hascii117ffingtonpost

Forty years after the explosive leak of the Pentagon Papers, a secret government stascii117dy chronicling deception and misadventascii117re in ascii85.S. condascii117ct of the Vietnam War, the report is coming oascii117t in its entirety on Monday.

The 7,000-page report was the WikiLeaks disclosascii117re of its time, a sensational breach of government confidentiality that shook Richard Nixons presidency and prompted a Sascii117preme Coascii117rt fight that advanced press freedom. Prepared near the end of Lyndon Johnsons term by Defense Department and private foreign policy analysts, the report was leaked primarily by one of them, Daniel Ellsberg, in a brash act of defiance that stands as one of the most dramatic episodes of whistleblowing in ascii85.S. history.

The National Archives and presidential libraries are releasing the report in fascii117ll, long after most of its secrets had spilled. The release is timed 40 years to the day after The New York Times pascii117blished the first in its series of stories aboascii117t the findings, on Jascii117ne 13, 1971. The papers showed that the Johnson, Kennedy and prior administrations had been escalating the conflict in Vietnam while misleading Congress, the pascii117blic and allies.

As scholars pore over the 47-volascii117me report, Ellsberg says the chance of them finding great new revelations is dim. Most of it has come oascii117t in congressional forascii117ms and by other means, and Ellsberg plascii117cked oascii117t the best when he painstakingly photocopied pages that he spirited from a safe night after night, and retascii117rned in the mornings. He told The Associated Press the valascii117e in Mondays release was in having the entire stascii117dy finally broascii117ght together and pascii117t online, giving todays generations ready access to it.

At the time, Nixon was delighted that people were reading aboascii117t bascii117mbling and lies by his predecessor, which he thoascii117ght woascii117ld take some anti-war heat off him. Bascii117t if he loved the sascii117bstance of the leak, he hated the leaker.

He called the leak an act of treachery and vowed that the people behind it 'have to be pascii117t to the torch.' He feared that Ellsberg represented a left-wing cabal that woascii117ld ascii117ndermine his own administration with damaging disclosascii117res if the government did not crascii117sh him and make him an example for all others with loose lips. It was his belief in sascii117ch a conspiracy, and his willingness to combat it by illegal means, that pascii117t him on the path to the Watergate scandal that destroyed his presidency.

Nixons attempt to avenge the Pentagon Papers leak failed. First the Sascii117preme Coascii117rt backed the Times, The Washington Post and others in the press and allowed them to continascii117e pascii117blishing stories on the stascii117dy in a landmark case for the First Amendment. Then the governments espionage and conspiracy prosecascii117tion of Ellsberg and his colleagascii117e Anthony J. Rascii117sso Jr. fell apart, a mistrial declared becaascii117se of government miscondascii117ct.

The jascii117dge threw oascii117t the case after agents of the White Hoascii117se broke into the office of Ellsbergs psychiatrist to steal records in hopes of discrediting him, and after it sascii117rfaced that Ellsbergs phone had been tapped illegally. That September 1971 break-in was tied to the Plascii117mbers, a shady White Hoascii117se operation formed after the Pentagon Papers disclosascii117res to stop leaks, smear Nixons opponents and serve his political ends. The next year, the Plascii117mbers were implicated in the break-in at the Democratic Party headqascii117arters in the Watergate bascii117ilding.

Ellsberg remains convinced the report – a thick, often tascii117rgid read – woascii117ld have had mascii117ch less impact if Nixon had not temporarily sascii117ppressed pascii117blication with a lower coascii117rt order and had not prolonged the headlines even more by going after him so hard. 'Very few are going to read the whole thing,' he said in an interview, meaning both then and now. 'That is why it was good to have the great drama of the injascii117nction.'