TopSecretPlay.org, sponsored by the USC Annenberg Center for Communication Leadership & Policy, is a resource page supporting productions of Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers, a docudrama by Geoffrey Cowan and Leroy Aarons. It is also a resource page about the Pentagon Papers, a top secret Defense Department study of the U.S. military and political activity leading up to the Vietnam War, and about the signal events of 1971, when parts of these Papers were leaked to The New York Times and The Washington Post , forcing these newspapers to make historic decisions about whether to publish the classified material, and leading the government to challenge the newspapers in cases that ended up in the Supreme Court. The legal, ethical, and moral questions raised by this piece of American history continue to have deep resonance today. This website, originally created when the play Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers toured college campuses in 2007 and 2008, will continue to support and supplement performances of the play and the discussions among audiences and scholars that surround those performances. To do this, the site collects resource materials on the Pentagon Papers, provides educational materials about the play, and chronicles ongoing conversations about the themes raised by the play and the events on which it is based. Check back often for more information and conversations!
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For questions, comments, or suggestions, please contact topsecretplay at gmail dot com.
