coming up next, part one of a two-part interview with daniel ellsberg. he talks about his opinions on the vietnam war and the leaking of the pentagon papers. the richard nixon presidential library conducted this interview. this portion is about one hour and 20 minutes. >> right from the beginning and until late in 1971 -- for a couple of years, i always thought for the pentagon papers to have any effect, they should be the basis for congressional hearing. precisely because i knew they did not tell the whole story for an adequate story. i knew a lot of what was excluded from them and what you needed was oral testimony preferably under oath of people who really knew the decision-making at the time and could explain what was the implications of these papers. when things were written down, it was a brief for mcnamara to argue with other people to present mcnamara's preferred policy. it did not usually express what mcnaughton thought was appropriate policy or what he thought to expect work -- for considerations. he was writing lawyers briefs for mcnamara to p

there is a lot of stuff about the ellsberg break-in in there. there are personal things of hunt, letters from his wife, and drafts of letters to her. i believe she -- i've never known this for a fact. she may have been a cia agent. at the time, that wasn't -- women weren't very few and far between in the ranks of the cia. so and there is an address book and a lot of other things. which sits in my safe, all of the other thing that is in the safe, a big at -- or -- attache case filled with wires, bugging devices. what we find out later is this is mccord had given the hunt this. hunt had come to the white house after the arrest of the dnc, stuck this into this safe. and i turn, you know this sits , around. what are we going to do with this stuff? the fbi is one to want whatever is in his safe. ehrlichman says, john, you drive across the potomac every night. throw into the potomac. i say i can't do that. we turned over the case of stuff, which was related to the break-in or what have you. to the fbi. and this is very unsophisticated. we just give th

first, you look at what they did with the ellsberg break-in. it was stupid and bungled as what happened at the watergate. it was james bond stuff. they thought they were -- how could you walk in with an army of people to do what cat burglars usually do if you were working toward a foreign espionage operation? moderator: when you discussed with magruder, before his grand jury testimony, you talked to him, some people use the word coached him, did he know what had happened? john: oh, absolutely. i did not have to coach him. what he wanted to do with me which they at one point said was my supporting his perjury. which it wasn't. i said the only thing i will do, jeb, is tell you things that will be asked by the prosecutors. i do not even care by your answers, i do not want to hear your answers, but that is what i did with him. i gave him sort of a drilling as to the sort of things he could anticipate he would be asked. moderator: and he told you that mitchell had ordered it. john: he told me that within several days after the break-in. moderator: a

there is a lot of stuff about the ellsberg break-in. there are personal things of hunt, letters from his wife, drafts of letters to her. i've never known this for a fact. she may have been a cia agent. women weren't very few and far between in the ranks of the cia. there is an address book and a lot of other things. which sits in my safe, all of the others think it is in the safe, a big antenna shake case -- a big case filled with wires, bugging devices. what we find out later is this is mccord had given him this. hunt had come to the white house after the arrest of the dnc, stuck this into this safe. this sits around. what are we going to do with this stuff? the fbi is one to want whatever is in his say. ehrlichman says drive across the potomac every night. throw into the potomac. i say i can't do that. we turned over the case of stuff, which was related to the break-in or what have you. this is unsophisticated. we give the rest of the stuff to pat gray in 2 envelopes. he's called over by ehrlichman. ehrlichman tells him this stuff sho

or 1971. >> one of the things bud krogh told us he was told was that there were suspicions that ellsberg was sharing his material with the russian embassy. did that material come through your interagency group? >> no, in fact, i did not hear that until i talked to bud long after the fact. bud and i have talked about this. we had a report over the years. i have said national security areas were such gray areas as to what was national security. he agreed and i said if we had ever talked that out of the time, if i had been in the loop, i think you need at support for your own dealings but he took it based lu as the president said this was a national security matter and this is a national security matter. theoretically, that's true. the president can say this is national security. why was later breaking rank with nixon, one of the things he and joined me is he said you cannot talk about any of those activities. they are national security. later he would lift that on that restriction would go away just by the absurdity of the claim because they were certainly -- it was dubious it was gray. eh

