Daniel Ellsberg, who disclosed secret documents about the Vietnam War in the USA, has died, Euronews reports.
Renowned whistleblower, Daniel Ellsberg, passed away at the age of 92. Ellsberg, who disclosed secret documents about the Vietnam War, succumbed to pancreatic cancer after a long battle.
Daniel Ellsberg, a high-ranking member of the US government and military elite, copied and leaked classified documents from the Pentagon regarding US involvement in the Vietnam War (1955-1975), which were then handed over to the American public through the media. The publication of the Pentagon Papers in major newspapers, including The New York Times in June 1971, later in The Washington Post, The Associated Press, and more than a dozen other newspapers sent shockwaves throughout the country.
The government responded swiftly, attempting to prevent further publication of the papers through legal action. However, in the end, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the journalists.
Americans, both in and out of government, opposed the Vietnam War, including Ellsberg. He warned the government that North Vietnamese victory over the US-backed South would spread communism throughout the region.
“A whole generation of Vietnam-era insiders, like me, became disillusioned with a war they thought was hopeless and endless,” he wrote in his 2002 memoir, Secrets: A Vietnam Memoir and the Pentagon Papers.
National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger, with whom Ellsberg was once friendly, called him "the most dangerous man in America."
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