RIP Neil Sheehan

Another legend gone.

 

Sad news. In the relatively recent Kenneth Burns documentary on the Vietnam War, Sheehan gave some good first-hand accounts of covering the war, in its early days. And his work regarding the Pentagon Papers helped finally end that war.

RIP.

 

"Bright Shining Lie" is a must read.

 

What a career. To break the Pentagon Papers before you are 35? How do you follow that up? I realize he was badly injured in a car crash a few years later and his recuperation was long, but damn. RIP.

 

I have his book that's an early Cold War history built around the life of the Air Force general who became head of the land-based missile program. Great read if not as dramatic as Bright Shining Lie.

 

Every bit as great as Woodward and Bernstein, even if people don’t know his name.

 

Sheehan had refused to say for years how he got the papers from Ellsberg. In 2015, he finally agreed to talk as long as the Times did not publish until after his death. A heckuva read, and even back then, a reporter had a scoop and decided to withhold it from his paper so he could write a book.

Now It Can Be Told: How Neil Sheehan Got the Pentagon Papers

 

The Pentagon Papers was an important story. Absolutely. But Neil's disclosure that he hid his intention from Ellsberg and made copies behind his back rubbed me the wrong way. I'm sure the industry was a different world back then, but I can't imagine doing something like that now.