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Vietnam War veteran receives medal of honor
Nearly 60 years after he was first recommended for the Medal of Honor, retired Green Beret Colonel Paris Davis has received the highest military decoration for his service in Vietnam. Fox News chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin has the details.
Daniel Ellsberg, the former military analyst who made history by leaking the damning Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam War, passed away Friday at the age of 92.
Ellsberg had announced that he had pancreatic cancer in February.
In a statement obtained by Fox News, Ellsberg’s family said the non-year-old died peacefully surrounded by loved ones.
“Daniel was a seeker of truth and a patriotic truth-teller, an anti-war activist, a beloved husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather, a close friend to many and an inspiration to countless others,” the statement said. “He will be sorely missed by all of us.”
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Daniel Ellsberg talks to reporters as he arrives for arraignment at a federal courthouse in Los Angeles, California, August 16, 1971. (Bettmann via Getty Images, File)
The Pentagon Papers was a 7,000-page, 47-volume history of the U.S. military’s involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967. The report was commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, a staunch advocate of the war, and was just days before President Richard Nixon was sworn in.
The papers contained extensive details of France’s failure to successfully colonize Vietnam in the 1940s and 1950s, and also documented US military actions, including hundreds of thousands of deployments and bombings.
Ellsberg’s leak contradicted President Lyndon Johnson’s claim that the US had no intention of sending more soldiers. The leak also cast doubt on the viability of South Vietnam’s government.
Damn enough, the documents revealed that the Johnson administration covertly expanded the war into nearby countries, despite indications from intelligence officials who claimed that such actions would not weaken North Vietnam’s forces.
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Daniel Ellsberg and his wife leave court after a federal judge dismissed the Pentagon Papers case against him on May 11, 1973. (Bettmann via Getty Images, File)
A Navy veteran and Harvard College graduate, Ellsberg was a highly trusted RAND Corporation employee with the highest security clearances. Ellsberg had originally hoped that the war to prevent the spread of Communism in Indochina would be successful, but gradually grew disillusioned.
“An entire generation of Vietnam-era insiders was as disillusioned as I was by a war they considered hopeless and endless,” Ellsberg explained in his 2002 memoir. “By 1968, if not before, they all wanted, just like me, get us out of this war.”
Ellsberg coordinated with the New York Times to first publish the excerpts of the study in June 1971. The Nixon administration attempted to halt publications for reasons of national security, but the Supreme Court ruled 6-3, overruling preliminary restraint .
Daniel Ellsberg, who released the top-secret Pentagon Papers to the media during the Vietnam War, flashes a peace sign during a demonstration outside CIA headquarters on April 27, 1987. (Bettmann via Getty Images)
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Ellsberg, who expected to go to prison, was charged with espionage and robbery. His trial in Boston was ruled a mistrial and charges in his Los Angeles case were dismissed.
The Associated Press and Michael Ruiz of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.
