"The Pentagon Papers were political dynamite because they told what had really been going on in Vietnam. That was in contrast with the official line, regularly presented by top government and military officials, who blatantly lied to the public about the Vietnam War. For example, the official line was that the war was going well, when actually there was plenty of inside information that it wasn't," for many years (Martin 2003). The Nixon Administration tried to suppress the release of the Pentagon Papers through an injunction, but the U.S. Supreme Court overruled the president. Ellsberg's actions not only helped bring an end to the Vietnam War, and perhaps saved lives of American servicemen, but also established that the authority of the executive branch of government was not above the law, and could not use national security as a defense to cover up whatever unpleasant information it chose.
Ellsberg is a powerful example of the need for whistleblowers. Only someone with access to Pentagon intelligence and the ability to understand how the information contradicted the official image of the Vietnam War...
Ellsberg's career is an argument for the need for employees to have courage and discretion in evaluating the ethics of their organization and their duties. As former military man, this was particularly difficult for Ellsberg, and only an ex-marine with profound emotional and intellectual courage could have been capable of such a patriotic action, although the Nixon Administration attempted to demonize him as 'The Most Dangerous Man in America' (Pinkerton 2010).
References
Martin, Brian. (2003, July). The legacy of the Pentagon Papers. The Whistle. 34:11.
Retrieved February 18, 2010 at http://www.uow.edu.au/~bmartin/pubs/03BRwhistle07.html
Pinkerton, Nick. (2010, February 13). 'The Most Dangerous Man in America': Daniel Ellsberg
and the Pentagon Papers. The San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved February 18, 2010 at http://www.sfweekly.com/2010-02-17/calendar/the-most-dangerous-man-in-america-daniel-ellsberg-and-the-pentagon-papers
