Pentagon Papers

In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg, a former Marine, Pentagon employee and military analyst, performed one of the most daring whistle-blowing acts of the century: Leaking ex-employer Rand Corp.'s copies of the top-secret Pentagon Papers to the New York Times (and subsequently other major dailies) in order to expose the truth -- or, more specifically, the lies -- behind America's longtime involvement in the Vietnam conflict. The gripping story of how hawk-turned-dove Ellsberg's explosive actions circuitously led to the impeachment of Richard Nixon and, in turn, an end to the Vietnam War is comprehensively detailed in Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith's evocative documentary "The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers."

Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, the fourth publisher of the New York Times, who made history with his decision to publish the Pentagon Papers and revived the "Good Gray Lady" of print journalism with a radical redesign that set a new standard, has died. He was 86. His death Saturday at his home in Southampton, N.Y., after a long illness, was announced by his son and the current publisher, Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr. Widely known by the nickname Punch, the senior Sulzberger was publisher of the Times from 1963 to 1992 and chairman and chief executive of the parent company from 1973 to 1997.

Daniel Ellsberg remembers the day he learned that time may indeed heal all wounds. "By the end of the Cold War, around 1989 or so," recalls Ellsberg, who had been despised and disowned in the '70s for leaking classified documents about the Vietnam War, "I'd be in a meeting with someone, and they wouldn't leave the room. " This small triumph ? he offers a shy smile ? may not sound like cause for celebration. But when you've been called "the most dangerous man in America" by Henry Kissinger, you take your good news where you can get it. Ellsberg's growing unease about the Vietnam War, his decision to leak the 7,000-page Pentagon Papers to the press and members of Congress, and the turmoil he experienced afterward are the subjects of POV's "The Most Dangerous Man in America," an Academy Award-nominated documentary that PBS broadcasts Tuesday.

Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs discussed unflattering details of his personal life when applying for top secret security clearance in the late 1980s. Steve Jobs told government officials in a 1988 interview that he thought someone might kidnap his illegitimate daughter in order to blackmail him, according to Department of Defense documents acquired by Wired through a Freedom of Information Act request. He also discussed his drug use, which has been disclosed in news stories and the extensive biography by Walter Isaacson that was published shortly after Jobs' death in 2011.

A JOINT resolution referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) calls for the withdrawal of all American military forces from Iraq by Dec. 31. Boxer's "redeployment" bill cites in its preamble a January poll finding that 64% of Iraqis believe that crime and violent attacks will decrease if the U.S. leaves Iraq within six months, 67% believe that their day-to-day security will increase if the U.S.

Leonard Weinglass, a crusading lawyer who championed radical and liberal causes and clients in some of the most controversial trials of the 1960s and '70s, including the Chicago 7 and Pentagon Papers cases, died Wednesday in New York City. He was 77. The cause was pancreatic cancer, said Michael Krinsky, a colleague and friend of 40 years. Weinglass, who practiced in Los Angeles for two decades before moving to New York, developed a reputation as a firebrand during the Chicago 7 conspiracy case against anti-Vietnam War protesters at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

Anthony J. Russo, a Rand researcher in the late 1960s who encouraged Daniel Ellsberg to leak the Pentagon Papers and stood trial with him in the Vietnam War-era case that triggered debates over freedom of the press and hastened the fall of a president, has died. He was 71. Russo, who lived in Santa Monica for many years, died Wednesday of natural causes in his native Suffolk, Va., according to a spokesman for the Suffolk Police Department.

Harding Foster Bancroft, 81, retired diplomat, lawyer and vice chairman of the New York Times who played a key role in the paper's decision to print the Pentagon Papers. A Navy lieutenant in World War II, Bancroft in 1945 joined the Bureau of United Nations Affairs in the State Department. In 1951, he became deputy U.S. representative to a U.N. panel on peace. He joined the Times in 1956 as assistant secretary and associate counsel.

A former Boeing Co. marketing executive was sentenced today to two years in prison for illegally passing classified Pentagon budget documents to his employers and other defense firms. Richard Lee Fowler, 64, was sentenced after his conviction last month on 39 felony counts arising from his possession of the Pentagon documents. Fowler could have received a 310-year prison term and a $225,000 fine. U.S. District Judge Albert V.

William R. Glendon, 89, who successfully defended the Washington Post before the U.S. Supreme Court in the Pentagon Papers case, died of multiple organ failure Dec. 25 at a hospital in White Plains, N.Y. On June 26, 1971, Glendon, representing the Washington Post, and Alexander Bickel, representing the New York Times, argued before the high court against an effort by the Nixon White House to prevent publication of a secret multi-volume history of...

