The unbiased perspective

The Pentagon Papers Leaks and the Legacy of Daniel Ellsberg In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg, a former military analyst and government official, leaked a top-secret government report to the press. The report, known as the Pentagon Papers, revealed that the United States government had been systematically misleading the public about the Vietnam War for years. The Pentagon Papers were a massive document, containing over 7,000 pages of classified information. They detailed the history of US involvement in Vietnam, from the 1940s to the 1960s. The report showed that the government had known that the war was unwinnable for many years, but had continued to escalate the conflict anyway. The Pentagon Papers leaks were a major turning point in the Vietnam War. They helped to turn public opinion against the war, and led to a decline in support for President Richard Nixon. The leaks also led to a number of legal challenges, including a landmark Supreme Court ruling that upheld the First Amendment rig...