Similar to Assange and Snowden, Ellsberg can only be considered heroic for his actions of releasing Pentagon papers amidst the Vietnam War to inform the American public about the real ongoings of the war. US Citizens have a right to information therefore the US government must respect that right and tell them exactly what is happening during the war, even its negative, embarrassing, aspects. The Vietnam War was arguably one of America’s greatest military failures and part of the reason it was such a failure was because of President Nixon and Defense Secretary McNamaras’ repeated lies that things were going well, that America was making “progress” in fighting communism in Vietnam. Ellsberg really changed the course of the Vietnam War, by helping Americans realize it was a lost cause and that the US government and military were lying to the press and thus violating the First Amendment of the Constitution. …show more content…
Ellsberg really was the original whistleblower, setting up a precedent for Assange and Snowden to follow as they too decided to release classified documents for the wellbeing of American citizens. As Ellsberg rightly states, “such leaks remain the lifeblood of a free press and our republic”(CWI Sources). The US was founded on freedom of speech and the press by our founding fathers who revolted against Great Britain because they were prevented from having those basic human rights. Furthermore, Ellsberg’s trial for violating the Espionage Act of 1917 proved how corrupt the US government and CIA were as they violated Ellsberg’s Fourth and Fifth Amendments to land a conviction, but failed, thus leading to a mistrial and all charges dropped. By releasing these Pentagon documents, Ellsberg revamped US citizens’ constitutional rights, making Ellsberg a true