Daniel Ellsberg began his career as a U.S. Marine company commander, a Pentagon official, and a staunch supporter of America's battle against Communist expansion. But in October 1969, Ellsberg--fully expecting to spend the rest of his life in prison--set out to turn around American foreign policy by smuggling out of his office the seven-thousand-page top-secret study, known as the Pentagon Papers, of U.S. decision making in Vietnam. Ellsberg tells...

On June 13, 1971, the front page of the New York Times announced the existence of a 7,000-page collection of documents containing a secret history of the Vietnam War. Known as The Pentagon Papers, these documents had been comissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. Chronicling every action the government had taken in the Vietnam War, they revealed a pattern of deception spanning over twenty years and four presidencies, and forever changed...

To expose a nation's treachery or to protect it as a matter of national security is the dilemma facing Daniel Ellsberg when he stumbles across The Pentagon Papers.

"In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg, a high-level Pentagon official and Vietnam War strategist, concludes that the war is based on decades of lies and leaks 7,000 pages of top secret documents to the New York Times, making headlines around the world. ... one man's profound change of heart created a landmark struggle involving America's newspapers, its president, and the Supreme Court--a political thriller whose events led directly to Watergate, Nixon's resignation,...