An apology is owed

Full Statement from The Honorable Leon E. Panetta issued Tuesday

“President Trump owes an apology to Admiral Bill McRaven and all of the special operations forces and intelligence professionals who planned and executed one of the most important counter-terrorism missions in our nation’s history. The operation to hunt down Osama Bin Laden -- the terrorist responsible for the 9/11 attacks on our country – was a major blow to Al Qaeda and one of the finest examples of bravery and courage I have seen in 50 years of public service. The CIA located the compound in Abbottabad where Bin Laden was hiding. CIA officers briefed Admiral McRaven on the compound in late January 2011. President Obama and his national security team directed McRaven to plan the mission in rapid fashion. Within 100 days, Osama Bin Laden was dead.  The President’s statement criticizing McRaven for not getting Bin Laden sooner is patently ridiculous.  It demonstrates a profound lack of understanding of how our military and intelligence agencies operate and undermines the President’s own standing as Commander-in-Chief.”

Feel good about yourself

Dear friends, 

If you want to feel good about yourself do as I did today: 

I voted!

I took advantage of the early voting opportunity. There were four clerks checking voters in and multiple electronic voting booths. When I arrived I was in a line of about 30 voters; it moved quickly and everyone was courteous. I said “thank you” to the poll workers.

Whether you vote early or on Election Day, November 6, get out and vote. This is our golden opportunity to show the world the best of America. I guarantee it will make you feel good all over. 

Dichotomy of War

  The following Letter to the Editor was published Sunday, Oct. 21, 2018, in The Post & Courier, Charleston, S.C.    

    The Oct. 18 Post and Courier presented readers with the dichotomy between “the tragic futility of war” and the “unmatched bravery” of a man engaged in war.
     George Will reviewed Max Hastings “Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975," and wrote, “Vietnam remains an American sorrow of squandered valor.” 
     Another story, by the Associated Press, described President Trump presenting the Medal of Honor to retired Marine Sgt. Maj. John Canley, who during that same war, "fought with unmatched bravery” to help wounded Marines and carry them to safety. Sgt. Maj. Canley saved the lives of 20 Marines over seven days of "unrelenting combat.”
     Many Americans, including myself, have come to peace with the futility of the Vietnam War and yet we stand in awe at the courage of warriors like Marine Sgt.  Maj. John Canley.

FRANCIS X. ARCHIBALD

Mt.Pleasant, S.C.

My Outlook at 87

Today, Oct. 2, 2018, is the first time I experienced being 87.  I share my birthday (Oct. 2, 1931) with, among others,  Mahatma Gandhi, born October 2, 1869, Groucho Marx, born October 2, 1890, and Graham Greene, born October 2, 1904.

While on a visit to South Africa I visited Pietermaritzburg, where Gandhi was unceremoniously thrown out of a first-class railway compartment and left shivering and brooding at the rail station, and where they later erected a statue in the town square to honor him. I asked my guide to take my picture in front of the statue. When I later developed the film the guide had a great shot of me but only Gandhi’s feet and ankles. So much for amateur photographers.

Throughout my life, I enjoyed both Groucho Marx for his wit and humor and Graham Greene for his novels, many of which served as stories for successful films.

Looking back over 86 years there are some regrets but too few to mention. Going forward I am optimistic there are new adventures to play out and new acquaintances to enjoy. I am blessed in many ways and trust in the Lord to continue to bless and keep me.

Everyone else should be so lucky. 

Why do we remember?

Why do we remember?

Today our local paper (The Post & Courier, Charleston, SC) reprinted a column from The Washington Post headlined “Helping kids deal with being let down.” This revived memories from my early teen years.  It was around Thanksgiving when my older sister tipped me off that a couple who were friends with our mother was going to buy me a baseball glove for Christmas. All through December, I waited anxiously for the big day. When it arrived it brought no baseball glove. Instead, the couple gave me a damn tie. My sister told me later that the man had gotten drunk on the day he was to buy the glove and forgot all about it.

Why is it, after all these years, this, the Christmas gift I never got, is my only memory of all the Christmases of my youth? 

The author of the column, Meghan Leahy, wrote: “As long as humans have walked the Earth, there has been disappointment and unfairness, and we know that despite our big brains and strong will, life happens in ways we never saw coming….Disappointment is a certainty for every one, including children.” 

A couple of years later, an uncle on my mother’s side of the family bought me a baseball glove. I cared for it through the years, kept it oiled and flexible, and sometime in the 1960's gave it to my wife’s nephew. 

