Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers

Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers

by Daniel Ellsberg
Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers

Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers

by Daniel Ellsberg

Paperback(Reissue)

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Overview

The true story of the leaking of the Pentagon Papers, the event which inspired Steven Spielberg’s feature film The Post

In 1971 former Cold War hard-liner Daniel Ellsberg made history by releasing the Pentagon Papers - a 7,000-page top-secret study of U.S. decision-making in Vietnam - to the New York Times and Washington Post. The document set in motion a chain of events that ended not only the Nixon presidency but the Vietnam War. In this remarkable memoir, Ellsberg describes in dramatic detail the two years he spent in Vietnam as a U.S. State Department observer, and how he came to risk his career and freedom to expose the deceptions and delusions that shaped three decades of American foreign policy. The story of one man's exploration of conscience, Secrets is also a portrait of America at a perilous crossroad.

"[Ellsberg's] well-told memoir sticks in the mind and will be a powerful testament for future students of a war that the United States should never have fought." -The Washington Post

"Ellsberg's deft critique of secrecy in government is an invaluable contribution to understanding one of our nation's darkest hours." -Theodore Roszak, San Francisco Chronicle

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780142003428
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date: 09/30/2003
Edition description: Reissue
Pages: 528
Sales rank: 138,509
Product dimensions: 5.45(w) x 8.44(h) x 1.09(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

About The Author
Daniel Ellsberg, a Harvard graduate, ex-Marine, and Rand Corporation analyst, was one of the "whiz kids" recruited to serve in the Pentagon during the Johnson administration. In 1971, Ellsberg made headlines around the world when he released the Pentagon Papers. He is now a prominent speaker, writer, and activist.

Read an Excerpt

On the evening of October 1, 1969, I walked out past the guards’ desk at the Rand Corporation in Santa Monica, carrying a briefcase filled with top secret documents, which I planned to photocopy that night. The documents were part of a 7,000-page top secret study of U.S. decision making in Vietnam, later known as the Pentagon Papers. The rest of the study was in a safe in my office. I had decided to copy it all and make it public, perhaps through Senate hearings or the press, if necessary. I believed this course, especially the latter possibility, would probably put me in prison for the rest of my life. How I came to do this is the focus of this memoir.
(Continues…)



Excerpted from "Secrets"
by .
Copyright © 2003 Daniel Ellsberg.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Table of Contents

Preface

Part I

Prologue: Vietnam 1961

1.   The Tonkin Gulf: August 1961
2.   Cold Warrior, Secret Keeper
3.   The Road to Escalation
4.   Planning Provocation
5.   "Off the Diving Board": July 1965
6.   Joining the Foreign Legion
7.   Vietnam: The Lansdale Team
8.   Travels with Vann
9.    Losing Hope
10.  Rach Kien
11.  Leaving Vietnam

Part II

12.   Jaundice
13.   The Power of Truth
14.   Campaign '68
15.   To the Hotel Pierre
16.   The Morality of Continuing the War
17.   War Resisters
18.   Extrication
19.   Murder and the Lying Machine

Part III

20.   Copying the Papers
21.   The Rand Letter
22.   Capitol Hill
23.   Leaving Rand
24.   Kissinger
25.   Congress
26.   To the New York Times
27.   May Day 1971
28.   Approaching June 13
29.   Going Underground

Part IV

30.   The War Goes On
31.   The Road to Watergate
32.   End of a Trial

Acknowledgements
Notes
Works Cited
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"[Ellsberg's] well-told memoir sticks in the mind and will be a powerful testament for future students of a war that the United States should never have fought." (The Washington Post)

"Ellsberg's deft critique of secrecy in government is an invaluable contribution to understanding one of our nation's darkest hours." (Theodore Roszak, San Francisco Chronicle)

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