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How Did The Vietnam War Impact The Pentagon Paper

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Abstract

The Pentagon Papers was a top-secret report of the military involvement in the Vietnam War from 1945 to 1967. It was kept hidden until a man named Daniel Ellsberg decided that he did not think it should be kept a secret any longer. He decided to send a copy of the report to the New York Times, which was public to all. The Pentagon Papers had an impact on a variety of things during this time. I will cover the impact that the Pentagon Papers had on the U.S. citizens, the Congress, and the Vietnam War.

Rough Draft The Pentagon Papers was a study prepared by the Department of Defense of the United State’s military and political involvement in the Vietnam War in 1945 to 1967. These papers were also considered as the “Report of the Office …show more content…

Marine officer between 1954 to 1957. Ellsberg also worked as an analyst at the RAND Corporation and the Department of Defense. “By 1969, however, Ellsberg had come to believe that the war in Vietnam was unwinnable” (History.com). He also believed that the content in the Pentagon Papers should be made available to the public. Some content of the information helped to establish that the workers of John F. Kennedy had helped overthrow and assassinate South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem. The U.S. government’s announcement of the bombing of North Vietnam was also opposed by the report. By June 1971, The New York Times began to publish front-page articles containing the information found in the Pentagon Papers. After The New York Times published their third article, the United States Department of Justice decided to get a temporary restraining order on any future publications. A well-known court case, the New York Times Company v. United States, caught the attention of the Supreme Court. The Times and the Washington Post allied together to fight for the right of publication. On June 30, the Supreme Court ruled that the publication of the papers was supported by the First Amendment. The published information revealed that Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson had all misinformed the American public about the United States involvements in Vietnam (History.com). Ellsberg changed history for the plans of the Vietnam War. Because of his decisions to makes these papers public, conflict began to grow throughout the United States and through the

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