About Pentagon Papers

In his book on the Nixon presidency, the strong man: John Mitchell and the Secrets of Watergate (2008), Fox News, Washington James Rosen, the corresponding depth investigation of Pentagon documents and interviewed many people involved in this case. Among them was Daniel Ellsberg, Marine and disgruntled former consultant of the Department of Defense who turned against the Vietnam War and disclosure documents for the New York Times. The time series of excerpts from the ultra-secret study began forty years ago Monday, causing a large part of the historic Supreme Court on the scope and limits of press freedom, as well as domestic spying, this leading to the resignation of President Nixon. In this case, James examines five myths prevail over the Pentagon Papers.

Myth 1: IN ANNIVERSARY Monday, the forty RELEASE NEW YORK TIMES "The first excerpts of the Pentagon Papers - The National Archives released the number of teams working ample material never before available publicly.

"About 2,384 pages, 34% the report of the first opening," said the site of the National Archives on Monday. However, John Meadows, the renowned historian of the Vietnam War and the U.S. intelligence community, told Fox News he was able to find the files on the site, some odd pages of new material - maybe " several hundred "more than made up mainly of notes and contains nothing that radically changes our understanding of war or the Ellsberg case. An official of the National Archives in accordance with the conclusion, "he told Fox News that the material to date the most recent" no smoking guns. "

Myth 2: The Pentagon Papers a bad image of the Nixon administration.

In fact, the report of 7000 pages, forty-seven volumes, classified, entitled "History of U.S. policy in Vietnam", was commissioned by Robert S. McNamara, defense secretary, who served Presidents Kennedy and Johnson and was completed five days before Richard Nixon was inaugurated as president of thirty-seven of the country January 20, 1969. Nixon legal battle to suspend issuance of documents in the New York Times, and his zeal in the search for the leak, Daniel Ellsberg, came mostly from his belief that foreign countries will gather in negotiations with U.S. officials Washington can not be trusted to keep vital government secrets in the pages of newspapers around the country.

Myth 3: plumbers BREAK IN THE OFFICE OF PSYCHIATIRST Daniel Ellsberg has failed.

In May 1971, the year before the same cast and former CIA agents, broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, the "plumber" - the White House, Nixon group created to contain classified material flow unauthorized leaks - staging a robbery at the secret Los Angeles office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist, Dr. Lewis Fielding. Most accounts of the UPS suggests that the plumber, while criticizing the office to make the flight seem to work for drug addicts, they have done nothing in their search for the files of Mr. Fielding. In fact, one of the thieves, Felipe de Diego, said at the time have photographed Ellsberg records. Fred Graham report on the "CBS Evening News" on May 10, 1973 that Dr. Fielding said, "Ellsberg medical records and other materials found in a visible place, indicating that attackers can not see, and not likely the photographed, after all. "Ellsberg said at the same time, their psychiatric history," [t] hey, obviously, had been pawed over, it was very obvious to the doctor, when he returned to his office. "

Myth 4: The Ellsberg robbery took place to find information that may discredit Ellsberg trial.

The main concern of aid Nixon - Fielding who performed the operation without prior knowledge of the President - is that Ellsberg could be prepared for more leaked documents from the Nixon era. After all, Ellsberg was a protégé of Henry Kissinger, at Harvard and wrote position papers for the presidential transition Kissinger in late 1968. "I just read the other day," said James Rosen Ellsberg in his March 2004 interview with the strong man, "[that] were there for things to discredit me as if they were going to press and discredit me. This is [T] heir high ... aim was to find the information of the block to find more information. .... Very simple [Supervisor Plumber Egil] Krogh confirmed that was his concern. What he did was not to find things to harm my reputation , or something else - went to see what it can reveal and keep me from revealing it. "

Myth 5: It was Henry Kissinger, who persuaded President Nixon to prosecute Daniel Ellsberg.

In his memoirs after Watergate, the order (1978), former Chief of Staff White HR Haldeman told Nixon Kissinger aggressive hands of President Nixon to impress the seriousness of the challenge to his authority by the Times. "This shows that you are weak, Mr. President," Kissinger said Haldeman. Domestic policy chief John Ehrlichman agreed, wrote his autobiography in 1982 attests to the power: "Without wishing to Henry, the president and the rest of us could have concluded that the documents were problems of Lyndon Johnson, not ours. "The same legal historian David Rudenstine, author of The day the presses stopped (1995), the most serious attempt at a detailed account of the Pentagon Papers controversy, concluded that" the pressure, in particular its claim that Nixon seems be low did nothing, made a big difference. "Kissinger In fact, the White House tapes of the era, declassified in 1999 show that Kissinger, at least in the early stages according to the prevailing view that the initial information of time "is going to help a little. "The national security adviser argued that the documents provided" a gold mine to show how the previous administration we were there [in Vietnam]. "Needless to convince Kissinger to Nixon to a violation of criminal law has occurred. Kissinger was involved in the mixture was exploring the idea of ​​legal action and the need to involve the Attorney General Mitchell. "I am absolutely certain that this violates all sorts of security laws," Kissinger told the president on June 13, 1971. "What should we do?" Nixon asked. "I think you should talk to Mitchell," Kissinger replied softly.