The Pentagon Papers: The Secret History of the Vietnam War

The Pentagon Papers talk about the elusive quality of the truth... God bless The New York Times and Neil Sheehan for exposing it... If [printing the truth] is a dangerous thing to do, we're in a bad place.
-Tom Hanks, Academy Award winning actor and star of the major motion picture The Post

[Ellsberg] paints a striking picture of intelligent people persevering and tinkering with a war policy that could never be successful.
-Lawrence D. Freedman, Foreign Affairs

The dominant purpose of the First Amendment was to prohibit the widespread practice of governmental suppression of embarrassing information. A debate of large proportions goes on in the Nation over our posture in Vietnam. Open debate and discussion of public issues are vital to our National Health.
-Justice William O. Douglas

This heroic act of journalism, and the legal ruling it forced the US Supreme Court to make, still stand today as the most powerful legal and moral weapon in the American media's battle against government secrecy... In honor of The Pentagon Papers, perhaps the first item on that long list of things we still don't know should be finding the truthful analysis of America's war on terrorism 15 years later, with no end in sight. One hopes it sits on a secure government hard drive somewhere.
-Dana Priest, Columbia Journalism Review, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning national security reporter at The Washington Post and the John S. and James L. Knight Chair in Public Affairs Journalism at the University of Maryland's journalism school

The WikiLeaks of its day.
-Time

A mass of significant data as to ensure its enduring usefulness... This enormous collection of documents and commentary undoubtedly deepens our understanding of the political premises and strategic objectives that have underlain the Indochina, and especially the Vietnam, policies of four American administrations.
-George McT. Kahin, Cornell University

The most significant leaks of classified material in American history.
-Washington Post

Clearly, secrecy remains a vexing subject in Washington. And on both the left and the right, views about the issue -- especially about its implications for the relationship between the press and the government -- continue to be shaped by an event that occurred almost four decades ago: The Pentagon Papers leak. By turning over a trove of classified documents to The New York Times in 1971, Daniel Ellsberg set in motion a political and legal battle of epic proportions. No other episode in American history has had greater influence on our conflicted politics of national-security secrecy.
-Gabriel Schoenfeld, National Affairs

*** What readers are saying about The Pentagon Papers ***

Still one of the best books written about the U.S. involvement in one of the greatest fiascoes every devised by our government . . . that is unless we look closely at our involvement in Afghanistan.
-Larry T. French, Amazon reviewer

Every now and then in my classes, a student(s) will really get 'into' the Vietnam War. I like to give a copy to those who will really value it... The lessons from this book are many.
-Mike Manaloff, Amazon reviewer

This book is a MEAL... Small wonder the US Government fought so hard to suppress these damning documents! The loss of credibility and innocent trust toward government in the USA did not start with the Watergate break in; it started during the US war against Vietnam... This tome is a treasure trove of primary documents, and the New York Times narrative is carefully written to honor the original meanings of quotations that have been pieced together and make it possible to publish the events and documents in a single volume.
-Donna Davis, Goodreads reviewer

Utterly fascinating. The temptation to compare the lead up to Vietnam to our current wars falls away as the reader delves into the intricacies of the intrigue, all of which took place behind the scenes and years before all the flower children began protesting. This is not the baby boomer version of the war, where the youth were right there to go against the grain... Could not put this down.
-Peter Mowris, Goodreads reviewer

*** Praise for Skyhorse Publishing ***

In the era of corporate dominated mainstream media and feckless herd reporting, Skyhorse's willingness to tackle tough issues that other publishers won't touch has made it a critical cog in our democracy.
-Robert F. Kennedy Jr., New York Times bestselling author

It has been a pleasure watching Skyhorse Publishing develop into one of the largest and fastest-growing independent publishers over the last decade. Trident does a good deal of business with Skyhorse. Skyhorse has become a cornerstone of independent publishing and has taken its rightful seat in the world of major trade publishing.
-Robert Gottlieb, chairman of Trident Media Group, LLC

E. W. Kenworthy worked at The New York Times for nearly thirty years, in both New York and Washington. He passed away in January 1993.

Fox Butterfield is an American journalist and author. His work has been read and acclaimed widely, having received both a Pulitzer Prize for his role in publishing The Pentagon Papers and a National Book Award for China: Alive in the Bitter Sea.

Hedrick Smith is an American journalist, producer, and correspondent. During twenty-six years at The New York Times, he covered the civil rights struggle, the Vietnam War, and the Cold War, among many other monumental events in America history.

James L. Greenfield was the US secretary of state for public affairs as well as an editor for The New York Times for more than twenty years. He directly contributed to the publication of The Pentagon Papers and later founded the Independent Journalism Foundation.