Pentagon Papers
The Oxford Companion to United States History
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2001
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© The Oxford Companion to United States History 2001, originally published by Oxford University Press 2001. (Hide copyright information)
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Pentagon Papers. Commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in June 1967 to determine what had gone wrong in Vietnam, the research project that came to be called the Pentagon Papers played a critical role in the
Vietnam War saga. Completed in 1969, the study comprised forty‐seven volumes and more than seven thousand pages of text and government documents analyzing U.S. involvement in Vietnam from
World War II forward, especially during the presidential administrations of John F.
Kennedy and Lyndon B.
Johnson. It raised fundamental policy questions and confirmed antiwar critics' charges of high‐level deception and duplicity.
The former Defense Department official Daniel Ellsberg leaked the papers to the
New York Times, which began to publish them in June 1971, provoking a political and constitutional crisis. Revelations from the Pentagon Papers fueled popular disillusionment with an already discredited war. Obsessed with government secrecy, President Richard M.
Nixon sought a court injunction to prevent further publication. In
New York Times Co. v.
United States (1971), the
Supreme Court ruled that the government had not met constitutional tests for prior restraint. Large portions of the papers subsequently appeared in the
Times and other newspapers, as well as in various paperback editions.
The Pentagon Papers had a profound impact in a tumultuous period. Strengthening public and congressional opposition to U.S. involvement in Vietnam, they also initiated an era of aggressive investigative
journalism. Their leak provoked a vengeful Nixon to take steps that would culminate in the
Watergate scandal and his resignation. The papers remained for many years the basis for much of the scholarship on the Vietnam War.
Bibliography
David Rudenstine , The Day the Presses Stopped: A History of the Pentagon Papers Case, 1996.
George C. Herring
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What's Wrong With the `Pentagon Paper'?; It's an impressive blueprint for the new world order.
Newspaper article from: The Washington Post; 3/13/1992; ; 700+ words
; ...settlement of Maale Adumim), but from the Pentagon. Naturally enough, the document has...York Times, which leaked this newest "Pentagon Paper." With enemies like these, one can assume that the Pentagon Paper is doing something right. In...
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PENTAGON PAPER PREDICTED NEW TERROR
News Wire article from: United Press International; 5/17/2002; 700+ words
; 00-00-0000 Pentagon paper predicted new terror WASHINGTON, May...landmarks to hit the White House or Pentagon. Terror 2000 was never released to...panic. The Sept. 17 story by UPI Pentagon Correspondent Pam Hess said the report...
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The New Pentagon Paper
Newspaper article from: The Washington Post; 5/27/1992; 570 words
; THE REVISED version of a major Pentagon planning paper should restore a measure of calm to a rhetorical atmosphere...indifference to international cooperation evident in the earlier paper. No longer are democratic allies Germany and Japan regarded...
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Inside the Pentagon Papers
Magazine article from: Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly; 12/1/2004; ; 700+ words
; Inside the Pentagon Papers. John Prados and Margaret Pratt...and worked on the newspaper's Pentagon Papers reports, offered this telling observation...infelicitous turns of phrase ("the Pentagon Papers dropped like a huge stink bomb...
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Inside the Pentagon Papers.(Book Review)
Magazine article from: Presidential Studies Quarterly; 9/1/2005; ; 700+ words
; Inside the Pentagon Papers. Edited by John Prados and Margaret...excising statements he made about the Pentagon Papers in White House Years (1978) from...administration's inner decisions in the Pentagon Papers affairs fails to establish that...
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The Day the Presses Stopped: A History of the Pentagon Papers Case
Magazine article from: Journalism History; 1/1/1997; ; 700+ words
; ...Presses Stopped: A History of the Pentagon Papers Case. Berkeley: University...York Times' publication of the Pentagon Papers to the Supreme Court decision...played important roles in the Pentagon Papers trial. More often than not...
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 "Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Seattle, WA)")
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PENTAGON PAPERS AS JOHN GRISHAM NOVEL.(Editorial)
Newspaper article from: Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Seattle, WA); 6/28/2007; 700+ words
; ...that doesn't faze former Pentagon analyst Daniel Ellsberg...publication of the Pentagon Papers by the Beacon Press, a small...of the leak of the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times is famous...restraining order, stopping the paper from printing more. It was...Ellsberg got the ...
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Q&A: SECRECY, LIES, POWER AND THE PENTAGON PAPERS
News Wire article from: Inter Press Service English News Wire; 9/30/2009; 700+ words
; ...Daniel Ellsberg released the "Pentagon Papers" to The New York Times...become known as the "Pentagon Papers," officially titled "United...Department of Defense." The Papers were a top-secret history...war senators to release the papers on the Senate floor, Ellsberg...United States - ...
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Post Pentagon Papers story is myth.
Magazine article from: St. Louis Journalism Review; 6/1/1999; ; 700+ words
; ...the notion that the paper covered itself with...during the so-called Pentagon Papers affair in 1971. In fact, the paper covered itself with...should have kept the Pentagon Papers first installment in the paper and kept the presses...
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Inside the Pentagon Papers.(book by John Prados and Margaret Pratt Porter)(Book Review)
Magazine article from: Parameters; 6/22/2005; ; 700+ words
; Inside the Pentagon Papers. Edited by John Prados and Margaret...Supreme Court's 1971 decision in the Pentagon Papers case, New York Times Co...compromised by publication of the Pentagon Papers. The government hurt its own case...
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Pentagon Papers
Dictionary entry from: Dictionary of American History
PENTAGON PAPERS PENTAGON PAPERS. Popularly known as the Pentagon Papers, the "History...misconduct. There is no evidence that the public disclosure of the Pentagon Papers injured national security as the government contended it would...
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Excerpt from the Pentagon Papers (1963–1964)
Dictionary entry from: Dictionary of American History
EXCERPT FROM THE PENTAGON PAPERS (1963 – 1964) The Pentagon Papers are a forty-seven-volume, seven-thousand...Americans. Mark D. Baumann , New York University See also Pentagon Papers ; Vietnam War . "McNamara Report to Johnson...
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Pentagon Papers Case
Book article from: The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States
Pentagon Papers Case See New York Times Co. v. United States .
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Pentagon, the
Book article from: The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
Pentagon, the the pentagonal building serving as the headquarters of the US Department...language supposedly used among high-ranking US military personnel. Pentagon Papers a confidential report on US involvement in Indochina, commissioned in...
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New York Times Co. v. United States
Encyclopedia entry from: West's Encyclopedia of American Law
...often referred to as the Pentagon Papers case, concerned the government...Pentagon Papers. Other than the Pentagon Papers case, the most important Supreme...location of troops." In the Pentagon Papers case a divided Supreme Court...
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