Daniel Ellsberg, a military analyst who profoundly influenced American politics, military history and journalism by leaking to the press the Pentagon Papers, secret documents about the Vietnam War, died Friday.
The person whom Henry Kissinger once dubbed “the most dangerous man in America” was 92. Ellsberg’s family confirmed his death in a statement.
Ellsberg’s 1971 disclosure of the Pentagon Papers revealed secrets about how America found its way into Vietnam and got stuck there, while also casting light on the way U.S. leaders had deceived the nation about why its sons were dying. The release of the papers led to a high-stakes legal battle over freedom of the press and pushed President Richard Nixon’s team on the dark path toward the Watergate scandal.
Some called Ellsberg a hero and others branded him a traitor. Those debates hardened over the years, resurfacing whenever someone tried to shine light on painful truths.
“He had concluded the violence in Vietnam was senseless and therefore immoral. His conscience told him he had to stop the war,” Neil Sheehan, the journalist who was the first to publish parts of the Pentagon Papers, wrote in “A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam.” Läs artikel