This was a different time in America. A time where the justice system and check and balances WORKED.
Leak
Daniel Ellsberg knew the leaders of the task force well. He had worked as an aide to McNaughton from 1964 to 1965, had worked on the study for several months in 1967, and Gelb and Halperin approved his access to the work at RAND in 1969.
[11] Now opposing the war, Ellsberg and his friend
Anthony Russo[25] photocopied the study in October 1969 intending to disclose it. Ellsberg approached Nixon's National Security Advisor
Henry Kissinger, Senators
William Fulbright and
George McGovern, and others, but none were interested.
[11]
In February 1971, Ellsberg discussed the study with
The New York Times reporter
Neil Sheehan, and gave 43 of the volumes to him in March. Before publication,
The New York Times sought legal advice. The paper's regular outside counsel,
Lord Day & Lord, advised against publication,
[11] but in-house counsel
James Goodale prevailed with his argument that the press had a
First Amendment right to publish information significant to the people's understanding of their government's policy.
The New York Times began publishing excerpts on June 13, 1971; the first article in the series was titled "Vietnam Archive: Pentagon Study Traces Three Decades of Growing US Involvement". The study was dubbed
The Pentagon Papers during the resulting media publicity.
[11][26] Street protests, political controversy, and lawsuits followed.
To ensure the possibility of public debate about the papers' content, on June 29,
US Senator Mike Gravel, an Alaska Democrat, entered 4,100 pages of the papers into the record of his Subcommittee on Public Buildings and Grounds. These portions of the papers, which were edited for Gravel by
Howard Zinn and
Noam Chomsky, were subsequently published by
Beacon Press, the publishing arm of the
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations.
[27] A federal
grand jury was subsequently empaneled to investigate possible violations of federal law in the release of the report. Leonard Rodberg, a Gravel aide, was
subpoenaed to testify about his role in obtaining and arranging for publication of the
Pentagon Papers. Gravel asked the court (in
Gravel v. United States) to quash the subpoena on the basis of the
Speech or Debate Clause in
Article I, Section 6 of the
United States Constitution.
That clause provides that "for any Speech or Debate in either House, [a Senator or Representative] shall not be questioned in any other Place", meaning that Gravel could not be prosecuted for anything said on the Senate floor, and, by extension, for anything entered to the
Congressional Record, allowing the papers to be publicly read without threat of a
treason trial and conviction. When Gravel's request was reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Court denied the request to extend this protection to Gravel or Rodberg because the grand jury subpoena served on them related to a third party rather than any act they themselves committed for the preparation of materials later entered into the Congressional Record. Nevertheless, the grand jury investigation was halted, and the publication of the papers was never prosecuted.
Later, Ellsberg said the documents "demonstrated unconstitutional behavior by a succession of presidents, the violation of their oath and the violation of the oath of every one of their subordinates."
[28] He added that he leaked the Papers to end what he perceived to be "a wrongful war".
[28]