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By Christopher Goffard
In the fall of 1969, Daniel Ellsberg stood over a Xerox machine in a friend’s advertising office, copying documents that could send him to prison for the rest of his life.
He wasn’t a radical. He wasn’t anti-American.
He was a former Marine officer. A Harvard PhD. A trusted Pentagon analyst who had helped plan the Vietnam War. He had the highest security clearances in the nation.
And he had just read 7,000 pages proving that four consecutive presidents had lied to the American people about a war they knew was unwinnable.
The documents were called the Pentagon Papers—a secret government history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam commissioned by Defense Secretary Robert McNamara. What they revealed destroyed everything Ellsberg believed about his country.
The papers showed that Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson all knew the war couldn’t be won. They sent young men to die anyway. They told the public victory was around the corner while privately acknowledging it would never come.
By 1969, over 40,000 Americans had been killed. The documents in Ellsberg’s hands proved that those in power had known the truth all along.
Ellsberg had a choice: protect his career, his freedom, his family—or expose the lies that were killing thousands.
He chose the truth.
The copying process was painfully slow. Night after night, Ellsberg fed pages through the machine. Every car passing outside could be the FBI.
Then he did something extraordinary.
He asked his children to help.
Robert was 14. Mary was 11. On the nights they were there, Robert ran the Xerox machine while Ellsberg collated pages. Mary sat on the floor with scissors, carefully cutting the “TOP SECRET” stamps off the copies so they could be distributed.
Years later, Ellsberg explained why he wanted them there: “I expected to be in prison very shortly. I wanted them to know that their father was doing something in a businesslike way—a calm, sober way—that I thought had to be done.”
He told Robert directly that this would probably result in his going to prison. He wanted his children to understand that sometimes conscience demands sacrifice.
For two years, Ellsberg tried to do this the “proper” way. He approached senators and congressmen, begging them to make the documents public through official channels.
Every one of them refused.
So in March 1971, Ellsberg gave the papers to The New York Times.
On June 13, 1971, the Times began publishing. The Nixon administration immediately sued to stop publication—the first time in American history the government had sought to censor a newspaper in this way.
When the Times was blocked, Ellsberg gave the papers to the Washington Post. Then the Boston Globe. Then more newspapers. The truth flooded out faster than the government could contain it.
Nixon was furious. He created a secret White House unit called “the Plumbers” with one mission: destroy Daniel Ellsberg by any means necessary.
They broke into the office of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist, searching for damaging personal information. They plotted to discredit him publicly.
Ellsberg was charged with espionage, theft, and conspiracy. He faced 115 years in federal prison.
But then the government’s crimes unraveled. The break-in became public. Evidence of misconduct piled up. The judge discovered that Nixon had even offered him the directorship of the FBI while the trial was ongoing—a blatant attempt at bribery.
On May 11, 1973, all charges against Ellsberg were dismissed due to “improper government conduct.”
Daniel Ellsberg walked free.
The impact was seismic. The Pentagon Papers confirmed what millions suspected: their government had lied about Vietnam for decades. Public opposition intensified. Congress began cutting war funding.
And the same team that broke into Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office? They later broke into Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate Hotel. Nixon’s obsession with destroying Ellsberg helped trigger the scandal that destroyed his own presidency.
One man with a conscience and a Xerox machine helped end a war and topple a corrupt president.
Ellsberg spent the next 50 years as one of America’s most prominent peace activists and whistleblower advocates. When Edward Snowden leaked NSA documents in 2013, Ellsberg publicly defended him, saying Snowden had done exactly what he had done—risked everything to tell the truth.
Daniel Ellsberg died on June 16, 2023, at age 92.
His daughter Mary became a renowned epidemiologist and advocate for women’s rights. His son Robert became a respected Catholic publisher and writer. Both grew up understanding something their father taught them in that copy room: some truths are worth any price.
Mary remembered being on that floor with the scissors. She knew it had to do with ending the war. She knew it was dangerous. And she knew her father believed it was right.
Ellsberg once said: “There are times when you have to do the right thing, regardless of the consequences. And you have to accept that you might lose everything.”
He stood in that room in 1969, copying documents he wasn’t supposed to have, knowing it would probably destroy his life.
Instead, his courage helped destroy the lies that were destroying his country.
That’s not treason.
That’s patriotism.
~Old Photo Club
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