Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers » (Abridged)

Daniel Ellsberg is a former U.S. Marine commander and Rand analyst, and was one of the "whiz kids" recruited by Robert McNamara as a Pentagon war analyst in the Johnson administration. He is a prominent speaker and activist on behalf of antinuclear and environmental causes.

Covering the decade between his entry into the Pentagon and Nixon's resignation, Secrets is Ellsberg's meticulously detailed insider's account of the secrets and lies that shaped American foreign policy during the Vietnam era. Ellsberg provides a vivid eyewitness account of the two years he spent behind the lines in Vietnam as a State Department observer--an experience that convinced him of the hopelessness of Johnson's policies and profoundly altered his own political thinking. As Ellsberg recounts with drama and insight, the release of the Pentagon Papers, first the The New York Times and The Washington Post, set in motion a train of events that ultimately toppled a president and helped to end an unjust war.

Martin Sheen

The most important expose of Washington since the Pentagon Papers themselves, Secrets is essential reading for any American who wants to understand true patriotism.

CONTENTS

Preface, vii

PART I

Prologue: Vietnam 1961, 3

1. The Tonkin Gulf: August 1964, 7

2 . Cold Warrior, Secret Keeper, 21

3. The Road to Escalation, 48

4. Planning Provocation, 65

5. "Off the Diving Board": July 1965, 88

6. Joining the Foreign Legion, 98

7. Vietnam: The Lansdale Team, 102

8. Travels with Vann, 109

9. Losing Hope, 126

10. Rach Kien, 143

11. Leaving Vietnam, 169

PART II

12. Jaundice, 181

13. The Power of Truth, 199

14. Campaign '68, 215

15. To the Hotel Pierre, 226

16. The Morality of Continuing the War, 246

17. War Resisters, 262

18. Extrication, 274

19. Murder and the Lying Machine, 286

PART III

20. Copying the Papers, 299

21. The Rand Letter, 310

22. Capitol Hill, 323

23. Leaving Rand, 330

24. Kissinger, 343

25. Congress, 356

26. To the New York Times, 365

27. May Day 1971, 376

28. Approaching June 13, 382

29. Going Underground, 387

PART IV

30. The War Goes On, 413

31. The Road to Watergate, 422

32. End of a Trial, 444

Acknowledgments, 459
Notes, 461
Works Cited, 471
Index, 477