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Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the "Pentagon Papers," died at the age of 92 on Friday (June 16) following a battle with pancreatic cancer.
Ellsberg was working as a defense analyst for the RAND Corporation in the 1960s when he became disillusioned with the Vietnam War. Through his access to classified documents, he learned that top U.S. officials across multiple administrations were misleading the public about the ongoing conflict and continued to escalate the war despite knowing it was unwinnable.
Ellsberg shared the documents with a reporter from The New York Times. Once the paper began publishing stories about the documents, the government tried to sue the newspaper. The government would later sue The Washington Post as well, claiming that publishing the documents was harmful to national security. The case made it all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled that the papers had a First Amendment right to publish the contents of the classified material.
The government also tried to file espionage charges against Ellsberg, but the case was ultimately thrown out of court due to gross misconduct by the government.
"Daniel was a seeker of truth and a patriotic truth-teller, an antiwar activist, a beloved husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, a dear friend to many, and an inspiration to countless more," his family said in a statement. "He will be dearly missed by all of us."