Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War

Lyndon B. Johnson served as vice president of the United States under President John F. Kennedy. When Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, Johnson was sworn in as president. The communist threat in Vietnam had been growing for some time, and Johnson pledged to continue Kennedy’s support of non-communist South Vietnam. However, he also repeatedly promised the American public that the US “[sought] no wider war” (42).

Despite this promise, a wider war is precisely what the conflict in Vietnam became under President Johnson. He approved the deployment of hundreds of thousands of US troops and began a sustained bombing campaign against North Vietnam. However, Johnson “had no stomach for” the war (63), and the conflict took a tremendous toll on him, causing nightmares and insomnia. He dreamed of creating a “Great Society” in America and fighting against “poverty and ignorance and disease” (63). However, faced with the alternative of being the first American president to lose a war, Johnson turned away from these domestic projects to focus on the war effort.

Even as it became clear there was “no sure victory” in Vietnam (84), President Johnson continued to escalate the conflict while assuring the American public that the war was going well and victory was close at hand. The public began to doubt the president, suspecting a gap between what they were told and what was really happening in Vietnam. Eventually, Johnson’s handling of the Vietnam War became so unpopular with the public that he withdrew from the presidential race and did not seek another term.

Republican Richard Nixon ran against President Johnson’s vice president Hubert Humphrey in 1968. More than anything, Nixon promised to achieve “peace with honor” in Vietnam (297), and his antiwar stance made him popular among voters. However, early on, Nixon revealed himself to be primarily concerned with securing and maintaining his own power. Toward the end of the presidential campaign, President Johnson began peace talks with Vietnam. With the end of the war suddenly in sight, Nixon lost his lead in the polls. Anxious to ensure his victory, Nixon essentially “sabotage[d] peace talks to win votes” (145). His campaign contacted South Vietnamese representatives and urged them to postpone the talks until after the US election.

Once elected, Nixon employed the “madman theory” in Vietnam. He wanted the Vietnamese to think he was crazy enough to do anything and scare them into backing down. Although he ran for president promising peace, he “secretly escalat[ed]” the war, with the resumed bombing of North Vietnam and even neighboring Cambodia. Like Johnson, Nixon was determined to avoid the humiliation of losing a war and was unafraid to lie to the American public to protect that goal.

In private, Nixon’s national security advisor, Henry Kissinger, called the president “a very odd” and “unpleasant man” (151). He wasn’t personable and hated social engagements. Like Johnson, the Vietnam War put a great strain on Nixon, and he sometimes responded to the stress in unconventional ways, like his late-night visit to the National Mall, where he spoke to young protesters.

Insecurities plagued President Nixon, and his tendency to lie to protect his reputation and guard against potential humiliation soon stretched beyond the Vietnam War. When Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers, Nixon angrily decided to “destroy him in the press” (252), and under his direction, a special operations team began engaging in illegal activities to find dirt on Ellsberg. This resulted in a series of increasingly elaborate coverups that eventually included the infamous Watergate scandal that forced Nixon’s resignation.

Nguyen Tat Thanh, better known as Ho Chi Minh, led the North Vietnamese independence movement. When he was born in 1890, Vietnam was still a colony of France, and he grew up witnessing the abuse and exploitation of Vietnamese people and land. As a young man, he attended anti-French protests, and drawn by the promise of redistributing wealth and resources among oppressed Vietnamese, he became a communist. During World War II, Japan invaded Vietnam, and he organized a guerrilla force to fight them. He began calling himself Ho Chi Minh, which translated to the “Bringer of Light.”

During World War II, the US supported Ho Chi Minh and sent American soldiers to train his guerrilla troops to fight against Japan. When Japan was defeated, Ho Chi Minh pressed for Vietnamese independence. However, President Truman refused to recognize Vietnam as an independent nation because Ho Chi Minh was a communist. Instead, the US supported France in a war to win back their old colony. Ho Chi Minh led the independence movement and became the leader of North Vietnam after France was forced to surrender in 1954. He continued to fight for independence, working closely with the Viet Cong throughout the Vietnam War, until his death in 1969.

When President Johnson began sending US troops to Vietnam in 1965, Patricia Marx was a 27-year-old journalist with a weekly radio show in New York. She flew to Washington, DC, to cover the first antiwar protest, where she met Ellsberg. They connected immediately and began to fall in love. However, Patricia was strongly against the war, and Ellsberg’s role at the Pentagon often came between them. Ellsberg asked Patricia to marry him several times, but they struggled to reconcile their differing views on the war.

The couple had an on-again, off-again relationship for several years. By 1969, Ellsberg had read the Pentagon Papers and completely changed his perspective on the war in Vietnam. Patricia recognized Ellsberg’s newfound “compassion” and “humanity” and explained they “were able to love each other then” (177). The couple was married in 1970, and as Ellsberg agonized about what to do with the Pentagon Papers, he asked his new wife to read them. After reading for just an hour, Patricia convinced Ellsberg that he had to expose the papers. She supported him throughout the process, despite knowing that she might lose her husband to prison.

Henry Kissinger first appears in Most Dangerous as a Harvard professor with “vast knowledge of international affairs” and a “habit of insulting whoever was not in the room” (146-47). When Richard Nixon was elected as president in 1968, Kissinger became Nixon’s national security advisor. He was the president’s chief advisor on US policy in Vietnam and was responsible for negotiating the peace treaty with North Vietnam. Kissinger was also responsible for contributing to the secrecy around the war in Vietnam, including lying to Congress and the American public about dropping bombs on Cambodia.

Kissinger famously called Ellsberg “the most dangerous man in America” after he leaked the Pentagon Papers (251), and he encouraged Nixon to take strong action against Ellsberg.