Daniel Ellsberg began his career as the coldest of cold warriors-a U. S. Marine company commander, a Pentagon analyst, and a staunch supporter of America's battle against Communist expansion. But in October 1969, Ellsberg-fully expecting to spend the rest of his life in prison-set out to turn around American foreign policy by smuggling out of his office the seven-thousand-page top-secret study, known as the Pentagon Papers, of U.S. decision making in Vietnam. Now, for the first time, Ellsberg tells the full story of how and why he became one of the nation's most impassioned and influential anti-war activists-and how his actions helped alter the course of U.S. history.

Covering the decade between his entry into the Pentagon and Nixon's resignation, Secrets is Ellsberg's meticulously detailed insider's account of the secrets and lies that shaped American foreign policy during the Vietnam era. Ellsberg provides a vivid eyewitness account of the two years he spent behind the lines in Vietnam as a State Department observer-an experience that convinced him of the hopelessness of Johnson's policies and profoundly altered his own political thinking. As Ellsberg recounts with drama and insight, the release of the Pentagon Papers, first to The New York Times and The Washington Post, set in motion a train of events that ultimately toppled a president and helped to end an unjust war.

Infused with the political passion and turmoil of the Vietnam era, Secrets is at once the memoir of a committed, daring man, an insider's exposandeacute of Washington, and a meditation on the meaning of patriotism under a government intoxicated by keeping secrets.

Daniel Ellsberg, a Harvard graduate, ex-Marine, and Rand Corporation analyst, was one of the"whiz kids" recruited to serve in the Pentagon during the Johnson administration. In 1971, Ellsberg made headlines around the world when he released the Pentagon Papers. He is now a prominent speaker, writer, and activist.

CONTENTS

Preface, vii

PART I

Prologue: Vietnam 1961, 3

1. The Tonkin Gulf: August 1964, 7

2 . Cold Warrior, Secret Keeper, 21

3. The Road to Escalation, 48

4. Planning Provocation, 65

5. "Off the Diving Board": July 1965, 88

6. Joining the Foreign Legion, 98

7. Vietnam: The Lansdale Team, 102

8. Travels with Vann, 109

9. Losing Hope, 126

10. Rach Kien, 143

11. Leaving Vietnam, 169

PART II

12. Jaundice, 181

13. The Power of Truth, 199

14. Campaign '68, 215

15. To the Hotel Pierre, 226

16. The Morality of Continuing the War, 246

17. War Resisters, 262

18. Extrication, 274

19. Murder and the Lying Machine, 286

PART III

20. Copying the Papers, 299

21. The Rand Letter, 310

22. Capitol Hill, 323

23. Leaving Rand, 330

24. Kissinger, 343

25. Congress, 356

26. To the New York Times, 365

27. May Day 1971, 376

28. Approaching June 13, 382

29. Going Underground, 387

PART IV

30. The War Goes On, 413

31. The Road to Watergate, 422

32. End of a Trial, 444

Acknowledgments, 459

Notes, 461

Works Cited, 471

Index, 477