[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-40872-en":3,"doc-seo-40872-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},40872,962075114765,"Quinn","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_a8503ba1806abce46bf441b54a3ca4cd",8,"Research & Report","The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret","A historical narrative examining how U.S. officials handled truth and public communication during and after the early Afghanistan war era. Beginning with post-9/11 political and military momentum, it contrasts initial broad support with later efforts to offer “false assurances,” conceal battlefield setbacks, and rationalize disinformation. The text connects government messaging practices to legal and journalistic principles, showing how omissions grew into deeper deception as leaders struggled to acknowledge mistakes.","Thank you for downloading this Simon & Schuster ebook.  \nGet a FREE ebook when you join our mailing list. Plus, get updates on new releases, deals, recommended reads, and more from Simon & Schuster. Click below to sign up  \nand see terms and conditions.  \nCLICK HERE TO SIGN UP  \nAlready a subscriber? Provide your email again so we can register this ebook and send you more of what you like to read. You will continue to receive exclusive offers in  \nyour inbox.  \nForJenny and Kyle, with love and admiration  \nOnly a free and unrestrained press can eАectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them oА to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell.  \n—Supreme Court Justice Hugo L. Black, in his concurring opinion in New York Times Co. v. United States, also known as the Pentagon Papers case, June 30, 1971. In a 6–3 decision, the Court ruled that the U.S. government could not block The New York Times or The Washington Post from publishing the Defense Department’s secret history of the Vietnam War.  \nForeword  \nTwo weeks after the 9/ 11 attacks, as the United States girded for war in Afghanistan, a reporter asked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld a straightforward question: Would U.S. oГcials lie to the news media about military operations in order to mislead the enemy?  \nRumsfeld stood at the podium in the Pentagon brieЙng room. The building still smelled of smoke and jet fuel from when American Airlines Мight 77 exploded into the west wall, killing 189 people. The defense secretary started to reply by paraphrasing a quotation from British Prime Minister Winston Churchill: “In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.” Rumsfeld explained how the Allies, prior to D-Day, rana disinformation campaign called Operation Bodyguard to confuse the Germans about when and where the invasion ofwestern Europe would take place in 1944. Rumsfeld sounded as if he were justifying the practice of spreading lies during wartime, but then he pivoted and insisted he would never do such a thing.“The answer to your question is, no, I cannot imagine a situation,” he said.“I don’t recall that I’ve ever lied to the press. I don’t intend to, and it seems to me that there will not be reason for it. There are dozens of ways to avoid  \nhaving to put yourselfin a position where you’re lying. And I don’t do it.”Asked if the same could be expected of everyone else in the Defense  \nDepartment, Rumsfeld paused and gave a little smile.“You’ve got to be kidding,” he said.  \nThe Pentagon press corps laughed. It was classic Rumsfeld: clever, forceful, unscripted, disarming. A former star wrestler at Princeton, he was a master at not getting pinned down.  \nTwelve days later, on October 7, 2001, when the U.S. military began bombing Afghanistan, no one foresaw that it would turn into the most protracted war in American history—longer than World War I, World War II and Vietnam combined.  \nUnlike the war in Vietnam, or the one that would erupt in Iraq in 2003, the decision to take military action against Afghanistan was grounded in nearunanimous public support. Shaken and angered by al-Qaeda’s devastating terrorist strikes, Americans expected their leaders to defend the homeland with the same resolve as they did after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Within three days of 9/ 11, Congress passed legislation authorizing the Bush administration to go to war against al-Qaeda and any country that harbored the network.  \nFor the Йrst time, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) invoked Article 5, the alliance’s collective commitment to defend any of its member states under attack. The United Nations Security Council unanimously condemned the “horrifying terrorist attacks” and called on all countries to bring the perpetrators to justice. Even hostile powers expresse","cbCaidCXqzWgeIti","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaidCXqzWgeIti","pdf",6100837,4,1,371,"English","en",105,"# Foreword\n## Post-9/11 context and initial public support\n## Pentagon briefing and questions about lying to the press\n## NATO and international condemnation\n## Growth of assurances, omissions, and entrenched dissembling","[{\"question\":\"What question prompted the Defense Secretary’s response in the foreword?\",\"answer\":\"A reporter asked whether U.S. officials would lie to the news media about military operations to mislead the enemy.\"},{\"question\":\"How did international institutions respond after the 9/11 attacks?\",\"answer\":\"NATO invoked Article 5, and the U.N. Security Council unanimously condemned the terrorist attacks and called for bringing perpetrators to justice.\"},{\"question\":\"What changed over time according to the foreword?\",\"answer\":\"Officials began making false assurances and papering over setbacks, and the pattern of omissions became more entrenched, leading from deception to increasingly absurd claims.\"}]",1783316177,935,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":25,"language":24,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":86,"head_meta":88,"extra_data":90,"updated_unix":28},"the-afghanistan-papers-a-secret","",{"@graph":36,"@context":85},[37,53,68],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,48,51],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":21},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":47},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":49,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":50},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":52,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-afghanistan-papers-a-secret/40872/",{"url":52,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":24,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":62,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":63,"interactionStatistic":64},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":41,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-07-12","2026-07-06",true,{"@type":65,"interactionType":66,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":67},"ViewAction",{"@type":69,"mainEntity":70},"FAQPage",[71,77,81],{"name":72,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":74},"What question prompted the Defense Secretary’s response in the foreword?","Question",{"text":75,"@type":76},"A reporter asked whether U.S. officials would lie to the news media about military operations to mislead the enemy.","Answer",{"name":78,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":79},"How did international institutions respond after the 9/11 attacks?",{"text":80,"@type":76},"NATO invoked Article 5, and the U.N. 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