Why was Nixon so worried about the Pentagon Papers?
Nixon was worried about something else, something that could damage him politically — the potential leak of his own Vietnam secrets. As the Nixon tapes record, the President quickly convinced himself that the leak of the Pentagon Papers was the work of a conspiracy that intended to leak his secrets as well.
What did the Pentagon Papers reveal?
The Pentagon Papers revealed that the U.S. had secretly enlarged the scope of its actions in the Vietnam War with coastal raids on North Vietnam, and Marine Corps attacks—none of which were reported in the mainstream media.
Why did Nixon want to keep the Kennedy-Johnson papers secret?
In public, Nixon wanted to disassociate his administration from what he termed the “Kennedy-Johnson Papers.” Instead he told Charles W. “Chuck” Colson, a White House political operative, to focus on the "larger responsibility to maintain the integrity of government" by keeping secret matters secret.
What was Nixon’s reaction to the Vietnam Papers?
But it was Nixon’s reactions to the Papers which linked him with them in the minds of the public, and which began the decline of his presidency, even as he was withdrawing American troops from South Vietnam. Many of Nixon’s decisions were made based on the advice and counsel of his closest aides.
Why did Nixon try to stop the publishing of the Pentagon Papers quizlet?
Terms in this set (2) -In 1971, Nixon wanted to stop publication of the study because the release of the Pentagon papers would hurt National Security during the war.
What was the issue with the Pentagon Papers?
Impact. The Pentagon Papers revealed that the United States had expanded its war with the bombing of Cambodia and Laos, coastal raids on North Vietnam, and Marine Corps attacks, none of which had been reported by the American media.
Why would Nixon not want to release the tapes?
President Nixon initially refused to release the tapes, putting two reasons forward: first, that the Constitutional principle of executive privilege extends to the tapes and citing the separation of powers and checks and balances within the Constitution, and second, claiming they were vital to national security.
Who broke the Pentagon Papers?
Daniel EllsbergBornApril 7, 1931 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.EducationHarvard University (AB, PhD) King's College, Cambridge Cranbrook SchoolsEmployerRAND CorporationKnown forPentagon Papers, Ellsberg paradox13 more rows
Why did the Supreme Court allow the Pentagon Papers to be published?
The ruling made it possible for The New York Times and The Washington Post newspapers to publish the then-classified Pentagon Papers without risk of government censorship or punishment.
What did the Pentagon Papers case decide?
On June 30, 1971, in what is regarded as one of the most significant prior-restraint cases in history, the U.S. Supreme Court in a 6–3 decision freed the newspapers to resume publishing the material. The court held that the government had failed to justify restraint of publication.
What did Richard Nixon violate?
These articles charged Nixon with: 1) obstruction of justice in attempting to impede the investigation of the Watergate break-in, protect those responsible, and conceal the existence of other illegal activities; 2) abuse of power by using the office of the presidency on multiple occasions, dating back to the first year ...
What amendment did U.S. v Nixon violate?
Immediately after this Act was enacted, Richard Nixon filed a lawsuit in a federal district court claiming that the Act violated the principle of separation of powers, the principle of presidential privilege, Nixon's personal privacy, his First Amendment right of association, and further asserted that it amounted to a ...
What was Nixon's argument for not turning over the Watergate tapes quizlet?
President Nixon argued that he did not have to turn in the tapes because of executive privilege meaning he was able to keep certain things private.
Why did President Nixon authorize the bombing of Cambodia and Laos?
Nixon launched raids against North Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos to disrupt supply lines. Nixon wanted to secure peace by training the South Vietnamese to fight the communists after U.S. troops left completely and to negotiate a peace settlement. The bombing campaign did not have the effect intended.
What was Nixon concerned about the Pentagon Papers?
Although the Justice Department was asserting that further publication of the Pentagon Papers represented a threat to national security, In this conversation, Nixon and his aide were more concerned about how a court ruling would affect plans to "launch that grand jury" against Ellsberg.
Who told Nixon that the Pentagon Papers were not published?
During this conversation with John D. Ehrlichman, who told the president that Attorney General John Mitchell wanted to warn the paper against further publication, Nixon focused on finding out who leaked the Pentagon Papers, not on stopping their publication.
What did Ellsberg do in Vietnam?
Ellsberg had deep knowledge of Vietnam, having served in the Pentagon's International Security Affairs (ISA) division from 1964–65 then as an analyst in South Vietnam for two years. After returning to the United States to work for the RAND Corporation, he became a member of Gelb's task force.
What was the Huston Plan?
