Release the rest of the Epstein files — now 

More than 50 years ago, whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg released thousands of pages of top-secret information that revealed how successive American presidents lied to the American people about the Vietnam War. Tens of thousands of U.S. servicemen died unnecessarily because of the cover-up.

Although the Pentagon Papers revealed a much different type of tragedy, the Epstein files will end with a similar result. One way or another, the truth will come out.  

The Pentagon Papers were a study of the Vietnam War ordered by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. They consisted of 47 volumes, 3,000 pages of analysis and 4,000 government documents. To hold them close, the task force that conducted the study made only 15 copies. 

Ellsberg was a contractor who worked on the study. In 1971, he put himself in legal jeopardy by giving a copy to Marcus Raskin, the late father of Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.). Raskin, who worked at the National Security Council, linked Ellsberg up with The New York Times, which published the study on its front page. 

It revealed that Presidents Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson had systematically lied to Congress and the American people about the war’s progress. They knew it was unwinnable but allowed it to continue. Although President Richard Nixon’s Vietnam policies were not part of the study, he continued the pattern. Tens of thousands of U.S. servicemen died needlessly.

The Pentagon Papers caused lasting damage to the American people’s trust in the federal government. That trust is being........

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