Share Daniel Ellsberg – seen here in 2010 – is a former US military analyst best known for his leak of the so-called Pentagon Papers in 1971. AFP US mulled nuclear strike on China over Taiwan in 1958, documents reveal Sun, 23 May 2021 US military planners pushed for nuclear strikes on mainland China in 1958 to protect Taiwan from an invasion by Communist forces, classified documents posted online by Daniel Ellsberg of “Pentagon Papers” fame show. US planners also assumed that the Soviet Union would aid China and retaliate with nuclear weapons – a price they deemed worth paying to protect Taiwan, according to the document, first reported by The New York Times.