Daniel Ellsberg, whistleblower

Daniel Ellsberg, a former US military analyst turned whistleblower died recently, aged 92.

Once described as the “most dangerous man in America,” Ellsberg wanted to end the Vietnam War. His 1971 leaking of what became known as the Pentagon Papers led to a Nixon administration effort to block publication in The New York Times and ended in the Supreme Court. Espionage charges against Ellsberg were ultimately thrown out of court.

Ellsberg shared 7,000 pages of documents with The New York Times, with an early story being by correspondent Neil Sheehan. The Times then began to publish the documents.

For his actions, as an anti-war campaigner, an anti-nuclear campaigner, and a campaigner for press freedom, The Guardian describes him as “one of history’s most consequential figures.”

His actions eventually had consequences for Thailand where the US had numerous bases and had propped up the military regime for years. The so-called Griswold secret brief identified the 11 items or sections of the Pentagon Papers “which would cause irreparable damage to U.S. national security.” Erwin Griswold was the US Solicitor General. Griswold’s brief claimed “that the diplomatic volumes contain derogatory comments that might be offensive to nations or governments, in particular U.S. allies with troops in South Vietnam, principally South Korea, Thailand, and Australia. Thailand is singled out as critical because 65% of U.S. air sorties over Vietnam were then being launched from U.S. bases in that nation.”

Read the pentagon papers at the US National Archives and get more background at the National Security Archive.