What did the Pentagon Papers reveal about the Vietnam War & how did the Supreme Court rule on Nixon’s attempt to block their publication?

President Johnson had stated that two American destroyers (a type of warship), the U.S.S. Maddox and the U.S.S. C. Turner Joy, had been attacked without provocation in international waters. He then asked the Congress for permission to accelerate American involvement in Vietnam and to bomb certain sites within North Vietnam. Congress gave him permission with the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.

The Pentagon Papers, a series of articles being published in the New York Times, revealed this to be, at best, an exeration of the truth. It suggested that the American destroyers might even have penetrated into North Vietnamese territorial waters prior to the attack on them. This intrusion would have justified, under international law and international precedent, a retaliation by North Vietnam. This retaliation is what Johnson described at an unprovoked attack (an apparent lie).

These papers were being published during the Nixon administration which tried to stop their continued publication. The Supreme Court ruled that this would amount to "prior restraint" and is not allowed. They were published in their entirety.