Antiwar.com Original Fifty years ago the Pentagon Papers exploded politically in a nation weary of the Vietnam War. Daniel Ellsberg worked on a Defense Department study about Washington’s involvement in Vietnam. He was so appalled with the findings that he leaked the document to the New York Times. The embarrassed Nixon administration sought to block publication. Attorney General John W. Mitchell, later imprisoned for his role in the Watergate scandal, sent a telegram to the Times demanding return of the materials: "further publication of information of this character will cause irreparable injury to the defense interests of the United States." The legal battle went to the