discover why this major leak changed the way people think about the USA.
Updated: 03/25/2022
Pentagon Papers: Overview & Revelations
The Pentagon Papers
What were the Pentagon Papers? The Pentagon Papers are secret documents that indicate that government officials deceived the United States Congress and the public regarding the Vietnam War. Officially titled Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force, the Pentagon Papers were commissioned in 1967 by the United States (U.S.) Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara. The information in the report was gleaned from documents held by the U.S. Department of Defense, State Department, and the Central Intelligence Agency. Only a few copies of the report were made, and the documents were classified as Top Secret.
Daniel Ellsberg, a strategic analyst at the RAND Corporation and the Department of Defense, believed the public should be aware of the information contained in the report. Ellsberg first approached Congress, which refused to take up the issue, so he secretly passed the report to the press for publication. Richard Nixon, who had been President only a short time when the Pentagon Papers were leaked, sought to stop the publication of the report through the courts. Nixon's attempts to stop the release of information about the Vietnam War were highly controversial. Eventually, the Pentagon Papers case was settled when the Supreme Court decided the report could be published.
The Pentagon Papers showed what many who opposed the war had believed all along. The war in Vietnam was unwinnable, those in charge had lied to Congress and the public to keep the war going, and the United States had acted illegally and immorally during the war.
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Background to the Pentagon Papers
Given the contemporary widespread skepticism of government, it's important to remember that until the Vietnam War, the majority of Americans trusted politicians. The leak and publication of the so-called Pentagon Papers in 1971 played a large role in stoking Americans' distrust of political authority. This document, published by The New York Times, demonstrated that the government had misled the public with regard to the country's involvement in the war in Vietnam.
After World War II, the U.S. became engaged in a Cold War with the communist Soviet Union. Though the two countries never directly engaged in combat, they sought to limit each other's spheres of influence. Vietnam, in Southeast Asia, became a hotspot in America's goal to stop the spread of communism. President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered U.S. ground troops to Vietnam in 1965 to stop communist incursions from North Vietnam into South Vietnam, which was an American ally. The U.S. soon became mired in a conflict with no clear end, and American combat deaths mounted throughout the 1960s.
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The Vietnam War
From Harry S. Truman to Richard M. Nixon, every U.S. president became embroiled in the Vietnam War. The United States originally became involved in Vietnam during President Harry S. Truman's administration. France had controlled Vietnam for a quarter of a century when the French Indochina War broke out in 1946. France met resistance when it again attempted to take control of Vietnam. As the Pentagon Papers revealed, Truman had provided military aid to help France regain traction in Vietnam. These events represent the United States' first foray into Vietnam.
Belief in the Domino Theory led President Dwight Eisenhower in 1954 to engage further in the conflict in Vietnam. The Domino Theory asserts that when one country becomes communist, neighboring countries will fall under communist rule as well. The Pentagon Papers showed that Eisenhower decided to financially and militarily assist South Vietnam in its clash with the communist regime in North Vietnam.
President John F. Kennedy committed additional military aid, continuing the United States' involvement in Vietnam. President Lyndon B. Johnson expanded covert operations in aid of the war. He ordered the 1965 bombing of North Vietnam, despite the intelligence community's warning that doing so would not stop North Vietnam's support of the insurgents in South Vietnam.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the American public's opposition to the war grew. Protesters lined the streets. Attempts to squelch the protests resulted in violence often. The Pentagon Papers confirmed the public's darkest suspicions about U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Despite Nixon's attempts to stop the publication of the Pentagon Papers Vietnam War secrets, the truth had now entered the public sphere. American troops were finally withdrawn while Nixon was in office.
The Leak
After becoming convinced that the Vietnam War was unwinnable, Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers, decided to provide photocopies of the report to the press after Congress refused to take up the matter. When were the Pentagon Papers leaked? The papers were leaked in March 1971 to The New York Times, which began to publish front-page articles detailing the most incriminating information about U.S. participation in the war. The first article appeared on June 13, 1971.
Ellsberg had given parts of the report to Times reporter Neil Sheehan. After three articles had been published in The New York Times, the U.S. Justice Department argued that the report involved national security matters. The Justice Department obtained a temporary restraining order, but the Supreme Court ruled that the government had not proven that the publication of the Pentagon Papers would harm national security. The Court also stated that the First Amendment allowed for the publication of such material. The full release of the Pentagon Papers occurred in 2011.
