Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers Whistleblower, Dies at 92
By Joseph Pisani June 16, 2023 3:43 pm ET Daniel Ellsberg, the military analyst who leaked the secret history of the Vietnam War that became known as the Pentagon Papers, has died. He was 92. Ellsberg died Friday morning in his home in Kensington, Calif., according to a statement from his family. He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in February, the family said. “Daniel was a seeker of truth and a patriotic truth-teller, an antiwar activist, a beloved husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather,” his family’s statement said. “He will be dearly missed by all of us.” Daniel Ellsberg said he’d studied t
Daniel Ellsberg, the military analyst who leaked the secret history of the Vietnam War that became known as the Pentagon Papers, has died. He was 92.
Ellsberg died Friday morning in his home in Kensington, Calif., according to a statement from his family. He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in February, the family said.
“Daniel was a seeker of truth and a patriotic truth-teller, an antiwar activist, a beloved husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather,” his family’s statement said. “He will be dearly missed by all of us.”
Daniel Ellsberg said he’d studied the papers carefully to ensure the leak wouldn’t harm any Americans.
Photo: Marty Lederhandler/Associated Press
Born in Chicago in 1931, Ellsberg studied economics at Harvard and eventually landed at Rand Corp. in 1959 as a strategic analyst. He worked as a consultant with the White House and Defense Department.
After several years working for the government, he returned to Rand in 1967 and worked on a top-secret study of the Vietnam War. Two years later, Ellsberg photocopied the 7,000-page study on U.S. decision making in Vietnam and gave it to the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Two years later, he shared it with the , which published parts of it in June 1971. It would become a turning point in the war.
Ellsberg told The Wall Street Journal in 2010 he had studied every word of the Pentagon Papers and carefully weighed whether their release would harm anyone.
“I had read all of it and made a judgment of the 7,000 papers and concluded they deserved to be out and would not harm any Americans,” he said.
Daniel Ellsberg celebrates after the charges against him were dropped in 1973.
Photo: Associated Press
While much of the information released was dated, the documents had an immediate effect, crystallizing public doubts about the war.
He was prosecuted for espionage, though the charges were dropped after the trial became caught up in the Watergate scandal.
Write to Joseph Pisani at [email protected]
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