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About Us
TopSecretPlay.org, sponsored by the USC Annenberg Center for Communication Leadership, is a resource page for the L.A. Theatre Works Production of Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers, a docudrama touring the United States from October 2007 to February 2008.
It is a resource page about the publication of the Pentagon Papers, the top secret Defense Department study detailing the escalation U.S. military and political involvement leading up to the Vietnam War, parts of which were leaked to The New York Times and The Washington Post in June 1971.
The massive study exposed the long-suspected gaps between official justifications for the war and the political and military realities unfolding in Vietnam, and raised crucial questions for the public at a time when tens of thousands of American troops had died in the fighting. It cast in stark relief the competition between the government's desire for secrecy and the public's right to know. The stories led the federal government to mount its first-ever prosecution against a newspaper to quash publication of government-generated information, which in turn led to a Supreme Court decision two weeks later affirming the rights of the newspapers to publish those stories. The legal, ethical, and moral questions raised by this episode have deep resonance in today's political climate.
A national conversation on the issues raised by the play will reach 25 cities with accompanying panel discussions and presentations. This site seeks to supplement that discussion by providing additional information and serving as a forum for debate and dialogue so that lessons of the Pentagon Papers Case can continued to be explored, and learned from, today.
For questions, comments, or suggestions, please contact
It is a resource page about the publication of the Pentagon Papers, the top secret Defense Department study detailing the escalation U.S. military and political involvement leading up to the Vietnam War, parts of which were leaked to The New York Times and The Washington Post in June 1971.
The massive study exposed the long-suspected gaps between official justifications for the war and the political and military realities unfolding in Vietnam, and raised crucial questions for the public at a time when tens of thousands of American troops had died in the fighting. It cast in stark relief the competition between the government's desire for secrecy and the public's right to know. The stories led the federal government to mount its first-ever prosecution against a newspaper to quash publication of government-generated information, which in turn led to a Supreme Court decision two weeks later affirming the rights of the newspapers to publish those stories. The legal, ethical, and moral questions raised by this episode have deep resonance in today's political climate.
A national conversation on the issues raised by the play will reach 25 cities with accompanying panel discussions and presentations. This site seeks to supplement that discussion by providing additional information and serving as a forum for debate and dialogue so that lessons of the Pentagon Papers Case can continued to be explored, and learned from, today.
For questions, comments, or suggestions, please contact