--- title: The Other Secret of the Pentagon Papers: Almost Nobody Read Them description: June 30, 1971: The Supreme Court rules to allow the publication of articles about the Vietnam War’s origins, based on the Pentagon Papers canonical: https://time.com/3933636/pentagon-papers/ author: Jennifer Latson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-30T14:30:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T08:28:55.678Z article:section: History og:title: The Other Secret of the Pentagon Papers: Almost Nobody Read Them og:description: June 30, 1971: The Supreme Court rules to allow the publication of articles based on the Pentagon Papers og:url: https://time.com/3933636/pentagon-papers/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt28ad6df139817bbb/69885818428a9e1d62ccdde1/ellsberg.jpeg?branch=production&width=1080&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Daniel Ellsberg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Other Secret of the Pentagon Papers: Almost Nobody Read Them twitter:description: June 30, 1971: The Supreme Court rules to allow the publication of articles based on the Pentagon Papers twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt28ad6df139817bbb/69885818428a9e1d62ccdde1/ellsberg.jpeg?branch=production&width=1080&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Other Pentagon Papers Secret: Few People Actually Read Them by [Jennifer Latson](https://time.com/author/jennifer-latson/) ## Jennifer Latson Jun 30, 2015 2:30 PM UTC  Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers to the media, at a press conference in July of 1971 Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers to the media, at a press conference in July of 1971Steve Hansen—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty by [Jennifer Latson](https://time.com/author/jennifer-latson/) ## Jennifer Latson Jun 30, 2015 2:30 PM UTC As classified documents went, the Pentagon Papers were such dry reading that almost no one made it all the way through them — including Henry Kissinger, Nixon’s national security adviser and chief strategist on the Vietnam War. When the 40-volume Pentagon report on America’s entanglement in the controversial war was delivered to reporters, however, it became the WikiLeaks of its day: “\[t\]he most massive leak of secret documents in U.S. history,” according to [TIME’s 1971 account](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,905234,00.html). But even after the study’s revelations became front-page news in the New York _Times_, few lay readers could get excited about the story, which TIME described as “six pages of deliberately low-key prose and column after gray column of official cables, memorandums and position papers.” Most Americans only understood the scathing significance of the report when they saw how hard the Nixon administration fought to keep it under wraps. What followed was a historic clash between the Executive Office and the Fourth Estate: For three weeks, the White House battled in court to keep the _Times_ and the Washington _Post_ from publishing stories based on the leaked documents, which revealed staggering incompetence and deception on the part of both the Johnson and Nixon administrations. The White House argued that publishing the information jeopardized national security; the newspapers argued that the public had a right to understand the machinations that had led the nation into its most unpopular and unsuccessful war. In the end — on this day, June 30, in 1971 — the Supreme Court sided with the press and ruled that the newspapers could immediately resume publishing the classified reports. The 6-3 vote marked deep divisions within the court, however, prompting the justices to “\[vent\] their opinions in nine separate opinions,” as the [_Post_ put it](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/flash/july/pent71.htm) the day after the ruling. TIME [summarized](http://time.com/vault/issue/1971-07-12/page/16/) the differences between their takes on the case: --- > “” --- And while Daniel Ellsberg (who leaked the Pentagon Papers to the press by sneaking them out of his office safe, one volume at a time, to be Xeroxed by a colleague’s girlfriend in all-night copying sessions) initially faced felony charges for his role in the leak, there were many who commended him for his courage as a whistleblower. The charges against Ellsberg were dropped in 1973, but the Pentagon Papers themselves were only declassified four years ago, in 2011\. Ellsberg [told the _Times_](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/08/us/08pentagon.html?%5Fr=0) he believed they still held valuable lessons for the American populace — although he found it even more unlikely that anyone would wade through the 7,000-page report 40 years after it was leaked. “The rerelease of the Pentagon Papers is very timely, if anyone were to read it,” he said. **_Read TIME’s 1971 cover story on the Pentagon Papers, here in the TIME archives_**: [The Secret War](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,905234,00.html) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3933636/pentagon-papers/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3933636/pentagon-papers/"},"headline":"The Other Pentagon Papers Secret: Few People Actually Read Them","datePublished":"2015-06-30T14:30:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T08:28:55.678Z","description":"June 30, 1971: The Supreme Court rules to allow the publication of articles about the Vietnam War’s origins, based on the Pentagon Papers","url":"https://time.com/3933636/pentagon-papers/","keywords":["Media","Vietnam","conflict","espionage"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt28ad6df139817bbb/69885818428a9e1d62ccdde1/ellsberg.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jennifer Latson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jennifer-latson/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt28ad6df139817bbb/69885818428a9e1d62ccdde1/ellsberg.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Daniel Ellsberg","caption":"Anti war activist Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the","creditText":"Steve Hansen—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/media/","name":"Media"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3933636/pentagon-papers/","name":"The Other Pentagon Papers Secret: Few People Actually Read Them"}}]}] ```