"As with Vietnam, the current war on terrorism has a secret backstory far different from the one retailed so earnestly" by the administration, say the authors of this illuminating new look at the Pentagon Papers scandal of the 1970s. Scholar Prados (The White House Tapes: Eavesdropping on the President) and Porter, director of communications and publications for Vietnam Veterans of America, reexamine the secret government papers that blew the whistle on the Vietnam War, led to the federal attempts to restrain the press and ultimately resulted in President Richard Nixons resignation. The authors take readers into the meeting in which Times editors debated whether to publish the papers, a decision that presented "all the classic elements of journalistic dilemma." They offer previously unpublished transcripts of White House tapes (Nixon says, "Henry talked to that damn Jew Times executive Max Frankel all the time, hes bad, you know..."). And in a final chapter, VVA general counsel Michael Gaffney considers the legal issues raised by the Pentagon Papers, and their implications for releasing classified government information today. Volumes about these issues abound, but Prados and Porter offer a concise look at those pivotal events and their long-term effects.
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From the Back Cover
"Exciting as history and compelling as law,
Inside the Pentagon Papers gives us the secret documents from this famous case-and shows how thin the government's legal and factual arguments actually were."--Anthony Lewis, author of
Make No Law: The Sullivan Case and the First Amendment
"This is a signal event, for the revelation of the Pentagon Papers brought forth Nixon's Plumbers--and the rest, as we know, is history."--Stanley I. Kutler, author of The Wars of Watergate
"So many dazzling new perspectives on events we thought we knew and a cautionary tale for here and now."--Frank Snepp, author of Decent Interval and Irreparable Harm
"The most complete, incisive and persuasive study of those documents yet published."--Floyd Abrams, co-counsel to the New York Times in the Pentagon Papers case
About the Author
John Prados is the author of numerous books, including Hoodwinked: The Documents That Reveal How Bush Sold Us a War. He is currently director of a project on declassified Vietnam War documents at the National Security Archive at George Washington University. Margaret Pratt Porter is director of communications and publications for Vietnam Veterans of America and editor of The VVA Veteran.