Huston was the author of the "Huston Plan," a secret proposal to expand the use of government break-ins, wiretaps, and mail opening in the name of fighting domestic terror. Nixon told his aides to implement the Huston Plan and steal the Vietnam documents from Brookings.
What did Nixon want to disassociate from?
In public, Nixon wanted to disassociate his administration from what he termed the “Kennedy-Johnson Papers.”. Instead he told Charles W. “Chuck” Colson, a White House political operative, to focus on the "larger responsibility to maintain the integrity of government" by keeping secret matters secret.
What did the Supreme Court rule about the Pentagon Papers?
The next day, by a vote of six to three, the Supreme Court ruled that “the government had not met the ‘heavy burden’ of showing justification for a prior restraint.”. In other words, the Times and the Post, as well as other newspapers, could resume publication of the Pentagon Papers.
When did Ellsberg leak the study?
Over the course of several weeks in the fall of 1969 , Ellsberg managed to sneak out and photocopy the study with the help of another former RAND employee. After moving to the MIT Center for International Studies, he made the final decision to leak it.
What did the Pentagon Papers do to the US?
Before the Supreme Court, Solicitor General Erwin N. Griswold says publication of some of the Pentagon Papers would jeopardize American foreign policy. “It will affect lives. It will affect the process of the termination of the war. It will affect the process of recovering prisoners of war,” Griswold says.
Who obtained the Pentagon Papers?
The Washington Post , having obtained a copy of the Pentagon Papers from Ellsberg, publishes the first article in a series: “Documents Reveal US Effort in ’54 to Delay Viet Election.”
Why did Nixon want peace talks?
Nixon feared, with good reason, that if peace talks got underway, they would boost the popularity of President Johnson — and of Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, the Democratic presidential nominee.
What was the first decision Nixon made as President?
One of the first major decisions Nixon made as president was to send American B-52s to bomb the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Cambodia. North Vietnam used the Cambodian border area to infiltrate soldiers and supplies into South Vietnam, and the bombing was meant to disrupt that flow. It did much more, commencing a spiral of violent unintended consequences that quickly descended into disaster.
What did the White House do to deflect criticism?
To deflect criticism, the White House seeks to persuade Johnson to hold a press conference condemning the leak. “The press would bait him, and he’d overreact, and it would become the battle between Lyndon Johnson and the New York Times,” Haldeman says.
How many direct appeals for aid were made by Ho Chi Minh?
In the morning, the Christian Science Monitor reports that the United States “ignored eight direct appeals for aid from North Vietnamese Communist leader Ho Chi Minh in the first five winter months following the end of World War II,” citing the Pentagon Papers as the source.
How long did the Washington Post have to argue?
At 1:20 a.m., after three hours of argument, a three-judge panel of the Federal Court of Appeals votes 2-to-1 to grant the government a temporary restraining order against the Washington Post.
What was the significance of the Pentagon Papers?
The Pentagon Papers, as they became known, also set into motion of chain of events that would lead to the Watergate scandals which began the following year.
What was the Pentagon Papers?
What Was Leaked. The Pentagon Papers represented an official and classified history of United States involvement in Southeast Asia. The project was initiated by Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, in 1968. McNamara, who had masterminded America's escalation of the Vietnam War, had become deeply disillusioned.
What did the press do to win the Watergate scandal?
The press victory was deeply resented by Nixon and his top staff, and they responded by beginning their own secret war against leakers in the government. Actions by a group of White House staffers calling themselves “The Plumbers” would lead to a series of covert actions that escalated into the Watergate scandals.
How long did the Pentagon Papers last?
The arguments at the Supreme Court lasted for two hours.
What was the significance of the New York Times decision?
Publication by the New York Times brought sharp reaction from the Nixon administration, which ultimately led to unlawful actions of the Watergate scandal. The New York Times won a landmark Supreme Court decision hailed as a victory for the First Amendment.
Why did the prosecution of Daniel Ellsberg fall apart?
Daniel Ellsberg, who provided the secret documents to the press, was targeted by the government but the prosecution fell apart due to government misconduct. At Nixon's direction, the federal government, for the first time in history, went to court to prevent a newspaper from publishing material.
Why did the New York Times go to court?
The New York Times went to federal court to fight against the injunction. The government's case contended that material in the Pentagon Papers endangered national security and the federal government had a right to prevent its publication.
What was the Pentagon Papers?
United States. The Pentagon Papers was the name given to a top-secret Department of Defense study of U.S. political and military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967. As the Vietnam War dragged on, with more than 500,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam by 1968, military analyst Daniel Ellsberg—who had worked on the study—came to oppose the war, ...
