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47-614: For the Ware Group in Washington (1935-1938), Chambers couriered documents from federal officials to New York City to Soviet spymasters, the last of whom was Boris Bykov . During early 1938, Chambers withheld some documents as life insurance as he readied to defect and go into hiding in April 1938. According to Chambers, he put the documents in a manila envelope and asked his wife's nephew Nathan Levine to hide them (which Levine did, in

94-592: A dumbwaiter in a Brooklyn home). In 1939, Chambers came out of hiding and joined Time magazine, where he worked through 1948. On August 3, 1948, Chambers testified under subpoena before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in Washington, DC, that he had been a Soviet courier in the 1930s. He named former federal officials in the Ware Group cell, including: John Abt , Nathan Witt , Lee Pressman , and Alger Hiss . On August 5, Hiss appeared before HUAC and denied

141-709: A "long-run effort to contain China": There are three fronts to a long-run effort to contain China (realizing that the USSR "contains" China on the north and northwest): (a) the Japan–Korea front; (b) the India–Pakistan front; and (c) the Southeast Asia front. However, McNamara admitted that the containment of China would ultimately sacrifice a significant amount of America's time, money and lives. Years before

188-461: A January 1965 memorandum by Assistant Secretary of Defense John McNaughton stated that an underlying justification was "not to help friend, but to contain China". On November 3, 1965, Secretary of Defense McNamara sent a memorandum to Johnson, in which he explained the "major policy decisions with respect to our course of action in Vietnam". The memorandum begins by disclosing the rationale behind

235-416: A coup against Diem. According to The New York Times , this U.S. representative was later identified to be CIA officer Lucien Conein . The Director of Central Intelligence , John A. McCone , proposed the following categories of military action: However, McCone did not believe these military actions alone could lead to an escalation of the situation because the "fear of escalation would probably restrain

282-530: A coup, the U.S. cut off its aid to President Diem and openly supported a successor government in what the authors called an "essentially leaderless Vietnam": For the military coup d'etat against Ngo Dinh Diem, the U.S. must accept its full share of responsibility. Beginning in August 1963 we variously authorized, sanctioned and encouraged the coup efforts of the Vietnamese generals and offered full support for

329-589: A hero, and Buckley's magazine National Review (founded 1955) continues to mention the Pumpkin Papers regularly. The Pumpkin Papers receive regular mention in the press, from local to national outlets. Books about the Hiss case starting coming out before the it finished and continued in the 21st century, all mentioning the Pumpkin Papers. Richard Nixon, who rose to national fame during the Hiss case, mentions

376-538: A jury found Hiss guilty, and he was sentenced to 5 years in prison. In 1950, Representative Nixon made a Pumpkin Papers speech to Congress, a few weeks after Senator Joseph McCarthy cited the Hiss case, starting McCarthyism . In 1950 for passage of the McCarran Internal Security Act , Senator Karl Mundt told a Senate hearing that the act need to pass, based on what he had learned as a HUAC member about "the so-called pumpkin papers case,

423-760: A list of 100 questions that McNamara (via his secretaries) had sent them, which included questions such as "How confident can we be about body counts of the enemy? Were programs to pacify the Vietnamese countryside working? What was the basis of President Johnson's credibility gap? Was Ho Chi Minh an Asian Tito ? Did the U.S. violate the Geneva Accords on Indochina?" Some of the analysts included Daniel Ellsberg, Morton Halperin , Paul Warnke , future generals Paul F. Gorman and John Galvin , historian Melvin Gurtov, economists Hans Heymann and Richard Moorstein, and future top diplomat Richard Holbrooke , who drafted

470-441: A pumpkin he had hollowed out overnight to keep them safe – hence the "Pumpkin Papers". Nixon and HUAC investigation director Robert E. Stripling paraded the microfilm before the press. In less than two weeks, instead of indicting Chambers, Justice indicted Hiss, in part because the collective Pumpkin Papers provided strong evidence of espionage on Hiss' part. During two trials against Alger Hiss in 1949, "the star witnesses were

517-745: A slander case. At Hiss' request, Marbury in turn surrendered the typewritten and handwritten documents (sometimes called the "Baltimore Documents") to the United States Department of Justice in the hope that Justice would indict Chambers for espionage. The hard copy documents included summaries of United States Department of State documents in Hiss' handwriting as well as typewritten copies of official government reports. On December 2, 1948, HUAC investigators arrived at Chambers' farm in Westminster, Maryland , and took from Chambers five canisters of microfilm, after he retrieved them from

