the vietnam war known as the pentagon papers. >> the name has come out as the possible source documents, that of daniel ellsberg. >> reporter: the pentagon paper showed the government mismanaged the vietnam war and lied about it. ellsberg was charged under the espionage act of 1917 with theft and conspiracy. but the charges were later dropped due to government misconduct. ellsberg's disclosures as a whistle blower are credited with helping end the war. >> i couldn't carele less about the punk. i wanted to discredit that kind of activity. >> reporter: decades later in 2013, former u.s. army soldier chelsea manning was convicted after sharing nearly 750,000 military and diplomatic documents with wikileaks related to the wars in iraq and afghanistan. >> i stopped seeing just statistics and information and i started seeing people. >> reporter: included in the leaked material, a video of iraqi civilians and journalists