When did the Times publish the Pentagon papers?
Beginning on June 13, 1971, the Times published a series of front-page articles based on the information contained in the Pentagon Papers. After the third article, the U.S. Department of Justice got a temporary restraining order against further publication of the material, arguing that it was detrimental to U.S. national security.
Why did the plumbers break into Ellsberg's office?
The trial began in 1973, but ended in a dismissal of the charges after prosecutors discovered that a secret White House team (dubbed “the plumbers”) had burglarized Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office in September 1971 in order to find information that would discredit him.
Who did Ellsberg report to?
In 1971, while working as a senior research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for International Studies, Ellsberg gave portions of the report to Neil Sheehan, a reporter at The New York Times. Recommended for you. How Returning WWII Vets Helped Establish America’s Motorcycle Gangs.
Who was the secretary of defense in 1967?
In 1967, at the request of U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, a team of analysts working for the Department of Defense prepared a highly classified study of the U.S. political and military involvement in Vietnam from the end of World War II until the present day. The official title of the study was the “Report of the Office ...
What did George Ellsberg believe about the Vietnam War?
He also believed that the information contained in the Pentagon Papers about U.S. decision-making regarding Vietnam should be more widely available to the American public.
What did Nixon's Solicitor General say about the Pentagon Papers?
Griswold later called the Pentagon Papers an example of "massive overclassification" with "no trace of a threat to the national security". The Pentagon Papers' publication had little or no effect on the ongoing war because they dealt with documents written years before publication.
What is the Pentagon Papers?
For the 2003 film, see The Pentagon Papers (film). The Pentagon Papers, officially titled Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force, is a United States Department of Defense history of the United States' political and military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967. The papers were released by Daniel Ellsberg, who had ...
What were the most damaging revelations in the Pentagon Papers?
The most damaging revelations in the papers revealed that four administrations (Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson) had misled the public regarding their intentions. For example, the Eisenhower administration active ly worked against the Geneva Accords. The John F. Kennedy administration knew of plans to overthrow South Vietnamese leader Ngo Dinh Diem before his death in a November 1963 coup. President Johnson had decided to expand the war while promising "we seek no wider war" during his 1964 presidential campaign, including plans to bomb North Vietnam well before the 1964 Election. President Johnson had been outspoken against doing so during the election and claimed that his opponent Barry Goldwater was the one that wanted to bomb North Vietnam.
Why were the Pentagon papers on the cover of Time magazine?
Shortly after their release in June 1971, the Pentagon Papers were featured on the cover of Time magazine for revealing "The Secret War" of the United States in Vietnam. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara created the Vietnam Study Task Force on June 17, 1967, for the purpose of writing an "encyclopedic history of the Vietnam War ".
What did Ellsberg say to the press?
Ellsberg surrendered to authorities in Boston, and admitted that he had given the papers to the press: "I felt that as an American citizen, as a responsible citizen, I could no longer cooperate in concealing this information from the American public. I did this clearly at my own jeopardy and I am prepared to answer to all the consequences of this decision". He was indicted by a grand jury in Los Angeles on charges of stealing and holding secret documents. Federal District Judge William Matthew Byrne, Jr. declared a mistrial and dismissed all charges against Ellsberg and Russo on May 11, 1973, after it was revealed that agents acting on the orders of the Nixon administration illegally broke into the office of Ellsberg's psychiatrist and attempted to steal files; representatives of the Nixon administration approached the Ellsberg trial judge with an offer of the job of FBI directorship; several irregularities appeared in the government's case including its claim that it had lost records of illegal wiretapping against Ellsberg conducted by the White House Plumbers in the contemporaneous Watergate scandal. Byrne ruled: "The totality of the circumstances of this case which I have only briefly sketched offend a sense of justice. The bizarre events have incurably infected the prosecution of this case." Ellsberg and Russo were freed due to the mistrial; they were not acquitted of violating the Espionage Act.
Why was Popkin in jail?
Popkin, then assistant professor of Government at Harvard University, was jailed for a week for his refusal to answer questions before a grand jury investigating the Pentagon Papers case, during a hearing before the Boston Federal District Court.
Why did Nixon not oppose the publication of the study?
But Henry Kissinger convinced the president that not opposing the publication set a negative precedent for future secrets. The administration argued Ellsberg and Russo were guilty of a felony under the Espionage Act of 1917, because they had no authority to publish classified documents. After failing to persuade The New York Times to voluntarily cease publication on June 14, Attorney General John N. Mitchell and Nixon obtained a federal court injunction forcing The New York Times to cease publication after three articles. The New York Times publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger said:
What was the Pentagon Papers?