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564-571: A successor government. In October we cut off aid to Diem in a direct rebuff, giving a green light to the generals. We maintained clandestine contact with them throughout the planning and execution of the coup and sought to review their operational plans and proposed new government. Thus, as the nine-year rule of Diem came to a bloody end, our complicity in his overthrow heightened our responsibilities and our commitment in an essentially leaderless Vietnam. As early as August 23, 1963, an unnamed U.S. representative had met with Vietnamese generals planning

611-711: A volume. The analysts largely used existing files in the Office of the Secretary of Defense . To keep the study secret from others, including National Security Advisor Walt Rostow , they conducted no interviews or consultations with the armed forces, with the White House, or with other federal agencies. McNamara left the Defense Department in February 1968, and his successor Clark Clifford received

658-591: A written record for historians, to prevent policy errors in future administrations, although Leslie H. Gelb , then director of Policy Planning at the Pentagon, has said that the notion that they were commissioned as a "cautionary tale" is a motive that McNamara only used in retrospect. McNamara told others, such as Dean Rusk , that he only asked for a collection of documents rather than the studies he received. Motives aside, McNamara neglected to inform either President Lyndon Johnson or Secretary of State Dean Rusk about

705-489: Is the extent to which we should add elements to the above actions that would tend deliberately to provoke a DRV reaction, and consequent retaliation by us. Examples of actions to be considered were running US naval patrols increasingly close to the North Vietnamese coast and/or [ sic ] associating them with 34A operations . We believe such deliberately provocative elements should not be added in

752-658: The Gulf of Tonkin incident occurred on August 2, 1964, the U.S. government was indirectly involved in Vietnam's affairs by sending advisers or (military personnel) to train the South Vietnamese soldiers: In a section of the Pentagon Papers titled "Kennedy Commitments and Programs", America's commitment to South Vietnam was attributed to the creation of the country by the United States. As acknowledged by

799-589: The Institute of Military Interpreters . Pentagon Papers The Pentagon Papers , officially titled Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force , is a United States Department of Defense history of the United States' political and military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1968. Released by Daniel Ellsberg , who had worked on the study, they were first brought to

846-614: The Vietnam War with coastal raids on North Vietnam and Marine Corps attacks—none of which were reported in the mainstream media. For his disclosure of the Pentagon Papers , Ellsberg was initially charged with conspiracy, espionage, and theft of government property; charges were later dismissed, after prosecutors investigating the Watergate scandal discovered that the staff members in the Nixon White House had ordered

893-692: The Chinese were conspiring to "organize all of Asia" against the United States: China—like Germany in 1917, like Germany in the West and Japan in the East in the late 30s, and like the USSR in 1947—looms as a major power threatening to undercut our importance and effectiveness in the world and, more remotely but more menacingly, to organize all of Asia against us. To encircle the Chinese, the United States aimed to establish "three fronts" as part of

940-570: The Communists from a major military response ... Barely a month after the Gulf of Tonkin incident on August 2, 1964, National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy warned that further provocations should not be undertaken until October, when the government of South Vietnam (GVN) would become fully prepared for a full-scale war against North Vietnam. In a memorandum addressed to President Johnson on September 8, 1964, Bundy wrote: The main further question

987-701: The Communists". In a memorandum addressed to President Johnson on July 28, 1964, McCone explained: In response to the first or second categories of action, local Communist military forces in the areas of actual attack would react vigorously, but we believe that none of the Communist powers involved would respond with major military moves designed to change the nature of the conflict ... Air strikes on North Vietnam itself (Category 3) would evoke sharper Communist reactions than air strikes confined to targets in Laos, but even in this case fear of escalation would probably restrain

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1034-497: The President of South Vietnam, and the backing of Diem's regime thereafter. As written by Lansdale in a 1961 memorandum: "We (the U.S.) must support Ngo Dinh Diem until another strong executive can replace him legally." According to the Pentagon Papers , the U.S. government played a key role in the 1963 South Vietnamese coup , in which Diem was assassinated. While maintaining "clandestine contact" with Vietnamese generals planning

1081-419: The Pumpkin Papers added a "dramatic sequence of events". Between April and November (when Chambers was asked to produce evidence of Hiss' CPUSA membership in the slander case), Chambers had flip-flopped on whether his Ware Group had engaged in espionage. On November 17, 1948, Chambers surrendered the typewritten and handwritten documents to Hiss' lawyer William L. Marbury Jr. as part of pre-trial deposition in

1128-490: The Pumpkin Papers in four of his books. The name Pumpkin Papers even appear in book titles on its own. Even the Pumpkin Papers Irregulars appear in a novel. The Pumpkin Papers appeared in film as well. Actor Cary Grant alludes to the Pumpkin Papers atop Mount Rushmore during the climax of Alfred Hitchcock 's 1959 film North by Northwest when he tells actress Eve Marie Saint , "I see you've got

