X-Nico

4 unusual facts about Pentagon Papers


Eastern Construction Company

Described in Neil Sheehan's The Pentagon Papers as "private", "public-service", and "anti-communist", ECC provided personnel to Vietnam and Laos in capacities that served paramilitary ends, if not actually paramilitary in and of themselves.

John G. Schwegmann

He spoke out on a plethora of issues, including price-fixing, the Pentagon Papers, taxation, and the Louisiana Superdome.

Mitchell Rogovin

In private practice, he was known for his 1971 defense of New York Times reporter Neil Sheehan for his role in the publication of the Pentagon Papers, and for his 1973 suit against Richard Nixon's reelection committee on behalf of Common Cause.

Townsend Hoopes

In a telephone conversation between Richard Nixon and Charles Colson, taped on July 1, 1971, Colson relates the news that Lyndon Johnson privately believed that Hoopes had played a role in releasing the Pentagon Papers to the press, and that he would have liked to have seen Hoopes taken to court by the government alongside various newspapermen.


Cranbrook Schools

Cranbrook has many notable alumni, including designer Florence Knoll, former U.S. Senator Alan K. Simpson, Heisman Trophy winner Pete Dawkins, Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, former Massachusetts governor and 2012 Presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his wife Ann Romney (née Davies), columnist Michael Kinsley, Sun Microsystems founder Scott McNealy, former professional soccer player Alexi Lalas, and actress Selma Blair.

Egil Krogh

When the administration decided to pursue the Pentagon Papers leakers, it was Krogh who approved the September 1971 burglary of the office of Lewis Fielding, the psychiatrist seeing Daniel Ellsberg.

Robert Mardian

Mardian became involved in the Nixon administration's unorthodox campaigns early when he headed the federal prosecution of Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg in 1971.

The Most Dangerous Man in America

The film follows Daniel Ellsberg and explores the events leading up to the publication of the Pentagon Papers, which exposed the top-secret military history of the United States involvement in Vietnam.


see also