Introduction

Daniel Ellsberg was a Harvard-trained economist who served in the US military. He became fascinated by the strategic challenge of the Cold War and worked as an analyst at the influential Rand Corporation. In his role at the Rand Corporation he had access to a storehouse of secret documents known as the Pentagon Papers cataloging decades of lies and deceptions concerning Vietnam. After his trial collapsed Ellsberg devoted his life to the campaign for transparency in government. His warnings have been long and loud but has America been listening?