1175-404: The Pumpkin Papers". FBI analysis proved that typewritten copies had been typed on a Woodstock typewriter (No. 230099) belonging to the Hiss family. The majority of handwritten documents were in Hiss' hand (the others being in the hand of Treasury official Harry Dexter White ). The Hiss defense team was unable to discredit the typewriter or typewritten documents during the trials. In January 1950,

1222-630: The U.S., 1940–1950 (1 Vol.) II. U.S. Involvement in the Franco–Viet Minh War, 1950–1954 (1 Vol.) III. The Geneva Accords (1 Vol.) IV. Evolution of the War (26 Vols.) V. Justification of the War (11 Vols.) VI. Settlement of the Conflict (6 Vols.) Although President Johnson stated that the aim of the Vietnam War was to secure an "independent, non-Communist South Vietnam ",

1269-535: The United States at a cost of US$ 12.7 million. It was hoped that Diem's regime, after receiving a significant amount of U.S. assistance, would be able to withstand the Viet Cong . The papers identified General Edward Lansdale , who served in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), as a "key figure" in the establishment of Diem as

1316-861: The United States, he became a Lecturer (agent-operation cycle) of the Higher Special School of the Red Army Staff from July 1939 to September 1940, followed by a post as Senior Teacher of the chair of intelligence from September 1940 to June 1941. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Bukov headed the chair of foreign countries study of the Second Moscow State Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages which later became known as

1363-588: The allegations. On August 20, Abt, Witt, and Pressman pled the Fifth , all three under advice of counsel Harold I. Cammer . On April 27, Chambers asserted on Meet the Press , then a national radio show, that Hiss had been a communist ; in late September, Hiss filed a slander suit in a federal court in Baltimore against Chambers for making that allegation publicly. According to the Central Intelligence Agency ,

1410-471: The attention of the public on the front page of The New York Times in 1971. A 1996 article in The New York Times said that the Pentagon Papers had demonstrated, among other things, that Lyndon B. Johnson's administration had "systematically lied, not only to the public but also to Congress." The Pentagon Papers revealed that the U.S. had secretly enlarged the scope of its actions in

1457-631: The bombing of North Vietnam in February 1965: The February decision to bomb North Vietnam and the July approval of Phase I deployments make sense only if they are in support of a long-run United States policy to contain China . McNamara accused China of harboring imperial aspirations like those of the German Empire , Nazi Germany , Imperial Japan and the Soviet Union . According to McNamara,

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1504-733: The copies delivered by mail first to Greenfield's apartment, then Greenfield and his wife drove them to multiple rooms at the New York Hilton Midtown , where Sheehan, Rosenthal, Greenfield, deputy foreign editors Gerald Gold and Allan M. Siegal , and a team of three writers Fox Butterfield , Hedrick Smith , and E. W. Kenworthy, and researcher Linda Amster worked around the clock to organize and summarize them for publication. Before publication, The New York Times sought legal advice. The paper's regular outside counsel, Lord Day & Lord , advised against publication, but in-house counsel James Goodale prevailed with his argument that

1551-670: The country, but this was to be replaced by other plans. Daniel Ellsberg knew the leaders of the task force well. He had worked as an aide to McNaughton from 1964 to 1965, had worked on the study for several months in 1967, and Gelb and Halperin approved his access to the work at RAND in 1969. Now opposing the war, Ellsberg and his friend Anthony Russo photocopied the study in October 1969 intending to disclose it. Ellsberg approached Nixon's National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger , Senators William Fulbright and George McGovern , and others, but none were interested. Ellsberg showed some of

1598-414: The documents privately to sympathetic policy experts Marcus Raskin and Ralph Stavins of the Institute for Policy Studies . They declined to publish the papers, but passed on some of them to, and recommended he seek The New York Times reporter Neil Sheehan , whom Ellsberg had first met in Vietnam and was reintroduced to by Raskin and Stavins. After discussing them in February 1971, Ellsberg gave 43 of

1645-628: The espionage activities in the Chambers - Hiss case, the Bentley case, and others". Subsequent, scandalous documents whose name mirrors to the Pumpkin Papers include the Pentagon Papers (1971) and the Panama Papers (2016). In his 1949 book The Red Plot Against America , HUAC investigator Robert E. Stripling claimed that he had named the Pumpkin Papers. The nascent conservative movement led by William F. Buckley Jr. lionized Chambers as