Why do  I remember this? 

A week with Florence

Sept. 15, 2018

It would be a better story if this was about spending a week with a beautiful woman named Florence, but, alas, it is about a hurricane which has done infinitely more damage in North Carolina than in the Charleston/Mt. Pleasant area of South Carolina where I live.

The week began on a serious note on Tuesday, Sept. 11, when notices were posted that the elevators in my apartment house and three other apartment houses at 1201 Midtown were shut down. I live on the 4th floor and walking up and down the stairs is a burden. 

Even under the worst estimates hurricane Florence was three to four days from the coastline. The manager cited “protocols” as the reason for shutting down the elevators. I urged her to reconsider but to no avail as she closed the office and the employees went home to hunker down or evacuate the area. I have e-mailed the corporate headquarters recommending a second look at the “protocols.”

The governor of South Carolina ordered an evacuation from the coastal regions and it is estimated that 300,000 out of approximately 720,000 heeded his order. I was not one of them, although on Wednesday I made a hotel reservation at Hilton Head, two hours away by car. I canceled it on Thursday night as the storm decreased in strength and my area was in the outer fringe of the anticipated wind and rain.

I spent much time over the next four days watching the Weather Channel and logging into the National Hurricane Center. I topped off the fuel tank in my car and bought some groceries. Major restaurants were closed and I had a couple of meals in a Peruvian chicken shop and a sports bar. The latter was surprisingly filled with parents and dozens of small children scurrying around like they did not know the purpose of chairs.  This made for an interesting lunch, however, service was good and the food was excellent. 

The rain started in my area on Friday night and the wind picked up. Small trees were bent slightly, only the tops of bigger trees were moving in the wind. Electricity has stayed on.  On Friday, the hurricane was downgraded to a tropical storm, but the people and property in North Carolina and on the border between the two states have suffered. Five people in North Carolina are reported dead from the hurricane. 

This morning, Saturday, slight rain, almost a drizzle continues. The negligible wind cannot be heard indoors. Out-of-doors is similar to rainy summer days in the South. 

A worrisome week in Charleston/Mt. Pleasant has come to an end. The Charleston International Airport will open at noon today. 

AFOSISA Convention September 5-8, 2018

There will be a large number of criminal investigators and counterintelligence specialists in Charleston from Sept. 5-8, when the Association of Former OSI Special Agents (AFOSISA) holds its annual convention.

The Association brings together former USAF service members and civilian employees of the USAF Office of Special Investigations in friendship, and common effort between former and present AFOSI Special Agents in the common interest of promoting the security of the U.S. Air Force.

The Air Force Office of Special Investigations has been the Air Force’s major investigative service since Aug. 1, 1948. The agency reports to the Inspector General, Office of the Secretary of the Air Force. AFOSI provides professional criminal investigations and counterintelligence services to commanders of all Air Force activities. 

Seventy years ago the AFOSI was the creation of one man, Joseph F. Carroll, a special assistant to J. Edgar Hoover. He conducted a study of the newly established Air Force and presented a plan to Secretary Stuart Symington for an Air Force version of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Congress commissioned Carroll a Colonel in the Air Force and he came on active duty as a Brigadier General. 

He was initially disdained as “that cop” by other Air Force generals, but after his personal investigation proved to the House Armed Services Committee, that a lengthy anonymous letter attacking Secretary Symington and the first Chief of Staff, Hoyt S. Vandenburg’s “integrity, patriotism, and morality,” was the scurrilous and fabricated work of a public relations officer in the U. S. Navy hierarchy, he and OSI could do no wrong. 

I was a Special Agent with OSI from 1953 to 1959. This service played a major role in developing my post-1959 professional career and I am indebted to the service for the training and experience gained in this vital work helping to protect the Air Force.

The convention will offer golf excursions, tours of Charleston, a dinner cruise and closing banquet, program and dance, as well as a business meeting.

School starts and a new AG is coming

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL: Last Monday (Aug. 20) was the first day of classes at a neighborhood elementary school. While driving slowly (due to construction) toward an intersection where the school is located I noticed a couple of mothers walking small children with knapsacks on their backs away from the school. Probably toward home. These mothers were smiling at the children talking fast and animatedly about probably their first day in school. In my first days of school, I walked one block straight up the street with other kids from the neighborhood. Parents did not walk us to school in the late thirties or early forties. Doing so today is both an expression of parental love and a safety measure for the little ones. I also smiled and drove on to Costco.

