From the Pentagon Papers to Trump: How the government gained the upper hand against leakers
By Margot Susca, American University School of Communication In October 1969, a national security official named Daniel Ellsberg began secretly photocopying 7,000 classified Vietnam War documents. He had become increasingly frustrated with the systematic deception of top U.S. leaders who sought to publicly escalate a war that, privately, they knew was unwinnable. In March…