[applause] >> today at 2:00 eastern, we will air an oral history interview with daniel ellsberg. he became a consultant to the white house defense department. on matters concerning the vietnam war, giving him access to classified and top-secret documents. he photocopied as 7000 page study that later became known as the pentagon papers. in 1971, he gave those documents to the new york times. an interview with daniel ellsberg, here on "american history tv" today at 2:00 eastern. >> each week, "american history tv"'s real america brings you archival films that help tell the true story of the 20th century. on march 8

part two of a two-part interview with daniel ellsberg. he talks about handing over the pentagon papers to the new york times, the fall out of the leak and his arrest and trial which spanned from june 1971-may, 1973. the richard nixon presidential library conducted this interview as part of a project to document the 37th president's administration. this portion is about 50 minutes. >> on labor day weekend after their unsuccessful operation in the break and go back to washington via new york. they stay at the pair -- i believe -- no, what was the hotel that kennedy was famous for going into? i associated with kennedy all the time. what's the one -- the plaza. the one that the little girl -- remember? >> metal line. -- madeiline. >> they stayed at this hotel. a very fine hotel for them to stay in. that weekend, i think on a sunday, the office of senator goodale is broken into. my memory is not perfect on all the names but i believe the name of goodell's assistant was andrew pair -- pierre and he told me there is no question there was a burgl

[applause] >> at 2:00 eastern sunday, we will air an interview with daniel ellsberg. while working at the rand corporation in 1967, he became a consultant to the white house and defense department on matters concerning the vietnam war, giving him access to classified and top-secret documents. he photocopied a 7000-page study that later became known as the pentagon papers. in 1971, he gave his documents to the "new york times." part of the richard nixon president bribery project on american history tv, sunday at 2:00 eastern --. >> the c-span cities tour takes american history tv on the road traveling to cities to learn about their history and literary life. we partner for a visit to galveston, texas. >> with the opening of the suez canal in 1969, sailing ships were dealt a death blow. with the opening of the canal ships had a shorter route to the far east, india, all of those markets. sailing ships needed to find a way to make their own living. instead of high-value cargo they started carrying lower valued cargoes. coal, oil, cotton, etc. she found her niche in carryi

and sunday afternoon at 2:00, an interview with daniel ellsberg on the pentagon papers, a classifiedtudy on vietnam which he copied and classified -- and gave to the "new york times." let us know what you think about the programs you are watching. call us. e-mail us at comments@c-span.org . or send us a tweet at @cspan. like a son puts -- like us on facebook, follow us on twitter. tonight on "q&a," the challenges of policing the city. >> so it was very clear to me that i still had an issue with public trust and people believing things that i think were said. and regardless of the fact that i stand in front like a bit for you today and say the use of force is down 46%, that complaint about 53% that lawsuits are down, that officer involved shootings are significantly down. people in community say, we don't believe it. >> tonight at 8:00 eastern and pacific. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we want to welcome back the executive director of families usa, ron pollack. guest: delighted to be with you, steve. host: big supreme court this week. the issue is the subsidies. let me go b

part two of a two-part interview with daniel ellsberg. he talks about handing over the pentagon papers to the new york times, the fall

>> today at 2:00 eastern, we will air an oral history interview with daniel ellsberg. he became a consultant to the white house defense department. on matters concerning the vietnam war, giving him access to classified and top-secret documents. he photocopied as 7000 page study that later became known as the pentagon papers. in 1971, he gave those documents to the new york times. an interview with daniel ellsberg, here on "american history tv" today at 2:00 eastern. >> each week, "american history tv"'s real america brings you archival films that help tell the true story of the 20th century. on march 8 1955, 3500 marines were deployed to vietnam marking the beginning of the u.s. ground war. by the end of 1955, almost 200,000 americans were in the country. when the war ended in 1935 nearly 3 million americans had served in the conflict. up next, "the screaming eagles in vietnam." documented activities of the airborne division from his arrival through january 1967. >> the enemy, when it is lifted, regroups. despite weeklong airstrikes by u.s. air jets, the viet cong has