Secrets

The book I read for my junior theme was Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers, and it was about Daniel Ellsberg's experience in releasing the Pentagon Papers. Ellsberg's experience was a great example of a whistleblowing case, and the story from his perspective is an invaluable source. On page 387, Ellsberg wrote, “The Nixon Justice Department was making a pioneering experiment, asking federal courts to violate or ignore the Constitution or in effect to abrogate the First Amendment”. Whistleblowing regulations are strictly in place to cover up the government's secrets. It all comes down to the public's right to know vs. national security, and in the government's eyes national security trumps the public's right to know. In perilous times, such as the Vietnam War, Nixon took it even further, and had courts "violate the Constitution". The right to blow the whistle is in the constitution under freedom of speech rights, and it still isn't given to federal employees. Secrets documents Ellsberg's entire experience of releasing the documents, including his intentions for doing so. The common perception of whistleblowers is that they are troublemakers who only speak out to stir the pot, but Ellsberg did what he did because he thought it was right. The intentions of the Vietnam war were unjust and Ellsberg did everything he had to to stop it. His story is unbelievable, and this book is a must read.