THE ATTORNEY GENERAL: South Carolina Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, who golfs with President Trump, tells us that the President will likely replace Attorney General Jeff Sessions after the mid-terms in November. Trump wants an AG who will weaken or shut down Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller”s investigation. Sen. Graham should make it clear right up front that the Senate Judiciary Committee, of which he is a member and potentially Chairman in the next session, will extract a promise from any AG nominee that he will not interfere, slow down, or put an end to the Mueller investigation, regardless of the cost or time it takes to complete it. The goal is the preservation of Democracy, not playing golf with the President. 

The value of newspapers

 The value of a free (no government control or censorship) press is to individuals as it is to society as a whole. In August I shared a healthy exchange of views with another writer and the readers of the Letters to the Editor of The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC).

This letter started the exchange:

(Published August 3, 2018)

Trade War
  Farmers helped elect Donald Trump to be president, As president, Mr. Trump initiated a trade war that hurt farmers. Now, he is spending $12 billion taken from taxpayers to help the farmers.
  Exactly which drawer in the lunacy bin should this be filed under?

  Francis x. Archibald
  Central Haven Drive
  Mt. Pleasant, SC

Another reader/writer chimed in:

(Published August 7, 2018)

Making Deals

 In response to the article in the Aug. 3 paper titled "Trade war," how about filing it under the luxury bin next to the move by President Barack Obama to send two planeloads of cash to Iran for the release of one Army deserter.
  President Donald Trump, however, was able to get three men released from North Korea without spending a dime. Who was the smart one in these deals?

Perry Jones
Pimmit Place
Ladson

I countered with this:

(Published August 10, 2018)  

  The claim in the Aug. 7 letter to the editor, "Making Deals," that President Obama sent planeloads of cash to Iran for one Army deserter is inaccurate.

  CNN reported at the time (January 2016) that five men were released, including an American journalist in a prisoner swap. The money coincidentally sent to Iran was theirs and had been held by the United States since the Reagan administration.

  It was publicly announced in the United States and only became part of anti-Obama conspiracy theories six months later when Iranians started the rumor. This was covered by fact checker Snopes.com.

Francis X. Archibald

Central Haven Drive

Mount Pleasant

Random Things

After dressing I came out of the bedroom and into the living room and thence to the kitchen where I heard a hard loud noise. I thought the refrigerator was coming apart and then I thought it was the air conditioning.  After checking each of these I was baffled for a few moments until I remembered I had started the dishwasher before I went into the bedroom to put on my clothes, and a couple of pots were being banged around

On the second day of the Paul Manafort trial in Virginia, The Washington Post reported: “President Trump’s former campaign chairman spent more than a million dollars on suits and luxury clothes over a five year period, using foreign bank accounts to pay for cars, renovations, and real estate in what prosecutors say was a tax-dodging scheme.” Manafort is said to have bought a $15,000 Ostrich jacket. I feel embarrassed for being a cheapskate. A couple of weeks ago I would not pay $175.00 for an end of the season seersucker jacket.

Via Amazon Prime, I am watching NYPD Blue the gritty cop show set in the fictional 15th precinct which kept viewers coming back week after week during its twelve-year run (1993 to 2005). Each season had 21 or 22 weekly shows. Surprisingly these shows, unlike many others of the same period, retain a contemporary appeal. Each week’s offering could be taken right out of today’s daily news. I am into year three. These shows were (are) much better than what is on TV today, and won Dennis Franz, four Emmys. 

Baseball and the Shift

This week one of my sons alerted me to a sports agent for Bryce Harper, who is having a dismal year at the plate for the Washington Nationals, saying: Bryce’s poor batting record reflects “discriminatory shifts.” In short, he is discriminated against by opposing defensive players employing an effective strategy. 

This brought back memories of my youth when I was about 14 or 15 and listened to the Red Sox games on the radio. There was no television in 1946, or at least we did not have one.  

Today, July 14, is the 72nd anniversary of the Lou Boudreau “Ted Williams Shift." Boudreau was the shortstop and manager for the Cleveland Indians. In the second game of a doubleheader, he was playing the percentages against Williams, an extreme pull hitter.

Boudreau rolled out an infield player shift that packed all four infielders between first and second base. The announcers and Red Sox fans were astonished at this deployment but it worked in that game. Williams went 1-for-2 with a double and a pair of walks. It is estimated that the shift, later also used by other teams, took 15 points off Ted’s lifetime batting average: .344 BA (8th).

