Pentagon Papers
Richard Nixon was the 37th
American President who served in office
from
January 20, 1969 to August 9, 1974. One of the important events during his
presidency was the publication of the Pentagon Papers in
the summer of 1971.
Background History to the Pentagon Papers:
The Vietnam War
The
Vietnam War (November 1,
1955 – April 30, 1975) was a long standing conflict fought between
the Communist government of North Vietnam and Viet Cong guerrillas,
who were supported by the Chinese, and the armies of South Vietnam supported by the
United States.
Background History to the Pentagon Papers
To understand the impact of the Pentagon
Papers it is helpful to understand the recent historical events
surrounding the Vietnam War just prior to the publication of the
Pentagon Papers. In 1967 General Westmoreland, who was in
overall command of the Vietnamese operation, had told the American
public the war in Vietnam was progressing well and the end was in
sight.
● Despite assurances from
the military and the US Government things were not going well,
and anti-war protests against the Vietnam War were dramatically
increasing
● The North Vietnamese and
Viet Cong launched the surprise attack called the
Tet Offensive (January 30, 1968
- September 23, 1968) which gained a massive psychological and
political victory for the communists
● By April 1969 US troop
deployment had reached its peak, numbering 543,000 US soldiers
in the Vietnam War.
● In November 1969, news of
the My Lai Massacre broke in
America to the horror of the nation
● On April 30, 1970
President Nixon, fearing a humiliating defeat in Vietnam,
extended the war to Cambodia.
● Large scale anti-war
demonstrations spread across the USA and on May 4, 1970 four
student demonstrators were shot dead at Kent State University by
Ohio National Guardsmen
The Pentagon Papers were
therefore revealed at the time when the American public began
raising questions about the US involvement in the Vietnam war.
Background History to the Pentagon Papers:
Daniel Ellsberg
The impact of the above events had a
dramatic effect of the psyche of the American people, including a
Military analyst called Daniel Ellsberg. Daniel Ellsberg had begun
work for the US Department of Defense in 1964. Daniel Ellsberg moved
to Vietnam in 1965 to work out of the American Embassy in Saigon. He
left Vietnam in June 1967 and began to work for the RAND Corporation
on a top-secret report, ordered by Robert McNamara the Defense
Secretary, entitled 'U.S. Decision-making in Vietnam, 1945-1968'.
The report later became known as "The Pentagon Papers". The
top-secret report contained proof of what Daniel Ellsberg called
"evidence of a quarter century of aggression, broken treaties,
deceptions, stolen elections, lies and murder." Daniel Ellsberg
believed that the Vietnam War should be stopped and made the
dangerous decision to become a "Whistleblower" and expose the
dishonesty and deception of the military and successive
administrations regarding the Vietnam War. Daniel Ellsberg made the
decision to photocopy the "Pentagon Papers".
Pentagon Papers
Facts for kids
The following fact
sheet contains interesting facts and information on Pentagon Papers
Pentagon Papers
Facts for kids
Pentagon Papers
Facts - 1: What were the
Pentagon Papers? A United States government 7,000-page,
47-volume report on the internal planning and policy
decisions within the U.S. government regarding the
Vietnam War.
Pentagon Papers
Facts -
2: The official title
of the report was 'United States-Vietnam Relations,
1945–1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of
Defense' but would become famously known as the
"Pentagon Papers".
Pentagon Papers
Facts - 3: Who commissioned the Pentagon
Papers? The report was commissioned in 1967 by Robert McNamara, the
Secretary of Defense during the administration of President Lyndon
B. Johnson. Why did Robert McNamara commission the report? McNamara
was frustrated with the stalemate of the Vietnam war and wanted to
leave a comprehensive analysis about U.S. involvement in the Vietnam
War for succeeding administrations in order to prevent future policy
errors.
Pentagon Papers
Facts - 4: Who compiled the Pentagon
Papers? Work began on June 17, 1967 by the Vietnam Study Task Force,
under the direction of Leslie H. Gelb. The top secret 'Pentagon
Papers' were compiled by a team of 36 military officers, analysts,
historians and civilian policy experts. One of the team was Military
analyst, Daniel Ellsberg.
Pentagon Papers
Facts - 5: What did the Pentagon Papers
consist of? The report consisted of 4,000 pages of actual documents
taken from the 1945 - 1967 period of the Vietnam War and 3,000 pages
of analysis. The classified study was so secret that is was
completed without the knowledge of President Lyndon Johnson or his
Secretary of State, Dean Rusk.
Pentagon Papers
Facts - 6: What did the
Pentagon Papers reveal? The Pentagon Papers revealed
that Presidents Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower,
John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and their
administrations had deliberately deceived the American
people by escalating the Vietnam War, while publicly
stating the opposite.
Pentagon Papers
Facts - 7: The Pentagon Papers revealed that the
Harry S. Truman administration gave military aid to
France in its war against the communist Viet Minh which
led to the direct involvement of the United States in
Vietnam
Pentagon Papers
Facts - 8: The Pentagon Papers revealed that the
Dwight D. Eisenhower administration, immersed in the
Cold War, decided to undermine the new communist regime
of North Vietnam and prevent a communist takeover of
South Vietnam.
