Pentagon Papers

Daniel Ellsberg, the whistleblower who leaked the Pentagon Papers and later warned about nuclear weapons policy, is being remembered for a body of writing and testimony that blends moral courage with dark warnings about nuclear risk. Commentators are revisiting his chronicles of government secrecy, his decision to expose the Vietnam War documents, and his late-career advocacy for reducing nuclear dangers.

Daniel Ellsberg, the former Pentagon analyst who leaked the Pentagon Papers, is the subject of a retrospective reflecting on his courage in exposing government deception and his dark warnings about nuclear weapons and state secrecy. Commentators recall Ellsberg as a moral exemplar for whistleblowers, while noting his increasing foreboding in later years about nuclear war, executive power and the risks faced by those who tell uncomfortable truths.