The Pentagon Papers: Would They Do It Today?

A new documentary about Daniel Ellsberg will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival next month. The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, by Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith, will be a welcome refresher for those too young to or too unversed in recent history to be familiar with the Pentagon Papers. Daniel Ellsberg is the Rand Corporation military analyst who, appalled by the level of deceit that had driven our involvement in Vietnam since the Truman administration, copied and leaked a top-secret Pentagon study on the war to The New York Times. The story of the Pentagon Papers is not just about the personal sacrifice that conscience can demand, but the more adversarial vision of journalism embraced by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other media outlets back in the ‘60s.

Would these same institutions do it today?

The movie will open in New York on Wednesday, September 16.