By FRANK RICH, New York Times, July 31, 2010
What was often forgotten last week is that the Pentagon Papers had no game-changing news about that war either and also described events predating the then-current president.
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The papers’ punch was in the many inside details they added to the war’s chronicle over four previous administrations and, especially, in their shocking and irrefutable evidence that Nixon’s immediate predecessor, Lyndon Johnson, had systematically lied to the country about his intentions and the war’s progress.