Pentagon whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg who exposed the extent of the United States' actions in the Vietnam War died at the age of 92 in California's Kensington due to pancreatic cancer. The former US military analyst's 1971 Pentagon Papers leak gave him the tag of being 'the most dangerous man in America.' It even led to a Supreme Court case as the Richard Nixon government tried to block the publication of those papers in the New York Times. However, espionage charges against him were ultimately dropped.
The NPR quoted Ellsberg's family member as saying, "Daniel was a seeker of truth and a patriotic truth-teller, an anti-war activist, a beloved husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, a dear friend to many, and an inspiration to countless more. He will be dearly missed by all of us."
For decades, Ellsberg remained a tireless critic of the US government's overreach and military interventions. When he advised the White House on nuclear strategy and assessed the Vietnam War for the Department of Defense in 1960s, his opposition was crystallised. His work weighed heavily on his conscience and he believed that if the public would get to know about facts then the political pressure to end the war might be irresistible.
The release of the Pentagon Papers including 7,000 government pages, exposed the lies and deceptions of multiple US Presidents and was a product of that rationale. Ultimately, it sowed the seeds of then president Richard M Nixon's downfall.
The leak of the Pentagon Papers sparked a First Amendment clash between the Nixon government and the New York Times, which first published stories based on the papers, which were portrayed by government officials as an act of espionage that jeopardised national security. The US Supreme Court ruled in favour of press freedom.
Ellsberg was born in Chicago on April 7, 1931, and grew up in the Detroit suburbs. He was a Marine Corps veteran with a Harvard doctorate who had previously worked for the Defence and State departments before reaching the Pentagon.