21. The New York Times was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 1972
Thanks to the secret taping system Richard Nixon installed in the Oval Office it is possible today to listen to a recording of the President summing up his view of the Pentagon Papers in a conversation with aides on May 11, 1973. “The son of a bitching thief is made a national hero and is going to get off on a mistrial, and the New York Times gets a Pulitzer Prize for stealing documents”, the President grumbled, followed by the comment, “What in the name of God have we come to?”. At the time, the Watergate scandal was digging deeply into his administration.
By then the American people and press were more absorbed in the Watergate investigations and the legal battles over Ellsberg’s actions, rather than the content of the Pentagon Papers, which had revealed the truth of America’s early involvement in the war. The war itself remained controversial, usually over the lines of how fast the United States could get out. The actions of Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy, and to some extent even Johnson, were no longer considered germane to the central issue, which was withdrawn.