Effects of the Pentagon Papers and Watergate Tapes on the
Relationship Between American Government and Media
By the end of the Cold War, Vietnam had split into two
states. Communist North Vietnam, led by Ho Chi Minh, and South Vietnam, led by
self-proclaimed dictator Ngo Dinh Diem. U.S. Government officials feared not
getting involved in Vietnam because of what they called the “Domino Effect,”
which refers to the idea that if Vietnam became a communist state, the rest of
South East Asia would follow suit, and eventually so would the rest of the
world. As China became increasingly supportive of North Vietnam, the U.S. saw
it necessary to support South Vietnam, at first only by sending supplies and
officers to train the Vietnamese military. Eventually, the U.S. involvement escalated
to the point where upwards of 50,000 American troops had been deployed. Anti-war
activists strongly disagreed with the U.S. Government’s decision towards war.
They felt the U.S. did not need to get involved in another situation like
Korea. They did not want to sacrifice the money, supplies, and lives for a
nation that did not even want foreign assistance. Presidents Eisenhower,
Kennedy, and Johnson all supported the war in Vietnam, each increasing involvement
with his respective presidency. To what extent the presidents were involving
the U.S. with Vietnam however, was not fully disclosed to the American public.
At the time these
men served in office, reporters believed that their relationship with the
government was one intended by the first amendment of the Constitution. If a
reporter went digging a little too far, it was understood that some matters had
to be kept secret for reasons of national security. “Reasons of national
security,” soon became an excuse for government officials. It is ironic really.
America was involving itself in a war against power-hungry communist regimes,
while at home her leaders took advantage of their power and status by lying to
the American people under the façade of overly classified documents and lame justifications.
As the war in
Vietnam worsened, so did the depth of deceit by American presidents,
culminating with two major events surrounding President Richard Nixon; the
publishing of the Pentagon Papers and the leak of the Watergate Tapes. The
Pentagon Papers were commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara under
the name “Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force.”
The purpose of the report was to record America’s involvement in Vietnam, from
beginning (~1954) to present (1969). Ultimately, the report served to disclose
the outright lies of all the presidents involved in the war, from Eisenhower to
Nixon. The Pentagon Papers were leaked by Daniel Ellsberg, an analyst on the
task force who became so disturbed by the deceit that he secretly photocopied
7,000 pages of the report. After failing to release the papers to the public
via a congressman, Ellsberg turned to the New York Times, who published the
first “part in a series” of the report.
Time Magazine Cover (not to be confused with the New York Times)
Immediately,
Nixon claimed that he was in favor of moving out of Vietnam, but that it was
difficult to undo the damage caused by his predecessors Eisenhower, Kennedy,
and Johnson. With most Americans in disbelief, he then took action not against
the newspaper, but against Ellsberg in, eventually, the Supreme Court for violating
the Espionage Act of 1917. However, Nixon did not only take action within the
law. He illegally broke into the office of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist, searching
for accessory incriminating evidence, still trying to avoid blame. This
unlawful act reversed Ellsberg’s potential 150 year sentence and swung the case
in his favor, 6 to 3.
Nixon did not
stop his power trip there. Desperate to be reelected in 1972, Republican Nixon
hired burglars to break into the Democratic National Committee and wire tap the
phones and steal the classified documents of select individuals. Unfortunately
for Nixon, a sharp-eyed security guardsmen found tape on door locks left by the
burglars and called the police. The burglars were arrested, but Nixon’s cover
up was sufficient to win him the election. He was not discovered as the leader
of the burglary until 1973, when as a result he resigned.
Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force Cover Sheet
The Pentagon
Papers and Watergate Scandal give us two important take-aways: 1) By the first
amendment, the American people have a right to freedom of press, and thus to
information that is not to be unjustly withheld because of superficial reasons,
and 2) It is the duty of reporters and journalists to mediate between the
American government and her people, providing truthful information without
compromising security. If America is a nation “by the people and for the
people,” then those people must know their nation’s agenda and be provided with
enough information to meaningfully add to the nation’s debates. This has always
been true, but it was only realized after the Pentagon Papers and Watergate
Scandal.
Annotated Source List:
1) The Miller Center at the University of Virginia detailed Daniel Ellsberg's involvement in the release of the Pentagon Papers and the subsequent events that related to Nixon, describing the logic behind Nixon's political moves with Watergate evidence as proof.
2) The "40 Years After the Leak, Weighing the Impact of the Pentagon Papers" video, produced by PBS News Hour, provided insight into the changes in attitude of the media toward American government.
3) A large portion of information about Daniel Ellsberg's court case was found in the article "The Impact of the Pentagon Papers," published by The Telegraph.
4) Freedom for Vietnam provided an anti-war perspective on the actions of individual presidents and on general reasons why America should not have been involved.
5) The American government's perspective and reasoning for getting involved in Vietnam are included in an article by Dhahran British Grammar School. Since it came from a British source, I hoped it would be less biased.
6) The History Channel's article on the Watergate Scandal provided a summary of the burglaries and cover-ups.
7) I began my search on the Pentagon Papers with the basic facts provided online by the National Archives.