What did the Pentagon Papers reveal? The Pentagon Papers showed that various military and government officials had ratcheted U.S. involvement in an unwinnable war. They had deceived the public into doing so.
Who Published the Pentagon Papers
In an interview before his death, Neil Sheehan revealed that Daniel Ellsberg only intended for him to read the Pentagon Papers. Sheehan had secretly copied the papers of his own accord, just as Ellsberg had done. Sheehan and the newspaper had kept the imminent publication a secret, fearing the Justice Department would attempt to stop the publication. When were the Pentagon Papers published? After months of reporters and editors sorting through the information in the report, the first public reporting of the Pentagon Papers appeared in The New York Times on June 13, 1971.
National and international reaction to the Pentagon Papers was swift. Despite decades of deception, it became clear that there was no moral or legal reason for the escalating involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War. The Watergate scandal soon followed the publication of the Pentagon Papers. These two events cemented Americans' simmering mistrust of government officials.
What Did the Pentagon Papers Reveal?
The Pentagon Papers revealed that Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson had continued to send American soldiers to fight in a war that could not be won. To justify these actions, presidents, military leaders, and other government officials had lied to the public. The Geneva Convention had been violated. The U.S. government had involved itself in foreign assassinations and coups. It had expanded involvement in the war resulting in the needless death and injury of American soldiers.
The Fallout of the Pentagon Papers
The U.S. Justice Department immediately attempted to stop the publication of the damning material contained in the Pentagon Papers. A public outcry occurred over the government's attempts at damage control, which citizens saw as proof of overt deception on the part of the government.
Nixon's Downfall
In 1973, Daniel Ellsberg was charged with theft and conspiracy under the Espionage Act of 1917. Still, Ellsberg was cleared after it was revealed that the Nixon White House had engaged in misconduct to discredit Ellsberg.
About to face reelection, Nixon was afraid that Ellsberg might also have access to documents that would demonstrate that Nixon had also lied about the bombing in Cambodia and Laos. As Nixon's paranoia grew, he created a secret group called "The White House Plumbers." These operatives broke into Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office to locate information that could be used to blackmail Ellsberg into keeping damning information about Nixon to himself.
The break-in at Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office was revealed after the Watergate break-in. The Pentagon Papers and the Nixon administration's attempts to silence Ellsberg, followed by the break-in and subsequent cover-up of the Watergate scandal, ended Richard Nixon's presidency. Nixon eventually resigned from office in disgrace.
Legacy
Daniel Ellsberg was one of many whistleblowers who put themselves at risk to reveal the government's wrongdoing to the public. These revelations showed that the U.S. government had wantonly disregarded any semblance of morality or decency in its dealings in Vietnam. It would go to great lengths to hide the truth from the public.
Soon after Ellsberg shared the information with reporter Neil Sheehan, a whistleblower named Mark Felt used the pseudonym Deep Throat to expose the corruption at the core of the Nixon administration to Washington Post reporters. Other whistleblowers such as Edward Snowden and Julian Assange have continued the legacy of Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers with revelations that the government would prefer to remain secret. Many leaks, including the Afghanistan Papers, the Downing Street Memo, and the Torture Report, have occurred since the Pentagon Papers were released in 1971.
These revelations show that a free press, unencumbered by government oversight and unaligned with partisan politics, is vital to the survival of democracy in the United States. However, the experience of Daniel Ellsberg and other whistleblowers proves that those who decide to reveal official secrets should be prepared for government officials to do everything in their power to stop such information from ever reaching the public.
Lesson Summary
Daniel Ellsberg, a strategic analyst at the Department of State and the RAND Corporation, released the Pentagon Papers to reporter Neil Sheehan at The New York Times. The report, commissioned in 1967 by U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, revealed that government and military officials had lied to the public about America's prospects in Vietnam. Furthermore, the report showed that the government had assassinated foreign officials and expanded the war in Vietnam. According to the Pentagon Papers, several American presidents had concealed information about the Vietnam War from the public, most notably the fact that the war could not be won.
