Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers

"Daniel Ellsberg began his Vietnam-era career as the coldest of cold warriors: a U.S. Marine company commander, a Pentagon official, 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 and making public a seven-thousand-page top secret study of decision making in Vietnam, eventually to be known as the Pentagon Papers. In this penetrating political memoir, Ellsberg now tells the full story of how and why he became one of the nation's most impassioned and influential antiwar activists and the most important whistleblower of the last fifty years.". "Secrets is a detailed insider's view of the secrets and lies that shaped three decades of American foreign policy during the Vietnam era. Ellsberg's exposure to the lying began on his very first day in the Pentagon, August 4, 1964, which was also the day of the infamous Gulf of Tonkin incident. The more Ellsberg learned about the war from top decision makers, confidential documents, and reports of secret maneuvers, the more skeptical he became about prospects for military victory in Vietnam.