Daniel Ellsberg Announces Terminal Cancer

Daniel Ellsberg, whose copying and leaking of the Pentagon Papers revealed top-secret information about the United States’ Vietnam War policy, has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and has only months to live. Thursday, Ellsberg posted on his Facebook page that on February 17, after a CT scan and MRI, the 91-year-old was diagnosed with incurable pancreatic cancer.

He reported that doctors gave him three to six months to live. Ellsberg stated that he has decided against chemotherapy and will, if necessary, accept hospice care. The Pentagon Papers examined the policies and tactics of the Vietnam War in excruciating detail. They described how political figures and senior military officers gradually expanded U.S. influence abroad.

Participation while being overconfident about American prospects and dishonest about victories against the North Vietnamese. Ellsberg, a former defence department adviser who broke the story in June 1971 for The New York Times, gave the Pentagon Papers to Neil Sheehan. His death occurred in 2021.

Sheehan stole the documents from Ellsberg’s Massachusetts apartment, illegally copied thousands of pages, and gave them to the New York Times. The government of President Richard Nixon obtained a court order to halt publication, citing national security concerns. The act sparked a heated debate regarding the First Amendment, which swiftly reached the Supreme Court.

The Times and The Washington Post resumed publishing articles on June 30, 1971, following the court’s 6-3 decision to allow publication. The coverage earned The New York Times the Pulitzer Prize for public service. After the documents were published, the Nixon administration attempted to discredit Ellsberg.

Nixon’s advisors plotted a break-in at Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s Beverly Hills clinic in order to gather evidence against him. The case against Ellsberg was dismissed after revelations about government-authorized wiretaps and break-ins. He was charged with theft, conspiracy, and Espionage Act violations. Ellsberg stated on Facebook that he is “grateful and fortunate” for his life.

When I copied the Pentagon Papers in 1969, I fully expected to spend the remainder of my life in prison. Even though it appeared (and was) improbable, I would have gladly accepted it if it had accelerated the end of the Vietnam War. He was a writer. But in the end, he said, “that action had an impact on reducing the war in ways I could not have imagined because of Nixon’s illegal responses.