ELLSBERG, DANIEL

ELLSBERG, DANIEL (1931– ), U.S. government adviser responsible for leaking the Pentagon Papers. Born in Chicago, Ellsberg was a graduate of Columbia University, receiving both his B.S. (1952) and his Ph.D. (1959) there. A Vietnam veteran, he was a first lieutenant in the Marine Corps. He then went to work for the Rand Corporation on defense issues, ultimately becoming an important adviser to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. His views then were decidedly hawkish. He was assigned to study American policy toward Vietnam and in the course of that study became a fierce opponent of the war. He then took the major step of leaking a study of the history of American involvement in Vietnam to the New York Times. The study, commonly known as the Pentagon Papers, documented the way in which the Johnson administration had misled the American people during the Vietnam War. Although the Papers did not directly attack Richard Nixon's actions, his administration reacted with fury. Ellsberg was charged with leaking the document; a petition was filed against the New York Times, enjoining them from publishing the papers; and then the White House had some secret operatives, later known as the "plumbers unit" of Watergate fame, break into Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office in search of potentially incriminating information that could be used to destroy his reputation. When the Washington Post, which had not been enjoined from publication, printed the Pentagon Papers, the case became moot and the information became public. The break-in at the office of Ellsberg's psychiatrist became public during the Watergate hearings that led to the downfall of Richard Nixon, who resigned as president of the United States in August 1974. Having achieved his "five minutes of fame" Ellsberg remained politically active, most especially fighting against nuclear arms proliferation and becoming a prominent figure at public protests. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: D. Ellsberg, Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers (2002). (Michael Berenbaum (2nd ed.)