The Pentagon Papers told the true story of what happened
in Vietnam and what decisions were made and why. They also shows that the United States
officials had lied about Vietnam. The papers themselves did not DO anything to Vietnam,
rather they explained what had been done in Vietnam and they also showed that Johnson
had planned on expanding the war in Vietnam, not ending it as he had indicated
publicly.
The Pentagon Papers were mostly an
indictment of the Democratic administration of
they fed the Nixon administration's preoccupation with finding information and document
leakers. They eventually led to the secret White House "Plumbers" group and then to
Watergate. In its turn, Watergate led to the first resignation of an American president,
Richard M. Nixon. The Pentagon Papers contained plans to invade Vietnam, even though
President Johnson had told the public that he had no intention to stage an
invasion.
What the release of
these papers served to do was to lessen popular support for the Vietnam war and to call
the words of politicians into question.
In response to your
question, then, with regard to what happened with Vietnam, the main element of the
Pentagon Papers is the lies that were being told about US involvement in Vietnam and US
intentions as to the future of the war with Vietnam.
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