President Richard Nixon attempted to stop the publication of the Pentagon Papers, but the Supreme Court ruled the publication was legal and necessary. Finding no help in the courts and fearing Ellsberg might also have access to documents showing Nixon had lied about the bombing in Cambodia and Laos, Nixon set out to blackmail Ellsberg into silence. Nixon secretly created a group called "The White House Plumbers" to break into Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office in an attempt to locate information that could be used to blackmail Ellsberg. This escapade was revealed when the Watergate break-in, cover-up, and resulting scandal occurred. Nixon was eventually forced to resign in disgrace, and public trust in government plummeted.
Release of the Pentagon Papers
Despite the difficulties in Southeast Asia and a growing antiwar movement, during the first few years of the war most Americans still did not question the government's rationale for fighting in Vietnam. Most Americans believed that the U.S. needed to combat the spread of communism in Vietnam in order to protect freedoms at home. This trust quickly eroded when a former Department of Defense employee, Daniel Ellsberg, leaked to The New York Times a classified government document entitled 'The History of U.S. Decision-Making Process on Vietnam Policy, 1945-1967,' which became known as the Pentagon Papers.
The release of the Pentagon Papers in 1971 illuminated the fact that presidential administrations since the 1940s had misled the public with regard to America's stake in Vietnam. The documents showed that some presidents had directly lied to Congress and the public. President Johnson, for instance, had lied about the Gulf of Tonkin Incident in order to garner congressional and public support for the introduction of ground troops in Vietnam. Elsewhere in the Pentagon Papers, it was clear that successive U.S. administrations didn't believe Vietnam was a central battleground to contain communism, did not consider the improvement of the lives of the South Vietnamese a worthy goal, and could have ended the war in the 1950s but continued U.S. involvement only to avoid international embarrassment. That American troops remained in Vietnam until 1973 only soured the public's attitude even more.
Impact & Aftermath
The Pentagon Papers eroded the American public's trust in their political leaders and in their government. The information in the documents led citizens to question whether American blood and money should be used to fight communism in a far-off country, and whether a communist victory in Vietnam would really threaten the freedoms and way of life of American citizens.
Many powerful and high-ranking government officials, however, did feel threatened by the information released in the Pentagon Papers. President Richard Nixon sought to block The New York Times from publishing excerpts, but the Supreme Court overruled him, stating that a free press was vital to check government power. Nixon became paranoid that there would be more leaks of secret information that would hinder his ability to conduct the Vietnam War, which was still raging, as he saw fit. In 1972, President Nixon engaged in illegal activities to prevent further leaks of classified material and to preemptively attack his Democratic rivals leading up to the 1972 presidential elections. Nixon was investigated for these actions, which were found to be illegal, and in 1974 Nixon resigned as president of the United States. This Watergate Scandal, which reflected the height of American distrust of government and politicians, emanated directly from the release of the Pentagon Papers in 1971.
When American troops withdrew from Vietnam in 1973 and Saigon fell to the communists in 1975, it became clear that a communist takeover in Southeast Asia did not in fact affect American freedom and did not have the repercussions suggested by the U.S. government's previous claims. This seemed to reaffirm the American people's disgust with the political class.
Lesson Summary
Until the era of the Vietnam War, most Americans trusted political leaders and the government in general. But when classified documents about the war, known as the Pentagon Papers, were leaked to the press in 1971, the public realized that much of the rationale for the war was false. The Pentagon Papers demonstrated that American presidential administrations since the 1940s had misled, and even lied to, both Congress and the public. The Pentagon Papers created a paranoid atmosphere in the administration of President Richard Nixon's, leading him to engage in illegal activities, and resulted in his resignation as president of the United States in 1974. The Pentagon Papers heightened the public's distrust of their government and contributed to the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam in 1973.
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Video Transcript
Background to the Pentagon Papers
Given the contemporary widespread skepticism of government, it's important to remember that until the Vietnam War, the majority of Americans trusted politicians. The leak and publication of the so-called Pentagon Papers in 1971 played a large role in stoking Americans' distrust of political authority. This document, published by The New York Times, demonstrated that the government had misled the public with regard to the country's involvement in the war in Vietnam.
After World War II, the U.S. became engaged in a Cold War with the communist Soviet Union. Though the two countries never directly engaged in combat, they sought to limit each other's spheres of influence. Vietnam, in Southeast Asia, became a hotspot in America's goal to stop the spread of communism. President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered U.S. ground troops to Vietnam in 1965 to stop communist incursions from North Vietnam into South Vietnam, which was an American ally. The U.S. soon became mired in a conflict with no clear end, and American combat deaths mounted throughout the 1960s.
