The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers plot
"Half of democracy is just showing up."
In the 1960s, Daniel Ellsberg was commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara to compile a secret report on the US presence in Vietnam. The results of the investigation made Ellsberg realize that the American people had been lied to about the US's role in the conflict by five successive presidents. He then decided to leak the 7,000-page report The Pentagon Papers to The New York Times. The documentary is the portrait of a very intelligent man who chose above all to remain true to his principles of disclosure and justice. That cost him his career and it resulted in years of legal battle with the state. Through interviews and historical fragments, a picture emerges of the battle that, in addition to the war in Vietnam, ultimately also had far-reaching consequences for press freedom in the United States.