Daniel Ellsberg

Daniel Ellsberg is a former U.S. military analyst who, in 1971, leaked the Pentagon Papers, which revealed how the U.S. public had been misled about the Vietnam War. In 1959, after serving in the Marine Corps, he became a strategic analyst at the RAND Corporation and a consultant to the White House and Defense Department, which he joined before transferring to the State Department to serve in Saigon. On his return to RAND in 1967, Ellsberg worked on the top-secret McNamara study of U.S. decision-making in Vietnam, 1945–68, which, after his release, would become known as the Pentagon Papers. His trial on twelve felony counts was dismissed on grounds of governmental misconduct against him. Ellsberg is the author of several books, including “Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers” (2002). He was awarded the 2006 Right Livelihood Award and is a senior fellow of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.