As Mr. Ellsberg explained, tens of thousands of Americans died, and countless Vietnamese and others died, because of the war. If the American public knew the truth about the war sooner, lives may have been saved. It will always be so, that the line must be breached between secrets that are necessary to guard American lives, and secrets that are merely kept to protect a political class. “The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt.” – John Philpot Curran, quoting Thomas Jefferson (http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/eternal-vigilance-price-liberty-quotation).
