Daniel Ellsberg, the whistleblower who leaked the “Pentagon Papers” about the Vietnam War and changed the public perceptions of the conflict, died at the age of 92, his family said.
Here are five facts about Daniel Ellsberg:
- Mr Ellsberg was born in Chicago on April 7, 1931 and was raised in the Michigan suburbs. He was a Marine Corps veteran with a Harvard doctorate. He had also worked for the Defense and State departments before reaching the Pentagon, as per the BBC.
- Mr Ellsberg was a military analyst when he released thousands of documents to the media in the United States in the year 1971 that revealed that successive US administrations had lied to the public about the Vietnam War, as per AFP.
- Due to the Pentagon Papers leak, he was dubbed “the most dangerous man in America”, according to the BBC.
- In 1971, Mr Ellsberg was accused of theft, espionage, conspiracy and other offences in a Los Angeles court. However, the court dismissed the case before the jury could make a decision, alleging substantial government wrongdoing, including unlawful wiretapping.
- In February this year, he announced on Facebook that he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and had six months to live.