Release of the Pentagon Papers
Despite the difficulties in Southeast Asia and a growing antiwar movement, during the first few years of the war most Americans still did not question the government's rationale for fighting in Vietnam. Most Americans believed that the U.S. needed to combat the spread of communism in Vietnam in order to protect freedoms at home. This trust quickly eroded when a former Department of Defense employee, Daniel Ellsberg, leaked to The New York Times a classified government document entitled 'The History of U.S. Decision-Making Process on Vietnam Policy, 1945-1967,' which became known as the Pentagon Papers.
The release of the Pentagon Papers in 1971 illuminated the fact that presidential administrations since the 1940s had misled the public with regard to America's stake in Vietnam. The documents showed that some presidents had directly lied to Congress and the public. President Johnson, for instance, had lied about the Gulf of Tonkin Incident in order to garner congressional and public support for the introduction of ground troops in Vietnam. Elsewhere in the Pentagon Papers, it was clear that successive U.S. administrations didn't believe Vietnam was a central battleground to contain communism, did not consider the improvement of the lives of the South Vietnamese a worthy goal, and could have ended the war in the 1950s but continued U.S. involvement only to avoid international embarrassment. That American troops remained in Vietnam until 1973 only soured the public's attitude even more.
Impact & Aftermath
The Pentagon Papers eroded the American public's trust in their political leaders and in their government. The information in the documents led citizens to question whether American blood and money should be used to fight communism in a far-off country, and whether a communist victory in Vietnam would really threaten the freedoms and way of life of American citizens.
Many powerful and high-ranking government officials, however, did feel threatened by the information released in the Pentagon Papers. President Richard Nixon sought to block The New York Times from publishing excerpts, but the Supreme Court overruled him, stating that a free press was vital to check government power. Nixon became paranoid that there would be more leaks of secret information that would hinder his ability to conduct the Vietnam War, which was still raging, as he saw fit. In 1972, President Nixon engaged in illegal activities to prevent further leaks of classified material and to preemptively attack his Democratic rivals leading up to the 1972 presidential elections. Nixon was investigated for these actions, which were found to be illegal, and in 1974 Nixon resigned as president of the United States. This Watergate Scandal, which reflected the height of American distrust of government and politicians, emanated directly from the release of the Pentagon Papers in 1971.
When American troops withdrew from Vietnam in 1973 and Saigon fell to the communists in 1975, it became clear that a communist takeover in Southeast Asia did not in fact affect American freedom and did not have the repercussions suggested by the U.S. government's previous claims. This seemed to reaffirm the American people's disgust with the political class.
Lesson Summary
Until the era of the Vietnam War, most Americans trusted political leaders and the government in general. But when classified documents about the war, known as the Pentagon Papers, were leaked to the press in 1971, the public realized that much of the rationale for the war was false. The Pentagon Papers demonstrated that American presidential administrations since the 1940s had misled, and even lied to, both Congress and the public. The Pentagon Papers created a paranoid atmosphere in the administration of President Richard Nixon's, leading him to engage in illegal activities, and resulted in his resignation as president of the United States in 1974. The Pentagon Papers heightened the public's distrust of their government and contributed to the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam in 1973.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What did the Pentagon Papers Reveal?
The Pentagon Papers revealed that the United States had been involved in nefarious activities in Vietnam. They also revealed that several American presidents had committed additional troops to an unwinnable war.
Who leaked the Pentagon Papers?
Daniel Ellsberg, a security analyst at the Defense Department and Rand, leaked the Pentagon Papers. He leaked the Pentagon Papers to a New York Times reporter named Neil Sheehan.
What did the Pentagon Papers prove about the Vietnam War?
The Pentagon Papers proved that the Vietnam War could not be won despite public statements to the contrary. This fact was concealed from the public as the United States sent more and more American soldiers to Vietnam.
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I would definitely recommend Study.com to my colleagues. It’s like a teacher waved a magic wand and did the work for me. I feel like it’s a lifeline.
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Pentagon Papers Overview & Revelations | What were the Pentagon Papers?
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