"The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers" Nominated for Oscar

nixontapes.org was Consultant for Nominee for Best Documentary Feature

Early in the research for this film, nixontapes.org was contacted in order to obtain copies of all relevant Nixon tape conversations pertaining to the leak and publicaton of the Pentagon Papers, which commenced on June 13, 1971 with a New York Times frontpage article entitled "Vietnam Archive: Pentagon Study Traces 3 Decades of Growing U.S. Involvement."

President Richard Nixon first learned about the publication of the study--which he preferred to call the "McNamara Papers" or "Johnson Papers" in order to distance his administration from the leak--from Alexander M. Haig on June 14, 1971. Following that conversation, several others took place over the next few days, as immediate answers were needed as to how the government should respond, whether the New York Times could be forced to stop publication, and whether the leak and publication raised additional security concerns related to other initiatives taking place. President Nixon was alarmed that ongoing talks with adversaries China and Soviet Union could be jeopardized by the leak, because if those nations did not have confidence that what they were saying to the Americans would remain secret, then both American adversaries and allies would greatly lose confidence in the United States government's ability to manage its own internal affairs.

The following are among the Nixon tape conversations pertaining to the leak and publication of the Pentagon Papers that were provided to Kovno Communications for use in the film. A number of excerpts from these conversations were prominently used in the final version of the documentary.

For a key to participants' names, click here (136k).

nixontapes.org wishes Kovno Communications the best of luck in anticipation of the announcement of the Academy Award winner for Best Documentary Feature on March 7, 2010.