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.