Ted was the proudest hitter in baseball and would not modify his swing to hit to left field. (He did not play golf because a golf swing is different from baseball and he felt it might adversely affect his baseball swing.)

Incidentally, in the first game of the July 14, 1946, doubleheader, Ted hit three home runs and drove in eight runs for a Boston 11 to 10 victory.  Ted was in his first season back after military service in World War II.

Young Mr.Harper could not do much better than take a lesson from Ted Williams. 

A man and his hat

I recently had a “laughable moment.”  I withdrew $200 (ten new, unused $20 bills) from a drive-up ATM and because others were behind me in the line I tossed the cash into my big floppy summer hat laying on the seat beside me and drove away. As I got out of the car in my garage I put the hat on my head and walked to my apartment. 

The hat!

When I took the hat off, the money spilled onto the floor. I picked it up and counted it. It was only $180. I looked around and didn’t find the missing $20. I thought I must have dropped it in my garage and would find it there later. I did a couple of housekeeping chores and then laid out in my recliner to rest. I dozed for about an hour and when I awoke and rubbed my eyes I realized something was on my head. I reached up and found the missing 20 dollar bill stuck to my hairless head. 

The hairless head! 

'The place to be"

Two weeks ago I wrote a Letter to the Editor, The Post & Courier, Charleston, SC, to pay public homage for recent medical care.  On May 15th an abridged version of the letter (below) was published. 

April 26 and 27 I spent two of the worst days of my 86 years at Roper Hospital on Calhoun Street undergoing spinal surgery.

The service I received was caring, compassionate and thoroughly competent, starting with the nurse who prepped me for surgery and the anesthesiologist and the surgeon who came by before the procedure.

In the operating room these doctors led by Dr. James K. Aymond and their outstanding staff went to work on me for about 2 1/2 hours. Afterward I went into recovery, and about an hour later was wheeled by a volunteer to a room where I would spend the next two days. The service was for the most part outstanding, led by the wonderful, caring and patient day nurse Anne Wirth.

Two days after the surgery, I came home in the company of my oldest son, Frank. During the travail all of my five children were on hand. Every parent should be blessed with such caring children.

I learned again that when you need medical services Roper St. Francis is the place to go.

Salute to Matthew - Our Family Airman

I hosted a pizza party on Monday, April 16, 2018, in the common room at my apartment house in Mt.Pleasant for family and a couple of guests to honor my grandson, Airman First Class Matthew Godbold, USAF, son of my daughter Wynn and her husband Rett. Matthew is home in Myrtle Beach on leave from his service on Okinawa. This is his first home leave in about 18 months.

Matthew continues a family tradition of USAF service. I was in the Air Force (1951-1959); his grandmother (my late wife) served from 1951 to 1954 and his uncle James served four years in the 1970s. 

(Somewhere along the line my oldest son Frank, and two of my brothers went astray and were United States Marines.)

As usually happens, everyone was snapping pictures and I was no exception. Here are some snapshots from the happy event (some pictures have been removed from the original post at the request of the participants.)

 Matthew laughs at something his smiling Uncle Frank just said. 

Clean up! - The maid is coming

Clean Up! - The maid is coming

I have heard it in movies and on TV sitcoms and thought why? Yet, this very week I found myself thinking the same line; (not uttering it out loud lest I be guilty of talking to myself, a sign of  dementia,) “I have to clean up, the maid is coming.”

I emptied wastebaskets in the bathroom, bedroom, and den. I put dishes in the dishwasher and organized the napkins on top of the table. Some clean pots and pans on the stove went into a nearby cabinet. I put a three or four day trove of newspapers into a paper bag and later took the bag to the trash dumpster. I took bath and hand towels and a face cloth and put them in the clothes hamper to be washed later. I picked up slippers and shoes and organized them in a closet. I adjusted the window blinds in the open position and straightened up the bed covers. Then satisfied that all was satisfactory I left my apartment, locked the door, posted a note to the maid that the key was in the rental office and went out to face the day.

Why do people always clean up for the maid? Why did I do it? Isn’t this her job?

My first wife and I were married 56 years and we had five children. I had a government job and there was no money for a maid. After her death I re-married and my second wife didn't want a maid “because it is easier to do it myself.” When she died I hired a maid who came every two weeks.

Then I moved and rented an apartment and my cost of living went up. Initially, I cleaned the apartment myself, including vacuuming carpet and washing wood floors. Then I tired of it and hired a maid service. 