1692-568: The finished study on January 15, 1969, five days before Richard Nixon 's inauguration, although Clifford claimed he never read it. Gelb said in 1991 that he presented the study to McNamara in early 1969, when the latter was president of the World Bank , but McNamara did not read it then, and as late as 2018 Gelb did not know if McNamara ever read the study later in his life. The study consisted of 3,000 pages of historical analysis and 4,000 pages of original government documents in 47 volumes, and

1739-471: The group's annual " Victor Navasky Prize" include: Speakers have included: A supporter of Alger Hiss and Harry Dexter White who has attended several dinners described a typical evening at the "one time secret institution". Boris Bykov Boris Yakovlevich Bukov , also Boris Bykov (" Sasha ") Regiment Commissar (15 November 1935) was a member of the Communist Party since 1919. Bykov

1786-454: The immediate future while the GVN is still struggling to its feet. By early October, however, we may recommend such actions depending on GVN progress and Communist reaction in the meantime, especially to US naval patrols. While maritime operations played a key role in the provocation of North Vietnam, U.S. military officials had initially proposed to fly a Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft over

1833-458: The papers. McNamara wanted the study done in three months. McNaughton died in a plane crash one month after work began in June 1967, but the project continued under the direction of Defense Department official Les Gelb. Thirty-six analysts—half of them active-duty military officers, the rest academics and civilian federal employees—worked on the study. They worked to produce 47 volumes answering

1880-693: The papers: We must note that South Vietnam (unlike any of the other countries in Southeast Asia) was essentially the creation of the United States. In a sub-section titled "Special American Commitment to Vietnam", the papers emphasized once again the role played by the United States: More specifically, the United States sent US$ 28.4 million worth of equipment and supplies to help the Diem regime strengthen its army. In addition, 32,000 men from South Vietnam's Civil Guard were trained by

1927-917: The pumpkin" (in this case, a statue full of microfilm). That same year, the Three Stooges movie Commotion on the Ocean includes microfilm in a watermelon. This group (allegedly a "secret society") formed in New York City in 1977 by Paul Seabury with meetings notionally off-the-record. Annually on the Thursday closest to Halloween it holds a dinner to announce the Victor Navasky Award for "most disloyal American". Long-time members include Grover Norquist . Members have included Buckely, Nixon, Ronald Reagan , Robert H. Bork , James Q. Wilson , and Clare Booth Luce . Recipients of

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1974-486: The so-called White House Plumbers to engage in unlawful efforts to discredit Ellsberg. In June 2011, the documents forming the Pentagon Papers were declassified and publicly released. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara created the Vietnam Study Task Force on June 17, 1967, for the purpose of writing an "encyclopedic history of the Vietnam War ". McNamara claimed that he wanted to leave

2021-486: The study. One report claimed that McNamara had planned to give the work to his friend, Robert F. Kennedy , who was seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 1968 . McNamara later denied it, though he admitted that he should have informed Johnson and Rusk. Instead of using existing Defense Department historians, McNamara assigned his close aide and Assistant Secretary of Defense John McNaughton to collect

2068-583: The volumes to Sheehan on March 2. Ellsberg had initially requested that Sheehan only take notes of the study in Ellsberg's apartment; Sheehan disobeyed, frantically copying them in numerous shops in the Boston area at the urging of and with help from his wife Susan Sheehan , and flying with the copies to Washington, where he and an editor there worked in a hotel room at The Jefferson to organize and read them. Editors A. M. Rosenthal and James L. Greenfield had

2115-434: Was classified as "Top Secret – Sensitive". ("Sensitive" is not an official security designation ; it meant that access to the study should be controlled.) The task force published 15 copies; the think tank RAND Corporation received two of the copies from Gelb, Morton Halperin and Paul Warnke, with access granted if at least two of the three approved. The 47 volumes of the papers were organized as follows: I. Vietnam and

2162-585: Was fluent in German, Bykov served as an Officer of Soviet Military Intelligence ( GRU ) from 1920-1941, working in Germany. In 1928 Bykov became the section chief of the 2nd Department of the Razvedupr ; later he was appointed Assistant Chief of the 2nd Department of the Razvedupr . In 1935 Bukov left abroad and served as Illegal Rezident of Razvedupr in the United States from 1936 to 1939. After leaving

2209-762: Was head of the underground apparatus with which Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss were connected. Bykov graduated from Commanders' Upgrading Training School of Razvedupr of the Red Army Staff in 1929. He received further training at the Red Army Military Academy of Chemical Defense, the Military-Industrial Department (September 1932 - February 1935), and the Red Army Stalin Military Academy of Mechanization and Motorization. As he

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