Pentagon papers
The Pentagon Papers ( United States-Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense , short Pentagon Papers ) are a formerly secret document of the US Department of Defense . The 1971 New York Times and Washington Post partial publication of the papers revealed that the Johnson administration systematically lied to both the public and Congress about the Vietnam War for yearswould have. The Congress and the population learned, among other things, that, contrary to the assurances of several US presidents, the war was planned before the official intervention in the context of the fight against communism and that the USA had covertly expanded the war by bombing Cambodia and Laos , attacks on the North Vietnamese coast and Marine Corps attacks . The publication took place against the opposition of the government following a decision of the highest US court and contributed significantly to the end of the war.
On June 13, 2011, on the 40th anniversary of the first publication of excerpts from the documents, the US government fully disclosed the Pentagon Papers.
Prehistory and publication
After France's engagement in Indochina had ended, the USA had increasingly sent military advisers to South Vietnam , but over the years refused to want to wage war there itself.
In 1964, with the pretense of an attack by North Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin ( Tonkin incident ), the US population was prepared to go to war. Immediately massive troops were moved into the country and a war began, which, despite constant rebuking by the government, was expanded more and more and ultimately led to the largest and most momentous area bombing since the Second World War.
Daniel Ellsberg , who as a high-ranking employee in the Ministry of Defense was involved in the preparatory work, including the bombing war, got in touch with the peace movement and with activists who were prepared to go to prison for years for their convictions. At this point at the latest, he began to see the Vietnam War critically.
The 7000-page document was copied by Ellsberg with the help of his children in the summer of 1971 and - after attempts by the US government to restrict freedom of the press - published in parts by the New York Times and the Washington Post . Richard Holbrooke , who later became the US diplomat and government special representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan, also wrote one volume .
The extracts revealed that preparations for war had been made when US President Johnson was still claiming not to intervene in Vietnam . In addition, the papers showed that the Vietnam War should be continued despite increasing losses on the US side with the intention of bleeding the military enemy to death.
The Pentagon Papers themselves were drawn up on behalf of then Defense Secretary Robert McNamara from 1967. The aim was to document the development towards the Indochina War from a political and military point of view. The official title of the report was "Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force". The report's authors, staff of the United States Department of Defense , the State Department and the White House , remained anonymous.
When the New York Times began printing the story on June 13, 1971, the Nixon government tried to prevent further publication.
President Nixon and Justice Secretary John Mitchell decided to bring the New York Times to court. Further publication of the documents should be prevented for "reasons of national security". For the first time in the history of the United States, the government succeeded in preventing a newspaper from reporting by court order.
On June 18, at Ellsberg's urging , the Washington Post also began publishing the papers. This publication was also to be prevented after a phone call from William Rehnquist , the deputy attorney general . However, the Washington Post consistently refused to do so, so that both court hearings were eventually heard by the US Supreme Court . In an effort to obtain publication in another way, Ellsberg reverted to a previously pursued strategy of obtaining publication by a member of Congress. He was able to persuade Senator Mike Gravel to do so. At a meeting of his building committee on the night of June 29th to 30th, 1971, he presented large parts of the Pentagon papers in a filibuster in the US Senate . The Senator used the political immunity due to members of Congress , according to which they may not be prosecuted for speeches in Congress. Since he was the only remaining member of the committee at the end of his lecture at one o'clock in the morning, the committee now "unanimously" decided to include a total of about 4,100 pages from the document in the minutes of the congress.
One day later, on June 30, 1971, the US Supreme Court in a 6: 3 ruling lifted the publication bans as unconstitutional. In the landmark ruling by the Supreme Court, the judges stipulated that the state's interest in secrecy in secret government documents delivered by whistleblowers should , in case of doubt, take second place to the interests of the public and freedom of the press . One of the judges wrote, referring to the disinformation of the public by the US government exposed by the Pentagon papers :
“Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell. "
“Only a free, unhindered press can effectively expose government deceit. And above all responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving people and sending them to distant lands to die of foreign diseases and foreign bullets and grenades . "
After the publication of the Pentagon Papers, Ellsberg continued to be politically active. After the revelations of the Watergate scandal in 1973, his case of illicit possession and theft of state secrets was suspended because of legal procedural errors. The Pentagon papers were not least the reason for the passing of the Freedom of Information Act , which allows civilians to view US government documents upon request.
content
The Pentagon Papers were drawn up jointly by State Department and Defense Department officials. The documents consist of several individual representations that comprehensively and openly describe all aspects of the United States' involvement in Indochina. This ranges from the harmless presentation of political relations with countries in Asia to the methods and strategies of the secret services to influence political conditions and armed conflicts.
context
In the 1970s, a whole series of publications were made by whistleblowers and news media, which should also be viewed in connection with the increasingly unpopular Vietnam War and the revolt of the population against the state: in 1971 , for example, the stolen documents of the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI launched Operation COINTELPRO , and the 1973 Watergate affair shook the public - all in all, this paved the way for the installation of the Church Committee .
