Daniel Ellsberg, the whistleblower who launched the so-called Pentagon Papers, has died at the age of 92. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer earlier this year.

The Pentagon Papers were thousands of classified documents about the Vietnam War. It revealed that successive US presidents lied about the course of the war. They hid from the American people that the war was unwinnable, escalated the fight and lied about what happened on the battlefield. The publication of the Pentagon Papers indirectly led to the downfall of President Nixon.

Ellsberg worked, among other things, as a military analyst for the Pentagon. He served in Vietnam, and in the first half of the sixties he had to report to the government on the course of the war. Ellsberg came to the conclusion that the battle could not be won. In the years that followed, the United States, against its better judgement, sent more troops to Vietnam and the desperate battle intensified.

The Pentagon Papers were commissioned by the US Department of Defense, under the direction of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. He wanted to archive all political and military action in Vietnam between 1947 and 1967 in a confidential report. It turns out that the White House lied for years about increased US involvement. Ellsberg was one of the analysts who co-authored the report.

A note in the report lists President Johnson’s (1963-1969) motives for remaining active in Vietnam: “70 percent to avoid defeat by the United States, 20 percent to keep South Vietnam out of Chinese hands, and 10 percent to fight for freedom and a better life for the people.” South Vietnamese”.

The high number of soldiers killed, wounded, and casualties on the Vietnamese side were also lied to in an effort not to lose the American people’s support for the war.

The Pentagon Papers also described how the US involved Laos and Cambodia in the conflict in 1965. The US bombed Vietnam’s neighbors in the process Rolling thunder to fight the Vietcong. As many bombs were dropped as in the entire Second World War. This was also suppressed by the US government.

The New York Times published his article in the Pentagon Papers in 1971. President Nixon became angry and accused Ellsberg of espionage, but the lawsuit against him came to nothing.

Henry Kissinger, President Nixon’s National Security Adviser, called Ellsberg the most dangerous man in the United States who “must be stopped at all costs.”

Ellsberg was regularly bugged and the CIA attempted to gain access to his medical records by breaking into his psychiatrist.

The group that attempted it was called the Plumbers.And He was later involved in the Watergate scandal that forced Nixon’s resignation in 1974.

In later life, Ellsberg was a peace activist. He spoke out against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, among others.