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Leaking of the Pentagon Paper

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Leaking of the Pentagon Paper
Karen Miller
October 4, 2012 Daniel Ellsberg, was the person who released the Pentagon Papers to the public because the United States involvement of the Vietnam War and also there were many secrets that government officials were not allowing the public to know. Ellsberg’s career began when he entered the marines in 1954 and he started to deliver lectures at Harvard as a junior member board; during that particular time Henry Kissinger took notice to Ellsberg rational lectures. Ellsberg soon began to work as a strategic analyst in the Santa Monica office of the RAND Corporation. The RAND Corporation was the beginning of an opportunity, unbeknown to Ellsberg having clearances to top secret information – would eventually lead him to the release of the Pentagon Papers. Ellsberg became involved in the Vietnam War in 1965. “ I had accepted the official answer,….namely that there was a civil war going on, that we had a right to intervene and pick one side or the other.” Ellsberg, like many Americans in the U.S had trusted and believe that their government would guide them right for the U.S involvement in Vietnam. In 1967, Ellsberg became more concerned by the continuing violence of the war and how the U.S continued to brainwash the public through the media that the war was for the right cause. “The programs we were pursuing had no chance of succeeding. We’re not in any way proceeding as people thought they were back in Washington.” At this point Ellsberg felt the U.S should end the brutal war with Vietnam. Soon afterward an amazing opportunity was presented to him, Halperin and Gelb asked Ellsberg to join the staff of the Pentagon Papers project. A year later, Ellsberg’s attitude and opinion regarding the war continued to increase drastically. I strongly believe, Ellsberg conversation with an Indian woman also increased his questioning of the war and the killing of Martin Luther King. “When my life started to change”: all of these, as well as other factors suggest

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