From WikiPedia:

In 1971, he played a key role in the release of the Pentagon Papers — a large collection of secret government documents pertaining to the Vietnam War — which were made public by former Defense Department analyst Daniel Ellsberg. First trying unsuccessfully to read the Papers in the Senate chamber he, on the night of 29 June 1971, convened a late session of the Senate Subcommittee on Buildings and Grounds which he chaired. Reading for the next three hours and at times crying and sobbing, he succeeded in publishing 4,100 pages of the Papers into the Subcommittee’s official reports and therefore also onto the public record.[10] He also made public a copy of National Security Study Memorandum No. 1, which Daniel Ellsberg had provided him.[11] These pages were later issued by the Beacon Press as the “Senator Gravel Edition” — the most complete edition to be published, with editing and annotations by Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn, and an additional volume of analytical articles on the origins and progress of the war (also edited by Chomsky and Zinn).[12]

Also in 1971, he embarked on a one-man filibuster against legislation renewing the military draft. Using various parliamentary maneuvers, he was able to block the bill for five months before President Richard Nixon and Senate Republicans agreed to allow the draft to expire in 1973.

His opposition to the war was also expressed in his advocation of equal air time from the media to counter the Nixon administration’s position on the war. He organized the War No More group. He criticized Vietnamization as “a plan to keep on our involvement for decades until we win”.[13]

In 1972 he tried unsuccessfully to have the Senate vote on a Congressional Declaration of War against North Vietnam and to persuade the Senate to publish, in the Congressional Record, a secret Nixon administration study of US bombing effectiveness in Vietnam.[14]

JayHaw Phrenzie on June 15, 2007 at 9:41 PM