 In June 1971, the Pentagon Papers, as a secret history of the Vietnam War was informally known, started to be serially published by the "New York Times", after having been leaked by Daniel Ellsberg.Nixon was enraged by the leaking of the Pentagon Papers, and went to court to force the "New York Times" to stop publishing the papers under the grounds that national security was threatened.After failing to persuade Nixon that trying to ban the Pentagon Papers was unwise, Laird changed tack.