The Pentagon Papers: The Defense Department History of United States Decisionmaking on Vietnam

THE PENTAGON PAPERS, officially titled "Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force", was commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in 1967. It detailed U.S. political and military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967, and demonstrated, among other things, that multiple presidential administrations had systematically lied, not only to the public but also to Congress.

Released by Daniel Ellsberg, who had worked on the study, they were first brought to the attention of the public on the front page of The New York Times in early June 1971. After the federal government succeeded in briefly delaying the publication of even newspaper synopses or brief excerpts, Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska convened a special session of his Public Buildings and Grounds subcommittee. On the night of June 29, with the press in attendance, Gravel read 4,100 pages of the papers (received from Ellsberg) into the Congressional record. The following day, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the newspapers and publication in the Times and others resumed.

In July 1971, Bantam Books released a paperback edition of the papers containing the material the Times had published. Gravel, too, wanted to privately publish the portion of the papers he had read into the record, believing that "immediate disclosure of the contents of these papers will change the policy that supports the war." After being turned down by many commercial publishers, he reached an agreement with Beacon Press in early August.

The four-volume "Senator Gravel Edition", published in October 1971, was hailed as the most complete edition of the Pentagon Papers to be published. It was edited and annotated by Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn, and included an additional volume of analytical articles on the origins and progress of the war.

Volume five includes Critical Essays Edited by Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn and an Index to Volumes One-Four.