So now on the first Friday of each month, I find myself uttering, “I have to clean up the maid is coming.”

The Bixby Letter and Saving Private Ryan

I find it thoroughly enjoyable and highly interesting when separate pleasant events come together by accident, and certainly without planning on my part. I recently had just such an experience. 

I watched a movie on TV and a day later read a review of four new books on the life of John Hay, President Lincoln’s presidential secretary and later ambassador to European courts and Secretary of State.

I viewed “Saving Private Ryan” on one of those TV channels which show movies without commercial interruptions. A pleasurable experience despite having seen the movie years ago in a theatre. 

The early part of the movie is getting the Rangers led by Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) off Omaha Beach on D-Day. The story moves on to the catastrophic news that a mother in Idaho is about to be notified three of her four sons have been killed in combat. A fourth is somewhere in Normandy. 

General George C.Marshall, Chief of Staff of the Army, orders a search for the fourth son and to “get him to hell out of there.” In explaining his order to staffers who brought him the news of the Ryan family, General Marshall quotes from a letter President Lincoln sent to a Mrs. Bixby of Boston who was thought to have lost five sons (it later turned out to be two) during the Civil War. 

The Bixby letter was an expression by the President of how inadequate words and feelings are to console the mother in such an overwhelming loss. It is the type of letter history and our imaginations let us accept Lincoln would have written. 

It now turns out that Lincoln was not the author of the letter; it was written by John Hay, considered to be “the stylish” writer on Lincoln’s staff, with the “pen of a poet.” 

Four new books on the life of this literary scholar, lawyer, presidential ghostwriter, and longtime cabinet member, are reviewed in depth by Christopher Benfey, Mellon Professor in English at Mount Holyoke College, in The New York Review of Books (March 8, 2018).

I am indebted to Professor Benfey and the authors of the reviewed books for this fascinating background which played an important part in the development of the storyline of Stephen Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan,” and for the pleasant surprise of watching a movie and shortly thereafter learning a bit of the history of what makes the movie work.

THE JOKE IS ON US

Last night I went to see Lewis Black at the Gaillard Center in Charleston. Disappointed all around. The show as billed as “The Joke Is On US tour,” and it turned out it was. 

The warm-up man before Black was in some ways a copycat. He was also on too long and had only one or two good jokes.

He and Black looked like they were the last two men dressed at the Salvation Army that day and just came off the bus from a job site. I consider this disrespectful to the audience who paid anywhere from $50 to a $100 for a seat. (Gaillard’s website listed lower prices but charged more when I bought.)

Most of Black’s material was thoroughly generic. He could have used it in any city in America. There was none of the biting satire and social critic I (and thousands of others, I am sure) have come to expect from him. I have seen several of his televised shows and bought his DVDs. 

Lewis's comments about his parents' age did get a lot of applause. His father, he said, is 100 this year and his mother 99. They live in an assisted living facility in Maryland. In some of the earlier shows I have seen they have been in the audience and were shown on camera. 

During one rant about not having guns in church, a man in the audience “booed” and Black spent several minutes hectoring this man on guns, the 2nd amendment, and mental stability. I thought this excessive and certainly, no one who has paid his money to sit in the audience needs to be criticized in this manner

A stupid idea from POTUS

Another stupid idea from POTUS - "ENDORSED ARMING SCHOOL TEACHERS." (Announced Wednesday (2/21/2018) night. 

This is the absolute dumbest idea I have ever heard. A teacher is an instructor, a mentor, a friend, a caring, loving person in the lives of hundreds of children every school day of every year, and this idiot (yes, Mr. Trump, I am referring to you) in the White House endorsed arming them with guns so they can stop a shooter before he starts shooting up a classroom, school hall or playground. (Such ideas I believe are evidence of mental instability.) I will wager that more than 98% of teachers will think this a terrible idea, and would no more strap on a gun all day in the classroom than drink hemlock at breakfast. (Many detectives put their weapons in their desk drawer when they are in the station handling paperwork and such.) Why should teachers have to go around strapped all day?

STOP SELLING AUTOMATIC WEAPONS is a better idea. And don't tell me about the 2nd amendment which was designed to provide for an armed militia if one is needed. We have armed police, local, state and federal. We have National Guard troops in every state. We do not need a citizenry mobilizing in the town square to fight.

