Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked a plethora of top-secret documents that exposed the United States’ shortcomings in the Vietnam War, died on Friday, his family announced. He was 92.
Ellsberg announced he had pancreatic cancer in March and said he would forego chemotherapy—telling supporters in an email he’d spend his remaining time alive with a clear head as he spoke about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the perils of nuclear war, and free speech protections.
A family statement said Ellsberg “was not in pain, and was surrounded by loving family” when he passed. His sense of humor, they said, stayed with him until the very end.
Ellsberg, who was born in Chicago but raised in Detroit, became famous for leaking what became known as the “Pentagon Papers”to The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other newspapers in 1971—a daring act that was dramatized in the film The Post in 2018.
The leak, which exposed the lies and self-deceit that drew America into the war and kept U.S. soldiers there despite no clear path to victory, sent shockwaves through the country. It inspired hundreds of thousands to anti-war protests, while President Richard Nixon and other government officials fumed.
Ellsberg’s actions, along with the government’s efforts to silence him and news outlets, led to a landmark Supreme Court ruling that ultimately strengthened the freedom of the press against government censorship.
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