When whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers over a half-century ago, that act helped change American minds and policy regarding the Vietnam War.

“After The New York Times began publishing the Pentagon Papers on Sunday, June 13, 1971, the nation was stunned,” the New York Times reported on the 50th anniversary of the leak in 2021. “The response ranged from horror to anger to disbelief. There was furor over the betrayal of national secrets. Opponents of the war felt vindicated.”

When Ellsberg handed the Pentagon Papers over to journalists, President Richard Nixon’s White House pursued prior restraint injunctions to try and literally stop the press from printing this story. Yet 19 major papers defied the federal government and published the papers anyway.