The Pentagon Papers: Secrets of The Vietnam War Adriana Kelly Junior Division Paper 1,890 Words 1 The Pentagon Papers are a series of classified government documents leaked by Daniel Ellsberg in 1971. These papers revealed the lies that both the public and Congress were told about the involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War, and were essential to the withdrawal from the war. Daniel Ellsberg inspired many other whistleblowers to come forward and break the barriers between the public and the government. The involvement of the United States in Vietnam reaches all the way back to 1946. Vietnam was previously a French colony, but during WWII Japan overthrew the French and gave Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia freedom. When WWII ended in 1945, Japan was removed from the area and Vietnam needed new leadership. Ho Chi Minh, a Vietnamese nationalist with Marxist ideas 1, led a group called the Viet Minh to fight for Vietnamese independence against the French, who were trying to reclaim Vietnam. The United States had to pick a side in this war, which is usually referred to as the First Indochina War. On one hand, the United States wanted to support independence and free Vietnam from French rule. But on the other hand, if Vietnam was independent it would be communist which could trigger something called the domino theory. The domino theory states that if one political event in a country, surrounding countries will follow with similar events. Politicians in America were afraid if Vietnam became communist, surrounding countries like Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand would follow. The United States decided to support France, and began sending money and military aid. Five years later in 1954, this war ended and Vietnam was finally self-governing. It was split between the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam), and the State of 1 “The Vietnam War.” Ushistory.org , Independence Hall Association, www.ushistory.org/us/55.asp . 2 Vietnam (South Vietnam). North Vietnam was led by Ho Chi Minh and was communist, while South Vietnam was led by Ngo Dinh Diem, and was democratic. Elections were set to happen in 1956 to combine the two into one country, but these elections never happened. War soon broke out between North and South Vietnam to gain control, which is where trouble starts to brew. Though Mihn led a communist state, the majority of Vietnamese supported him and saw him as a national hero for freeing Vietnam from French rule. 2 Diem supported a democratic government, but his leadership was actually very corrupt and not much of a democracy. Additionally, Diem was Catholic so his religious views conflicted with the majority of Vietnamese who were Buddhist. The United States still wanted to avoid any communist governments, so they sent money, weapons, and other military assistance to South Vietnam. This continued for a few years before the United States got more involved. In August of 1964, American military ships were supposedly attacked by Viet Cong (North Vietnamese) ships. This was a major turning point in the war, soon known as the Gulf of Tonkin attack. Lyndon Johnson, the president at the time, sent a request to Congress for permission to retaliate and attack the Viet Cong. Congress granted Johnson the ability to decide how to fight the war with basically infinite funding. At this point, the majority of the public supported this idea and agreed that some degree of involvement was necessary. But around the same time, in August 1964, Johnson said to the public, “I have had advice to load our planes with bombs, and to drop them on certain areas that I think would enlarge the war and escalate the war, and result in our committing a good many American boys to fighting a war that I think ought to be fought by the boys of Asia to help 2 I bid. 3 protect their own land.” 3 Johnson implied to the public that the military would use conservative measures and try to keep American troops out of Vietnam. Despite this, Johnson and members of the Department of Defense began bombing trade routes the Viet Cong used to transport supplies. These routes entered the surrounding countries like Cambodia and Laos but were still bombed. Johnson and other government members who were launching the bombings were aware of these immoral deaths but continued the bombings without telling the public or Congress about the ci rcumstances. 4 The military also decided to start using chemicals to fight the war -- chemicals such as Agent Orange and Napalm were used to kill forests and to make more effective bombs. Agent Orange in particular had horrible side effects which affected countless civilians. Muscular, neurological, and immune diseases, liver failure, and cancer were just a few of the side effects. 5 None of these tactics were actually impacting the Viet Cong, so the military began to send ground troops. One thing that made them so hard to fight was the fact that Viet Cong fighters were undetectable, they could blend in with the normal population but then the next day they could be setting traps for Americans. 6 The army tried to only kill Viet Cong by conducting “Zippo Raids”, where soldiers would burn down Vietnamese villages if there was any sign of affiliation with the Viet Cong. These war tactics caused the deaths of thousands of civilians in Vietnam and surrounding countries, but didn’t have a major effect on the Viet Cong. Despite this, President Johnson was assuring the American public that victory was close. By the end of 1967, 3 Sheehan, Neil. “Not to Enlarge the Wa r .” New York Times, 14 June 1971. 4 Ibid. 5 “Dioxins and Their Effects on Human Health.” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, 4 Oct. 2016, 6 Ibid. 4 there were almost 500,000 American troops in Vietnam. 7 The war was starting to lose public support. Over half of the public now wanted withdrawal from Vietnam 8, but President Johnson, and later President Nixon, continued to send troops and escalate the war. Here Daniel Ellsberg comes in -- a military analyst for the Department of Defense. Ellsberg was one of the 20-40 analysts who began working on a study about the Vietnam war in 1967. The 7,000 page study was finished in 1969, and included information about involvement in Vietnam since WWII. These papers included information on the murdered civilians, rigged elections, debt, and lies that were told to the Congress and the public. 9 Daniel Ellsberg realized just how corrupt this war was, and thought the public should know. While writing the papers, he also changed his opinion on the war, he thought it was unwinnable at this point. In a 2018 interview by NPR, Ellsberg explained “ Without young men going to prison for nonviolent protests against the draft, men that I met on their way to prison, no Pentagon Papers.” Daniel Ellsberg decided to do something about this injustice, and started taking key parts of the study from his office. Ellsberg photocopied the pages one by one every night, along with fellow researcher Tony Russo. It took months to scan all the pages Ellsberg took, even with the help of some of his friends and family. 10 There were many famous figures resisting the war who were punished. For instance, the famous boxer Muhammad Ali 7 Ibid 8 Ibid. 9 Sheinkin, Steve. Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War . Roaring Brook Press, Square Fish, 2019. 10 Davies, Dave. “Daniel Ellsberg Explains Why He Leaked The Pentagon Papers.” 18 Jan. 2018. 5 resisted the draft and served in prison for three years before his sentence was overturned. 11 D aniel Ellsberg realized the danger of what he was doing, and later said he realized he would probably go to prison for his actions. 12 Ellsberg then sent it to members of Congress after collecting all the relevant information. But there was no action taken, so Ellsberg made another risky decision. He sent all the documents to The New York Times to be published. Then on June 13, 1971, the New York Times published the first articles on the study. This first publication had over six pages of direct quotes and analysis of the information. One of the first paragraphs in the newspaper was a summary of the status of the war, stating, “The situation is very disturbing. Current trends, unless reversed in the next 2–3 months, will lead to neutralization at best and more likely to a communist controlled state.” 13 This is just a small part of the study that revealed many government members knew this war was almost impossible to win even though the public was told the opposite. Another very major revelation was about the blocked elections in Vietnam. The report states, “Diem matched his refusal to consult with the Vietminh about elections with an adamant refusal to ever hold them. Neither Britain nor the Soviet Union pressed the matter; the United States backed Diem's position.” 14 The only reason the war started was because there were never elections to unite Vietnam, and now the public is finding out that the United States tried to avoid the 11 Brown, DeNeen L. “'Shoot Them for What?' How Muhammad Ali Won His Greatest Fight.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 31 July 2019, 12 Ibid. 13 S heehan, Neil. “Key Texts From Pentagon's Vietnam Study.” New York Times, 13 June 1971. 14 Pentagon Papers: The Defence Department History of United States Decisionmaking on Vietnam. Beacon, 1971. Print 6 elections. The main thing these papers really showed was that the public was being lied to.