Today marks the 40th anniversary of the publication of the first excerpt of a classified report on the Vietnam War, known as the Pentagon Papers, by The New York Times. To mark the occasion, the U.S. government has finally declassified and released the document in its entirety, making it available to the public online, at the National Archives and at several presidential libraries.
Forty years ago today, the most famous leak in American history came to light when The New York Times began publishing sections of the so-called Pentagon Papers, a top-secret Department of Defense report on America’s involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967. Commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, the 47-volume study indicated that the U.S. government had misled the public and Congress, deceiving them about the scope, goals and progress of the increasingly unpopular war. The Times had obtained the incriminating papers from Daniel Ellsberg, a former Defense Department analyst turned antiwar activist who had smuggled them out of the Pentagon.
The Pentagon Papers’ publication sparked a nationwide furor, galvanizing the powerful antiwar movement and damaging the credibility of America’s Cold War-era foreign policy. It also precipitated a decisive ideological and legal battle over the freedom of the press to disclose “classified” information and the public’s right to know about its government’s activities. The day after The Times unveiled the first excerpt, President Richard Nixon attempted to stop further publication through a federal court injunction. The landmark Supreme Court case New York Times Co. v. United States, decided several weeks later, upheld the right of The New York Times and other newspapers to disclose information contained in the report under the First Amendment.
Today, the full text of the Pentagon Papers was declassified and—for the first time in history—posted online in its entirety and without redactions. According to a release issued by the National Archives, 34 percent of the report—2,384 pages—has never before been available to the public. The original hard copy of the report covers 7,000 pages and fills 48 boxes. Click here to access the Pentagon Papers exactly four decades after the press leaked their existence to the American people.
Slideshow: History of the Pentagon Papers
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Demonstration Against the Vietnam War in Washington, D.C., in 1969
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By the mid-1960s, many Americans had begun to express their opposition to the Vietnam War, a Cold War-era military conflict that had started in 1955. Mounting death tolls and controversy over how the war was being conducted fueled the antiwar movement, which was initially led by students but soon grew to involve prominent figures and people outside the United States. (Credit: Corbis)
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Robert McNamara in Vietnam in 1965
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Against this backdrop of antiwar sentiment, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, though considered one of the war’s primary architects, began to harbor doubts about U.S. policy in Vietnam and the actions of previous administrations. He ordered his department to prepare an in-depth history of American involvement in the Vietnam War based on existing files. The 47-volume report, officially titled "United States-Viet Nam Relations, 1945-1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense," was delivered to his successor, Clark M. Clifford, in January 1969, nearly a year after McNamara resigned from his post. (Credit: Bettmann/Corbis)
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Dean Rusk, Lyndon B. Johnson and Robert McNamara in February 1968
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President Lyndon Johnson, Secretary of State Dean Rusk and other key officials were not aware that McNamara had commissioned the study. For reasons that remain speculative, it was allegedly conducted with the utmost secrecy.
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Daniel Ellsberg at a Press Conference in the 1970s
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Defense Department analyst Daniel Ellsberg, a Vietnam War veteran with a doctorate in economics, contributed to McNamara’s study, which later became known as the Pentagon Papers, for a period of time in 1967. By 1969, Ellsberg had begun attending antiwar protests and decided that the war was unjust. In October 1969, he and a colleague covertly photocopied the Pentagon Papers. He shared the document with a select group of officials, scholars and reporters, including Neil Sheehan of The New York Times. On June 13, 1971, the paper began publishing excerpts of the study, which painted a startling picture of government deception and policy blunders. (Credit: Getty Images)
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President Richard Nixon in Saigon in 1969
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By the time The New York Times released the first excerpt of the Pentagon Papers, President Richard Nixon had taken office and altered the course of the Vietnam War. Even though the report reflected poorly on the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, not his own, he sought to block their publication through a federal court injunction. (Credit: Bettmann/Corbis)
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Washington Post Publisher Katharine Graham with Executive Editor Ben Bradlee Celebrate the Pentagon Papers Supreme Court Decision
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The New York Times appealed, and on June 30, 1971, the Supreme Court upheld the right of The New York Times, The Washington Post and other newspapers to disclose information contained in the report under the First Amendment. (Credit: Getty Images)
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Portion of the Pentagon Papers’ Index
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On June 13, 2011, 40 years after The New York Times leaked their existence to the American people, the Pentagon Papers were declassified and released to the public in their entirety.
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