Pentagon Papers
Facts -
9: The Pentagon Papers revealed that the
John F. Kennedy administration changed the Vietnam
policy of "limited-risk gamble" to a policy of “broad
commitment”.
Pentagon Papers
Facts - 10: The Pentagon
Papers revealed that as President Lyndon Johnson was
promising not to expand the Vietnam War the US
government was deliberately expanding its role in
Vietnam by sending in U.S. combat troops, with raids of
the coast of North Vietnam, attacks by U.S. Marine Corps
and air strikes against Laos. Johnson had made up his
mind to send U.S. combat troops to Vietnam
Continued...
Pentagon Papers
Facts for kids
Facts
about the Pentagon Papers for kids
The following fact
sheet continues with facts about Pentagon Papers.
Pentagon Papers
Facts for kids
Pentagon Papers
Facts - 11: Robert McNamara left the
Defense Department in February 1968 and his successor Clark M.
Clifford received the finished study on January 15, 1969, five days
before the inauguration of President Richard Nixon. The report was
classified as "Top Secret – Sensitive" and only 15 copies were
published with limited access.
Pentagon Papers
Facts - 12:
The Pentagon Papers only covered the period in Vietnam
up to 1967 and did not implicate the Nixon administration.
Pentagon Papers
Facts - 13:
A member of the team who compiled the Pentagon Papers,
Daniel Ellsberg, knew it contained "evidence of a quarter century of
aggression, broken treaties, deceptions, stolen elections, lies and
murder" and desperately wanted the Vietnam War to end.
Pentagon Papers
Facts - 14:
Ellsberg, assisted by another team member called Anthony
Russo, began to photocopy large sections of the study with the
intention of becoming a 'Whistleblower' and exposing the content.
Pentagon Papers
Facts - 15:
Daniel Ellsberg approached several members of Congress
including Senator Fulbright and Senator McGovern, in the
hope that they would debate the report in Congress and
enter the Pentagon Papers into the Congressional Record.
All of the Senators declined.
Pentagon Papers
Facts - 16: In March 1971,
taking advice from Senator McGovern, Daniel Ellsberg
made the decision to approach Neil Sheehan, a New York
Times reporter and show him the Pentagon Papers.
Pentagon Papers
Facts - 17: The first of a
series of articles based upon the leaked Pentagon Papers
was published by The New York Times on June, 13 1971.
Pentagon Papers
Facts - 18: President Nixon
was not unduly worried about the first publication as
the Pentagon Papers focused more on the errors of his
predecessors, rather than on him. Nixon was also
promoting the policy of
Vietnamization aimed at withdrawing U.S. troops from
Vietnam. However, Henry
Kissinger, National Security Advisor, was extremely
concerned and convinced Nixon that the articles could
"destroy American credibility forever".
Pentagon Papers
Facts - 19: The New York Times
was slapped with an injunction ordering a stop to
publication which led to the a case in the Supreme
Court. On June 26 the Supreme Court heard the case New
York Times Co. v. United States. On June 30, 1971 the
Supreme Court held in a 6–3 decision that the
injunctions were unconstitutional due to the First
Amendment to the United States Constitution advocating
the right to free speech.
Pentagon Papers
Facts -
20: Daniel Ellsberg
was charged with theft, conspiracy and violations of the
Espionage Act for leaking the Pentagon Papers, but his
case was dismissed as a mis-trial when evidence emerged
about wiretappings and break-ins that had been ordered
by the government
Pentagon Papers
Facts - 21:
The Pentagon Papers were published in the New York
Times, the Washington Post and various other newspapers
and caused outrage and uproar with the American
Public.
Pentagon Papers
Facts -
22: The publication of
the Pentagon Papers confirmed many suspicions about the
"credibility gap" between what the government said and
what they actually did.
Pentagon Papers
Facts -
23: The significance
of the Pentagon Papers heralded a new era of skepticism
about the Vietnam War and the US government in general.
Pentagon Papers
Facts -
24: The
End of the Vietnam War
came with a Ceasefire agreement on January 27, 1973
ending U.S. military involvement in the war. A total of
2.59 million Americans had served their country in the
conflict during which 58,307 American troops were killed
and 304,000 were wounded, of which 75,000 returned home
severely disabled.
Pentagon Papers
Facts -
25: The government
sanctions of wiretappings and break-ins surrounding
Daniel Ellsberg and Pentagon Papers were later mirrored
in lies and deceptions of the
Watergate Scandal which
led to the downfall of President Nixon.
Pentagon Papers
Facts -
26: The Pentagon Papers were finally
declassified and released on June 13, 2011.
Pentagon Papers
Facts for kids
Pentagon Papers - President Richard Nixon Video
The article on the Pentagon Papers provides detailed facts and a summary of one of the important events during his presidential term in office. The following
Richard Nixon video will
give you additional important facts and dates about the political events experienced by the
37th American President
whose presidency spanned from
January 20, 1969 to August 9, 1974.
Pentagon Papers
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Interesting Facts about Pentagon Papers for kids and schools
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Summary of the Pentagon Papers in US history
●
Facts about the Pentagon Papers
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Richard Nixon Presidency from
January 20, 1969 to August 9, 1974
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Foreign & Domestic policies of President Richard Nixon
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