1971 the Pentagon papers: forty years before Wikileaks, The New York Times published secret Pentagon documents about the Vietnam War. It turned into one of the most important First Amendment battles in U.S. history.

• Author: Liptak, Adam

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Last summer, the website Wikileaks began releasing hundreds of thousands of confidential U.S. government documents it had obtained about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. By exposing government secrets, the website says, it is furthering the cause of democracy.

Outraged American officials don't see it that way: They accuse Wikileaks of recklessly endangering national security and the lives of U.S. troops and civilians overseas.

The debate, in its broad outlines, harkens back to one of the most important First Amendment battles in American history, 40 years ago this summer.

On June 13, 1971, The New York Times published two front-page articles on the Pentagon Papers, a secret study by the Defense Department about America's long involvement in Vietnam. The study revealed, among other things, that over the years Washington had misled the public about the reasons behind the Vietnam War--which wouldn't end until 1975, after the deaths of 58,000 Americans--and the scope and effectiveness of the war effort.

The Times articles and President Richard Nixon's efforts to stop the newspaper from publishing more about the Pentagon Papers led to a Supreme Court showdown that helped define just how free the press is to report on the workings of government.

"The Pentagon Papers case really gave standing to the press as a kind of fourth branch of government with regard to national security," says David Rudenstine, a lawyer and author of The Day the Presses Stopped: A History of the Pentagon Papers Case.

In March 1971, Neil Sheehan, a Times reporter obtained the Vietnam War study from Daniel Ellsberg, a former Pentagon and State Department official who had secretly copied the 7,000-page report, hoping to make it public. For three months, Sheehan, along with other Times reporters and editors, pored over the documents, eventually moving the project from the Times building in Times Square to a nearby Hilton Hotel to maintain security.

Secret Negotiations

Executives and lawyers at The Times argued among themselves about whether publishing government secrets during wartime was lawful, patriotic, or proper. (In the end, The Times's law firm refused to represent the paper in the case.)

When The Times announced that it planned to publish a series of articles about the study, Nixon, a Republican, took no immediate action against the paper, reasoning that the disclosures would be more damaging to the reputations of his Democratic...