Pentagon Papers Published Revealing Systematic Government Deception About Vietnam War

On June 13, 1971, The New York Times began publishing excerpts from a 7,000-page classified Defense Department study titled “History of U.S. Decision-Making in Vietnam, 1945-1968”—soon known as the Pentagon Papers. Leaked by military analyst Daniel Ellsberg, the documents revealed that four successive presidential administrations had systematically deceived the American public and Congress about the origins, conduct, and prospects of the Vietnam War.

The study, commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in 1967, documented that the Truman administration provided military support to France’s colonial war despite publicly claiming neutrality; that the Eisenhower administration undermined the 1954 Geneva Accords and installed the Diem regime; that the Kennedy administration deepened involvement despite internal assessments that the war was unwinnable; and that the Johnson administration planned major escalation while campaigning as the peace candidate in 1964.

The papers revealed that the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was drafted months before the alleged attacks and that administration officials knew the second attack never occurred. They documented the “credibility gap”—the systematic gap between private assessments and public statements—as official policy rather than incidental deception.

The Nixon administration obtained a court injunction blocking publication—the first prior restraint on the press in American history. The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in New York Times Co. v. United States that the government had not met the “heavy burden” required to justify prior restraint. The case established crucial press freedom precedents for publishing leaked classified information in the public interest.

Nixon’s fury at the leak led to the creation of the “Plumbers,” a secret White House unit tasked with stopping leaks and destroying Ellsberg’s reputation. The Plumbers broke into Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office seeking damaging information—a crime that later contributed to Nixon’s resignation. Ellsberg faced 115 years in prison under the Espionage Act, but charges were dismissed after revelations of government misconduct.

The Pentagon Papers demonstrated that the national security classification system could be used to conceal politically inconvenient truths rather than protect legitimate secrets. They showed that official deception was not the exception but the norm in national security policy, and that democratic oversight was impossible without access to information the executive branch monopolized. The case became a landmark for both press freedom and government accountability, though its lessons about institutional deception would be repeatedly ignored in subsequent conflicts.