Trump Parade

Letters to the Editor (Published February 20, 2018)

The Post & Courier

Charleston SC

Dear Editor

We can assume that somewhere in the Pentagon some field grade officers are hard at work on “the parade” President Trump said he wanted.

This is not a good idea for the United States.  We do not need a parade to entertain or convince our citizens, or the world, we are the most powerful nation on earth. 

Consider also, for example, how unlikely we would compare to India’s celebration of Republic Day on January 26. According to one account, Prime Minister Modi and his 10 chief guests, the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations, watched an hourlong parade of a “mishmash of tanks, marching sailors in spats, kilted bagpipers, female motorcycle daredevils, camels, ballistic missiles, dancing school children, and a tableaux representing such abstract concepts as ethical taxpaying.”

Sincerely

/s/ Francis X Archibald

A good day in February

Sunday, February 18, 2018

This was a good day for me. In the morning I put on a suit I have only worn four times since I retired in 1993. The first was for my wife Mary’s funeral in 2010, then my marriage to Joyce in 2013, and since then a friend’s wedding, and the funeral of another friend. In fact, I found a religious service memorial card in the inside pocket from the funeral.

When I went to brunch I felt the suit was too big for me to wear comfortably at dinner in the evening. So I took it off and wore some slacks and a  sport coat to the evening dinner. 

This was the annual dinner for the poker players’ wives at Frankie at Seaside. We had as our guests the wives of deceased poker players, and Franke Manager, Mark Lee and his wife Barbara. We had close to 60 people at the dinner. It was a special affair and the food and service was top of the line. I was the MC and told several humorous stories and one-liners. (Received several favorable comments afterward.) We raffled off bottles of wine and boxes of chocolates and every lady present got something to take home. It was a wonderful night and I thoroughly enjoyed. I also felt better with regard to my clothing.

I have another suit similar to the one I had on this morning which I also bought back in the 1980s when I served in the South Carolina House of Representatives. The suits have not gotten much use since I retired in 1993. I intend to try that on and if it fits like the first one I will donate them to Goodwill or Habitat for Humanity. 

An ice pick in your brain

How would you like to have an ice pick stuck in your brain? 

Would your feelings change if you were a lobster? 

Would it make a difference if you lived in Switzerland?

Of course, if you were a lobster you couldn’t answer those questions. But fear not, Swiss authorities have answered for you and beginning on March 1 a lobster cannot be dropped into a pot of boiling water until it has been knocked unconscious with electric shock or had its brain destroyed with an ice pick or a knife.

The Swiss, like New Zealanders, believe lobsters have feelings like humans. There is no scientific evidence to support this assumption, but like so many other things people speculate. This is why we have movements to save the whales, save the snails and don’t cut puppy dog tails.

It is harmless to let the Swiss and New Zealanders have such thoughts.  After all look at some of the strange ideas and thoughts we have in the United States.  

At this point, for example, you can pick and choose any of the weird things President Trump has said since the election in 2016. The Washington Post has compiled a list anyone may choose from. 

Click here for the complete blog.

Send comments here.

"serve the governed, not the governors."

I saw the movie, The Post, and highly recommend it. This Steven Spielberg film, starring Meryl Streep (Kathryn Graham) and Tom Hanks (Ben Bradlee), is a fascinating tale of the right of the people to know what its government has done. Graham and Bradlee put their careers on the line and faced possible prison time.

In 1971, The New York Times and The Washington Post were publishing the Pentagon Papers, a massive cover-up of government secrets that spanned three decades and four U.S. Presidents. The study, commissioned by the Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, conducted by the Department of Defense, covered thirty years of history about how we got involved and what we had done in Vietnam. The study was classified Top Secret. Daniel Ellsberg worked on the study and ultimately leaked it to the newspapers.

The Nixon administration citing national security sought and got injunctions in lower courts against publication. The U.S. Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision ruled otherwise. 

Justice Hugo Black, often regarded as a leading defender of First Amendment rights such as the freedom of speech and of the press, refused to accept the doctrine that the freedom of speech could be curtailed on national security grounds. Thus, in New York Times Co. v. United States (1971), he voted to allow newspapers to publish the Pentagon Papers despite the Nixon Administration's contention that publication would have security implications. In his concurring opinion, Black stated,

In the First Amendment the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The Government's power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the Government. The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. [...] The word 'security' is a broad, vague generality whose contours should not be invoked to abrogate the fundamental law embodied in the First Amendment.

— New York Times Co. v. United States, 403 U.S. 713, 717 (1971).