Pentagon
Papers
The Pentagon
Papers, officially titled "Report of the Office of the
Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force", was
commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in
1967. In June of 1971, small portions of the report were
leaked to the press and widely distributed. However, the
publications of the report that resulted from these
leaks were incomplete and suffered from many quality
issues.
On the 40th
anniversary of the leak to the press, the National
Archives, along with the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon
Presidential Libraries, has released the complete
report. The 48 boxes in this series contain a complete
copy of the 7,000 page report along with numerous copies
of different volumes of the report, all declassified.
Approximately 34% of the report is available for the
first time.
What is
unique about this, compared to other versions, is that:
-
The
complete Report is now available with no redactions
compared to previous releases
-
The
Report is presented as Leslie Gelb presented it to
then Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford on January
15, 1969
-
All the
supplemental back-documentation is included. In the
Gravel Edition, 80% of the documents in Part V.B.
were not included
-
This
release includes the complete account of peace
negotiations, significant portions of which were not
previously available either in the House Armed
Services Committee redacted copy of the Report or in
the Gravel Edition
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