Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War

In the summer of 1971, former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent G. Gordon Liddy and retired Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent Howard Hunt arrived in California. They were part of a secret team working for President Richard Nixon with the goal of “ruining” Daniel Ellsberg. Some people thought Ellsberg was a hero, but to President Nixon, he was “a traitor.” In disguise, Liddy and Hunt took photos around their target building, which contained the office of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist, Dr. Lewis Fielding. At night, they visited the building again. This time, their goal was to enter Dr. Fielding’s office. However, the nighttime cleaning lady stopped them. They explained they were the doctor’s friends and wanted to leave something for him. Liddy had just a few moments to slip into the office and take photos before the woman became suspicious. Still, he found what he needed. The locks on the filing cabinets would be easy to break. Liddy and Hunt left, confident that “the operation to destroy Daniel Ellsberg was most definitely feasible” (4).