How one man's crisis of conscience triggered the collapse of a presidency

History · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Daniel Ellsberg was a high-level military analyst who risked 115 years in prison to expose the Pentagon Papers. His decision to leak the classified study of the Vietnam War did more than reveal government deception; it set off a chain reaction that directly led to the Watergate scandal.

In 1967, Daniel Ellsberg contributed to a massive 7,000-page, top-secret study of U.S. decision-making in Vietnam. By 1969, his perspective had shifted, influenced by anti-war activists like Randy Kehler. Kehler’s willingness to go to prison for his beliefs served as a catalyst for Ellsberg, who realized he could no longer participate in concealing the truth from the public. He began copying the documents, which proved that the Johnson administration had systematically misled both Congress and the American people about the war's viability.

When The New York Times began publishing the papers in June 1971, the Nixon administration sought to halt the press, leading to a landmark Supreme Court case that affirmed First Amendment protections. Simultaneously, the White House created a covert unit known as the Plumbers to discredit Ellsberg. This group, including E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy, burglarized the office of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist in September 1971, hoping to find damaging personal information. This illegal operation became a central thread in the Watergate scandal.

Ellsberg’s trial in 1973 was eventually dismissed by Judge William Matthew Byrne Jr. due to gross governmental misconduct, including the revelation of the psychiatrist’s office break-in and illegal FBI wiretapping. The case exposed the extent of the administration's overreach, forcing the resignation of top officials like John Ehrlichman and H. R. Haldeman. Ellsberg’s actions, which Richard Holbrooke described as the triggering mechanism for the era's defining political story, remain a foundational example of whistleblowing in the face of state power.

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