Although this became apparent to everyone in the Pentagon and the White House, they kept the truth from the American people.Įllsberg wanted to do his part to end the war. However, Johnson ordered the bombing of the region in retaliation of the incident which probably never happened. ships had not been torpedoed which was originally reported. Navy pilots, there was no sign of enemy ships and that U.S. ships by the North Vietnamese that was reported was actually a big mistake. There was a strong indication that the claim of attack on U.S.

Ellsberg was privy to the back and forth transmissions between the warfront and the Pentagon. An incident referred to as the Gulf of Tonkin incident sparked the escalation of U.S. However, initially it did not chance his advocacy for the war and eventual victory.īut as time passed, Ellsberg became more and more dismayed by what he saw and heard.

He was bright enough to understand the “spin” that the Johnson Administration was putting on the war but it bothered him. There was no sign of victory or even progress in the cables he read yet the press releases from the White House boasted of great progress and the successful curtailing of the spread of communism in Indochina. He began to see a difference between the story that was emerging from the on-the-ground commanders in Vietnam and the PR that the White House and Pentagon peddled to the American people. In his position as the Pentagon he was cleared to read the majority of the cables sent to the Pentagon from the warfront.

Although he may not have been as hawkish as some of those around him, he was a supporter of the war and wanted to do his part in helping the U.S. He was employed by the Rand Corporation, a public policy think-tank and research organization where he was deployed to serve in the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. He had joined the Marines after graduating from college and served a tour of duty as an officer. Daniel Ellsberg who was a brilliant young man and Harvard graduate who considered himself a patriot. The Vietnam war was raging with no end in sight.

Undefeated steve sheinkin summary