This Day in History: 1971-06-13

Pentagon Papers  are first published  on this day in 1971 after being leaked from inside the US government to the New York Times and other newspapers.  The papers were a 3,000 page secret US government history and analysis of the war in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967. An additional 4,000 pages of original government documents in 47 volumes were also part of the history, which showed that the Kennedy and Johnson administrations had systematically lied about the much of the Vietnam war.  After the first excerpt was published on June 13, 1971, the Nixon administration obtained a federal court injunction against further publication, and publication was suspended until the Pentagon Papers could be reviewed by the US Supreme Court.  In a victory for freedom of the press, on  June 30, 1971, the court decided, 6–3,  in NY Times v Unites States, that the government failed to meet the heavy burden of proof required in a case of prior restraint. All nine justices wrote their own opinions and disagreed on many issues. Justice Black said:

Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell.