Biography
Former RAND Corporation military analyst and State Department official who in 1971 leaked the Pentagon Papers — a top-secret 7,000-page Department of Defense study of U.S. decision-making in Vietnam from 1945 to 1968 — to the New York Times and 16 other newspapers. The leak revealed that successive administrations had systematically deceived Congress and the public about the war. Indicted on June 28, 1971 under the Espionage Act and related statutes; Ellsberg faced 115 years in prison. His May 1973 trial ended in a mistrial after the court learned of Nixon-administration misconduct (the "Plumbers" had burglarized his psychiatrist's office, illegally wiretapped him, and offered the trial judge the FBI directorship). Ellsberg spent the rest of his life as a leading anti-nuclear, antiwar, and whistleblower advocate, defending Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, and Julian Assange. Died June 16, 2023.
