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THE PENTAGON PAPERS

Printed From: History Community ~ All Empires
Category: Regional History or Period History
Forum Name: Modern History
Forum Discription: World History from 1918 to the 21st century.
URL: http://www.allempires.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=29761
Printed Date: 28-Mar-2024 at 06:59
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Topic: THE PENTAGON PAPERS
Posted By: RonPrice
Subject: THE PENTAGON PAPERS
Date Posted: 14-Jun-2011 at 09:44

The New York Times began publishing excerpts of what came to be known as the Pentagon Papers on 13 June 1971.  The first article in the series was titled "Vietnam Archive: Pentagon Study Traces Three Decades of Growing US Involvement". The name Pentagon Papers arose during the resulting media publicity.  Street protests, political controversy and lawsuits followed helping to bring the war in Vietnam to an end.

On 30 June 1971 the Supreme Court decided that the press of the nation had been prevented from publishing this important document.  Five days later, as precisely as I can calculate after the passing of 40 years, my first wife and I flew from Canada to Australia to take up teaching positions in Whyalla South Australia and help with the teaching work in the last years of the Baha’i Nine Year Plan: 1964 to 1973.

Today I was reflecting on the 40th anniversary of the release of these excerpts of the  Pentagon Papers. The National Archives and Records Administration announced that the Papers would be declassified and released, all 7000 pages, to the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon_Presidential_Library_and_Museum - Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California yesterday, on 13 June 2011. The papers were also released to the Nixon, Kennedy, and LBJ Libraries, as well as the Archives office in Bethesda, Maryland. The full release was coordinated by the Archives' National Declassification Centre as a special project to mark the anniversary of the report. –Ron Price with thanks to Wikipedia, 14 June 2011.

I was really too busy to take it all in1

back then in the last half of June ’71.

That encyclopaedic history of the war

in Viet-Nam in 7000 pages-47 volumes

written while I was selling ice-cream,

teaching Inuit kids, and then recovering

from teaching Inuit kids, then driving an

armoured truck, doing security work and

finally teaching in that primary school in a

Cherry Valley southern Ontario.  They were

all pioneering ventures from home towns

in the Golden Horseshoe so very long ago.

1 In June 1971 http://www.democracynow.org/appearances/daniel_ellsberg - Daniel Ellsberg leaked this top-secret study of US decision-making in Vietnam. The documents became known as the Pentagon Papers. At the time, Ellsberg was a top US military analyst employed by the RAND Corporation & he and the Pentagon papers were just names in the news.

Ron Price

14 June 2011

 



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Ron Price has been married for 47 years(in 2014) and a teacher for 35. He has been a writer and editor for 15, and a Baha'i for 55(in 2014).



Replies:
Posted By: Nick1986
Date Posted: 14-Jun-2011 at 12:14
Another familiar name: one of the Two Ronnies (the other being Ron Hughes) from my old forum. Good to see you again old friend

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Me Grimlock not nice Dino! Me bash brains!


Posted By: medenaywe
Date Posted: 14-Jun-2011 at 12:19
Ditto Ron.Nice story.Will sea around about the facts.


Posted By: RonPrice
Date Posted: 02-Jul-2011 at 09:06
Belated thanks for your encouraging notes, Nick1986, and medenaywe.  It's the middle month of winter here in Australasia. The rains have come here in northern Tasmania and it was 40 years ago this week that I headed out of Canada to live in Australia. I no longer teacher history, but I come to sites like this and appreciate the exchange, however succinct, in this the evening of my life.-Ron

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Ron Price has been married for 47 years(in 2014) and a teacher for 35. He has been a writer and editor for 15, and a Baha'i for 55(in 2014).



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