Press
Commenting on the publication of the Pentagon Papers by the world press:
"The secret Vietnam study commissioned by Robert McNamara is a historian's dream and a statesman's nightmare."
"Not against their will and fatefully, but determined and provocative, obsessed with fear of communism, three US presidents led their country into the Vietnam War - America's press demonstrated this for four weeks through excerpts from the Pentagon's Vietnam study."
“The New York Times risks having to face the consequences. In any case, it will emerge from it with the honors of the war. "
"An official or journalist of the Soviet Union who disclosed confidential government documents would incur a very severe sentence."
"But then, when political goals, sensationalism or even just the cash register cloud the view of the common good, such opinion-makers dig the grave for themselves and the freedom they demand."
"In America, coping with the recent past is gradually becoming full employment [...]
The arrogance that resides in the editorial and study rooms loses all measure and lacks the capacity for self-criticism because it is taken from the corrective elements of the democratic process that the must subjugate those attacked by him [...]
The abuse of freedom of the press and the decadence of journalistic professional ethics have come a long way when America's most influential and respected daily newspaper no longer shrinks from open betrayal of secrets in the pursuit of its political goals [...]
The distortion of the The concept of freedom of the press is blooming. In their name the propaganda machine of Moscow and Hanoi may be supplied with material that their mills will grind terribly finely. "
“The socialist literary newspaper Literaturnaja Gazeta suspects that behind the publication of the Vietnam documents there are real interests of rival industries in the United States. The weekly reports that the newspapers that published excerpts from the Pentagon's Vietnam study have close ties with the consumer goods industry and arms production for strategic weapons, neither of which benefit from the continuation of the Vietnam War. "
literature
- Hannah Arendt: The lie in politics. Reflections on the Pentagon Papers. In: Truth and Lies in Politics. Two essays. (English original 1971) Piper, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-492-30328-6 , pp. 7–43.
- Neil Sheehan (Ed.): The Pentagon Papers as published by the New York Times. Quadrangle Books, New York 1971.
- German: The Pentagon Papers: the secret history of the Vietnam War. Droemer-Knaur, Munich 1971, ISBN 3-426-00271-X .
- Daniel Ellsberg: Papers on the War. (1972) Simon & Schuster, 2009, ISBN 978-1-4391-9376-1 .
- Daniel Ellsberg: Secrets. A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers. Viking Penguin, New York NY 2002, ISBN 0-670-03030-9 .
- David Rudenstine: The Day the Presses Stopped. A History of the Pentagon Papers Case. University of California Press, 1996/98, ISBN 0-520-08672-4 . (Book excerpt online)
Movies
- The secret papers of the Pentagon , Germany 1973, documentary play (ZDF) by Peter von Zahn
- The Pentagon Papers in the Internet Movie Database (English), USA 2003, directed by John Holcomb (feature film)
- The Most Dangerous Man in America - Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers , USA 2009, directed by Rick Goldsmith and Judith Ehrlich (documentary)
- Daniel Ellsberg: Secrets - Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers
- Conversations with History: Daniel Ellsberg
- The publisher , USA 2017, directed by Steven Spielberg (feature film)
Web links
- Complete edition of the Pentagon Papers in the National Archives (English)
- Website about the Pentagon Papers (English)
- Another site on the Pentagon Papers (English)
- Nixon Tapes & Supreme Court Oral Arguments (English)
- ZEIT article for full publication after 40 years June 14, 2011
- David Rudenstine (Washington Post): The Day the Presses Stopped. A History of the Pentagon Papers Case.
- Floyd Abrams (New York Times, June 7, 1981): The Pentagon Papers a Decade later
- The man who published the Pentagon Papers
Individual evidence
- ↑ RW Apple Jr., 25 years later; Lessons from the Pentagon Papers , The New York Times, June 23, 1996, accessed February 24, 2021
- ^ A b National Archives and Records Administration : Pentagon Papers
- ↑ a b Documentary: The Most Dangerous Man in America - Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (USA 2009, 91 min.), Directed by Judith Ehrlich, Rick Goldsmith
- ↑ NEW YORK TIMES CO. v. UNITED STATES , 403 U , p. 713 (1971)
- ↑ The quotations are from the German edition of The Pentagon Papers as published by the New York Times. taken.
- ↑ Vietnam: The Fifth Plan - The Turning Point? In: Der Spiegel . No. 29 , 1971, p. 58 f . ( online - July 12, 1971 ).