For the past week and a half, news about the National Security Agency collecting the phone records of millions of Verizon customers has dominated the narrative.
In less than a fortnight, admitted NSA leaker Edward Snowden has become the most polarizing figure in America.
To some, Snowden is a hero. To others, he is a traitor who should be jailed.
As the nature of Snowden’s leak sparks nationwide debate about government surveillance, it is important to remember and understand the significance of a leak that was made public 42 years ago today.
The Pentagon Papers, often discussed in conversation with the Watergate scandal, were first published on June 13, 1971 by The New York Times.
Previously classified as top secret, the Pentagon Papers embarrassed the U.S. government.
Among the thousands of pages that made up the Pentagon Papers, were plans from President Lyndon B. Johnson to declare war on North Vietnam a full year before the armed conflict stood out.
In addition, the documents also revealed that the primary role of U.S. intervention in Vietnam was to “avoid a humiliating U.S. defeat,” according to documents from Vassar College.
Even more unsettling, the U.S. government said that only 10 percent of its total aim was to “permit the people of [South Vietnam] to enjoy a better, freer way of life,” according to Vassar College.
The documents, portions of which were published almost two years before the end of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, came at a time when support for the war was especially low.
Daniel Ellsberg, a former U.S. Marine Corps officer and employee at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, leaked the documents to The New York Times and was eventually put on trial, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.
Facing 115 years in person, Ellsberg was eventually acquitted after it was revealed that several of then-President Richard Nixon’s thugs broke into Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office in an attempt to steal personal and possibly humiliating information about Ellsberg.
The leaks, which did have an effect on American perception of the war, were vitally important exercises of a citizen checking the power of government.
Top-secret documents, as Ellsberg showed, could instantly be made available to the public, if need be.
The damage and fallout of the government from Ellsberg’s leak was catastrophic.
Today’s generation, faced with the same perils of war and loss of privacy as those in the early 1970s, should extend open arms to leakers like Ellsberg and Snowden.
Careful, planned leaks are good for the overall health of the country.
Having public debate about unpopular acts, like wiretapping, ensures that the American public stays informed.
Without heroes like Edward Snowden and Daniel Ellsberg, American citizens would remain in the dark about key, important issues.
At the end of the day, it is the responsibility of the American people’s to keep the government in check.
Documents previously thought to be top secret can now be accessed on sites like WikiLeaks.
The power now lies in the hands of the people, and that won’t likely change anytime soon.
Shane Newell is a junior journalism major and the opinions editor at the Daily 49er.