The (complete) Pentagon Papers Release Slated for Monday

An article in this morning’s New York Times details the government’s plans to declassify the entirety of the Pentagon Papers, the U.S. government’s secret study of the war in Vietnam. That release will come 40 years after the Times publication of much, but not all, of that study. Now, each page will be scanned and be made available electronically through the National Archives and Records Administration.

The article appearing in today’s paper puts the release in an interesting historical context, contrasting the Vietnam Era publication of the Pentagon Papers to today’s era of WikiLeaks. Daniel Ellsberg, the former Rand Corporation analyst who helped compile the report that would become known as the Pentagon papers, leaked it to the New York Times and subsequently faced 12 felony counts as a result of that release, it quoted at length.

The article reads, in part: “It seems to me that what the Pentagon Papers really demonstrated 40 years ago was the price of (the usurping of Congressional war-making powers by the executive branch),” Ellsberg said. “Which is that letting a small group of men in secret in the executive branch make these decisions — initiate them secretly, carry them out secretly and manipulate Congress, and lie to Congress and the public as to why they’re doing it and what they’re doing — is a recipe for, a guarantee of Vietnams and Iraqs and Libyas, and in general foolish, reckless, dangerous policies.”

As the release date nears, and policies are debated, those preparing for that discussion will have the full text of the Pentagon Papers available for their perusal.

The photo of Ellsberg, above, comes from the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum The museum’s collections also include an oral history interview with Ellsberg and a variety of other interview and digitized documents pertaining to the Pentagon Papers.

The Pentagon Protest 43 Years Later

On this day in 1967, some 100,000 people marched on the Pentagon to protest the Vietnam War. There is a wealth of primary source available related to that action. Items can be found at the National Archives and Records Administration, at the website of the Federal Justice Department’s U.S. Marshall’s Service, and the Vietnam Center and Archive at Texas Tech University. Another rich source of material related to the protest is YouTube. On that site, a search for “pentagon protest 1967” yields a number of videos – including newsreels – that depict what happened when the protest moved from the Lincoln Memorial to the Pentagon. The picture above, taken at the Pentagon that day, is from the National Archives.

A Grim Anniversary: Remembering Kent State 40 Years Later

Forty years ago today, Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire on protesting students at Kent State University. When the shooting was over, four students were dead, one student was permanently paralyzed, and eight others were injured. In the wake of the shootings, the attention of the nation was focused on the Ohio campus. The shootings prompted the largest student strike in United States history and a change in public opinion about the Vietnam War. The photo above depicts the four students who were killed at Kent State – Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer and William Schroeder. That image comes from Kent State University’s May 4 Collection. That collection contains many other photographs as well as news accounts, moving images, oral histories and documents related to the shootings and their aftermath.

The Virtual Vietnam Archive

Many history students are working on research papers about the Vietnam War. Their topics are quite varied. Among the issues being explored are: the impact of news coverage on the public’s opinion about the war, the My Lai massacre, drug use among American soldiers in Vietnam and the prevalence of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder among Vietnam-era veterans. While the writers of these papers have chosen varied topics, they can all likely benefit from one common source of information. The Virtual Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech University currently has more than three million pages of digitized material pertaining to the Vietnam War. The collection includes digitized manuscripts, oral histories, photographs, slides, audio files and moving images. Users can conduct a simple keyword search or use the advanced search function to limit by collection, date, media type or language. The image above is from the archive's My Lai collection.