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Pentagon Papers

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
government study of U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia. Commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara in June, 1967, the 47-volume, top secret study covered the period from World War II to May, 1968. It was written by a team of analysts who had access to classified documents, and was completed in Jan., 1969. The study revealed a considerable degree of miscalculation, bureaucratic arrogance, and deception on the part of U.S. policymakers. In particular, it found that the U.S. government had continually resisted full disclosure of increasing military involvement in Southeast Asia—air strikes over Laos, raids along the coast of North Vietnam, and offensive actions by U.S. marines had taken place long before the American public was informed. On June 13, 1971, the New York Times began publishing a series of articles based on the study. The Justice Dept. obtained a court injunction against further publication on national security grounds, but the Supreme Court ruled (June 30) that…
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Full text Article Pentagon Papers

From The Great American History Fact-Finder
Popular name given to secret documents of a military history conducted by the U.S. Department of Defense regarding the U.S. involvement in Vietnam. In 1971 Daniel Ellsberg, a former government researcher who helped research and write the secret history, leaked the papers to the New York Times, which…
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Full text Article Pentagon Papers

From Brewer's Dictionary of Modern Phrase and Fable
Official documents detailing a history of the US role in Indochina from the Second World War until 1968. They were commissioned in 1967 by Robert S. McNamara, the US Secretary of Defense, and were leaked to the press by Daniel Ellsberg, a government official, in 1971. They revealed, among other…
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Full text Article Pentagon Papers

From Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy
The Pentagon Papers was a secret Department of Defense study of U.S. decision making on Vietnam that covered the period from America's involvement in Indochina during World War II through May 1968, when the Paris peace talks began. Its publication by the New York Times led to a major Supreme Court…
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Full text Article PENTAGON PAPERS

From The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Military and Diplomatic History
Commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in June 1967 to determine what had gone wrong in Vietnam, the research project that came to be called the Pentagon Papers played a critical role in the Vietnam War saga. Completed in 1969, the study comprised forty-seven volumes and more than…
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Full text Article Pentagon Papers

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Secret documents detailing the U.S. role in Indochina from World War II to 1968. The U.S. Defense Department commissioned the study; a project associate, Daniel Ellsberg, who was opposed to U.S. participation in the Vietnam War , leaked details of the documents to the press. In June 1971 The New…
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Full text Article Pentagon Papers

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
government study of U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia. Commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara in June, 1967, the 47-volume, top secret study covered the period from World War II to May, 1968. It was written by a team of analysts who had access to classified documents, and was…
| 256 words
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Full text Article Pentagon Papers

From Chambers Dictionary of World History
A 47-volume history of US involvement in Indochina from World War II to May 1968, commissioned in 1967 by Defense Secretary Robert McNamara . In 1971 parts of the top-secret document were leaked to the New York Times by one of its compilers, Daniel Ellsberg, whose initial support of US involvement…
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Daniel Ellsberg protesting the war in Iraq...
Daniel Ellsberg's Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers (2002) is an autobiographical exposé warning the American public about the nature, depth, and magnitude of government collusion in the administration of war efforts. The book chronicles Ellsberg's time as an advisor to both the…
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Full text Article Pentagon Papers

From The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Houghton Mifflin
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Full text Article Pentagon Papers

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
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