The released study, dubbed the Pentagon Papers by the press, was a bombshell, further widening the rift in American society over involvement in Vietnam, and over the conduct of the US government in general. Here are some facts about the Pentagon Papers and the furor they caused. Dean Rusk, President Johnson, and McNamara in 1968.
Who commissioned the Pentagon Papers?
Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense to Kennedy and Johnson, commissioned the Pentagon Papers as a comprehensive history of American involvement in Southeast Asia. Wikimedia. Advertisement. The study, which was conducted within the Pentagon and civilian contractor organizations, was classified as Top Secret.
Why did the US participate in Vietnam?
The Pentagon Papers revealed that America’s true role in Vietnam, and other countries in Southeast Asia, was aimed at restricting the influence of China. Vietnam was one country in a ring which the United States wanted to use to encircle China with democratic allies, which also included Korea, Japan, Pakistan, India, the Philippines, and others.
Why did the US take military action in 1964?
In October 1964, just weeks before the election, the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff recommended to the National Security Council and the President, “strong military actions are now required in order to prevent the collapse of the US position in Southeast Asia”. It was in the fall of 1964 that President Johnson allowed American advisors, in company with South Vietnamese troops, to cross into Laos on the ground in order to destroy supplies meant for the Viet Cong, or the means of transporting them. By the end of 1964, often these raids included only one Vietnamese soldier, the rest being CIA and US military personnel.
What was the United States' role in the Vietnam War?
Advertisement. 8. The United States worked to start the war between North and South Vietnam. Under the Eisenhower Administration several governments were toppled around the world with the support of the Central Intelligence Agency, including in Iraq, Iran, and in South America and the Caribbean.
How did John McNaughton die?
McNaughton’s untimely death in a plane crash led to the work being led by Leslie Gelb, a former assistant to Senator Jacob Javits, and a senior official in international affairs at the Pentagon. Three dozen analysts worked directly on the project, supported by their individual staffs.
What happened in 1940?
In the autumn of 1940 Imperial Japan invaded French Indochina, and fighting in Vietnam stemmed from that event. The Vietnamese people did not want to be ruled by Japan, and insurrections against Japanese occupation forces continued throughout the war. When the French returned in 1945, the Vietnamese weren’t eager to be ruled by them either, and the fighting continued, with well organized forces supported by newly communist China battling the French colonial troops. They also received support from the Soviet Union. The Truman Administration, unable to support the French with troops due to Korea, provided covert military aid in equipment and money.
Who leaked the Pentagon papers?
What distinguished the Pentagon Papers was that The Times was not only providing interpretive articles, but also presenting the documents themselves, which had been leaked by Daniel Ellsberg, a military analyst who had worked on the history.
When did the Times stop publishing the Pentagon papers?
Sulzberger, over the signature of Mr. Nixon’s attorney general, John N. Mitchell: On June 14, 1971, John N. Mitchell, the attorney general of the United States, ordered The Times to stop publishing the Pentagon Papers.
What was the most prominent exception to the hydrogen bomb?
The most prominent exception was a 1979 case in which the government tried to prevent the Progressive magazine from publishing an article about the hydrogen bomb , said George Freeman, the executive director of the Media Law Resource Center.
When did the Supreme Court overturn the Nixon administration's effort to restrain the New York Times and The Washington Post
On June 30, 1971 , the Supreme Court overturned the Nixon administration’s effort to restrain The New York Times and The Washington Post from publishing a top-secret history of the Vietnam War called the Pentagon Papers. Its unsigned opinion, in which six justices concurred, simply quoted from two other decisions ...
When was the Pentagon's Vietnam study published?
The New York Times Corporate Archive. “I have been advised by the secretary of defense that the material published in The New York Times on June 13, 14, 1971, captioned 'Key Texts from Pentagon’s Vietnam Study,’ contains information relating to the national defense of the United States and bears a top secret ...
When did the Supreme Court overturn the Nixon administration?
“We agree.”. Not among the most stirring judicial defenses of the First Amendment you’ve ever heard. But it was enough to get the job done. On June 30, 1971, the Supreme Court overturned the Nixon administration’s effort ...
Who printed the free the times buttons?
John Crewdson and Barbara Dubivsky of the Washington bureau quickly came up with a retort, printing hundreds of buttons that said, “Free The Times XXII” and “Free The Times 22.”. To the astonishment of everyone involved, the case made its way to the Supreme Court in less than two weeks.