Leonard Weinglass, a crusading lawyer who championed radical and liberal causes and clients in some of the most controversial trials of the 1960s and '70s, including the Chicago 7 and Pentagon Papers cases, died Wednesday in New York City. He was 77. The cause was pancreatic cancer, said Michael Krinsky, a colleague and friend of 40 years. Weinglass, who practiced in Los Angeles for two decades before moving to New York, developed a reputation as a firebrand during the Chicago 7 conspiracy case against anti-Vietnam War protesters at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

Daniel Ellsberg remembers the day he learned that time may indeed heal all wounds. "By the end of the Cold War, around 1989 or so," recalls Ellsberg, who had been despised and disowned in the '70s for leaking classified documents about the Vietnam War, "I'd be in a meeting with someone, and they wouldn't leave the room. " This small triumph ? he offers a shy smile ? may not sound like cause for celebration. But when you've been called "the most dangerous man in America" by Henry Kissinger, you take your good news where you can get it. Ellsberg's growing unease about the Vietnam War, his decision to leak the 7,000-page Pentagon Papers to the press and members of Congress, and the turmoil he experienced afterward are the subjects of POV's "The Most Dangerous Man in America," an Academy Award-nominated documentary that PBS broadcasts Tuesday.

WikiLeaks and us Re "A whistle-blower with global resonance," and "WikiLeaks wasn't wrong," Editorial, July 27 WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, an Australian hacker, may end up being one of the best things to ever happen to our American democracy. It is not for politicians and bureaucrats to decide what American citizens and voters need to know. In the last 75 years, we have seen a sharp increase in the use of secrecy laws to cover up illegal activities, corruption and incompetence rather than to protect information that safeguards national security, as originally intended.

The most important lesson from the release of tens of thousands of pages of classified information about the war in Afghanistan seems to be getting lost: Far too much information is classified, often simply because it is embarrassing to the government. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that there "weren't any new revelations in the material,"and nothing has been identified that is likely to be damaging to national security. The question, then, must be why so much of this material was classified and kept from the public?

Though propelled to fame by its recent disclosures about the U.S. military, WikiLeaks has homed in on targets as wide-ranging as corruption in the family of a former Kenyan ruler, alleged illegal activities by a Swiss bank and Sarah Palin's private e-mail account. And in just 3 1/2 years, the secretive organization founded by a convicted Australian hacker has helped pioneer a new model for using the Internet to unearth classified government documents and private corporate memos.

Predictably, this week's release of thousands of classified documents by WikiLeaks — which also provided them to the New York Times, Germany's Der Spiegel and the Guardian in London — has fired up those who believe secrecy fosters national security and who shudder at the idea of journalists rummaging through classified material. Typical was the comment from tiresome Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.). WikiLeaks, he maintained, is armed with "an ideological agenda implacably hostile to our military and the most basic requirements of our national security."

Chalmers M. Roberts, 94, a retired chief diplomatic correspondent for the Washington Post, died Friday of congestive heart failure at his home in Bethesda, Md. Roberts spent more than two decades with the Post, becoming chief diplomatic correspondent in 1953. He also wrote about the Supreme Court, Congress and several occupants of the White House. Just before his retirement in 1971, Roberts threatened to resign if the Post did not publish his story on the Pentagon Papers.

U.S. District Judge William Matthew Byrne Jr., a leading jurist and an ambassador of the law best known for his role in ending the trial of Pentagon Papers defendant Daniel Ellsberg after disclosing government misconduct in the case, died of pulmonary fibrosis Thursday at his Los Feliz home. He was 75. Byrne became the youngest judge ever appointed to the federal bench when he was confirmed in 1971 at age 40.

The Runaways Sony, $27.96; Blu-ray, $34.95 First time writer-director Floria Sigismondi turns the sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll lifestyle of the all-girl teen-rock act the Runaways into an impressionistic, wildly erratic art film, more about '70s decadence than biopic coherence. Any scene where the gals storm the stage and rock out is thrilling, and Michael Shannon gives another in his recent string of knockout performances as the band's guru-manager-leech, Kim Fowley. But the movie provides scant details about the band's brief rise to fame, and it shortchanges any character who's not Cherie Currie or Joan Jett.

George Marshall's call to rebuild Europe was delivered at Harvard in 1947; Dwight Eisenhower's plea to students to resist the "book burners" was uttered at Dartmouth in 1953, at the height of the McCarthy era; Alexander Solzhenitsyn gave his searing critique of Western society at Harvard's graduation in 1978. To that short list of great commencement addresses should be added last weekend's eloquent exposition on the role of the U.S. Supreme Court in American society, delivered again at Harvard, this time by former Justice David H. Souter.