- Meg Greenfield: Listen up, everybody. Listen up. Justice Black's opinion. Okay. "The founding fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors."
- Kay Graham: Do you know what my husband said about the news? He called it the first rough draft of history.
- Fritz Beebe: If the government wins and we're convicted, the Washington Post as we know it will cease to exist.
- Ben Bradlee: Well, if we live in a world where the government could tell us what we can and cannot print, then the Washington Post as we know it has already ceased to exist.
- Ben Bagdikian: They're going to lock you up, Dan.
- Daniel Ellsberg: Wouldn't you go to prison to stop this war?
- Ben Bagdikian: Theoretically, sure.
- Daniel Ellsberg: You are gonna publish these documents?
- Ben Bagdikian: Yeah.
- Daniel Ellsberg: Even with the injunction.
- Ben Bagdikian: Yes.
- Daniel Ellsberg: Well, then. It's not so theoretical then, is it?
- [behind closed doors]
- Ben Bradlee: So, can I ask you a hypothetical question?
- Kay Graham: Oh, dear. I don't like hypothetical questions.
- Ben Bradlee: Well, I don't think you're gonna like the real one, either.
- [pause]
- Kay Graham: Do you have the Papers?
- [pause]
- Ben Bradlee: Not yet.
- Robert McNamara: If you publish, you'll get the very worst of him, the Colsons and the Ehrlichmans and he'll crush you.
- Kay Graham: I know, he's just awful, but I...
- Robert McNamara: [Interrupting and getting extremely angry] He's a... Nixon's a son of a bitch! He hates you, he hates Ben, he's wanted to ruin the paper for years and you will not get a second chance, Kay. The Richard Nixon I know will muster the full power of the presidency and if there's a way to destroy your paper, by God, he'll find it.
- Roger Clark: What if we wait? What if we hold off on printing today. Instead we call the Attorney General and we tell them that we intend to print on Sunday. That way we give them and us time to figure out the legality of all of it, while the Court in New York decides the Times case.
- Ben Bradlee: Are you suggesting we alert the Attorney General to the fact that we have these documents, that we're going to print, in a few days?
- Roger Clark: Well, yes, that is the idea.
- Ben Bagdikian: Yeah, well, outside of landing the Hindenburg in a lightning storm, that's about the shittiest idea I've ever heard.
- Fritz Beebe: Oh boy!
- Tony Bradlee: But Kay. Kay is in a position she never thought she'd be in, a position I'm sure plenty of people don't think she should have. When you're told time and time again that you're not good enough, that your opinion doesn't matter as much. When they don't just look past you, when, to them, you're not even there, when that's been your reality for so long, it's hard not to let yourself think it's true. So to make this decision, to risk her fortune and the company that's been her entire life, well, I think that's brave.
- Ben Bradlee: We have to be the check on their power. If we don't hold them accountable, then, my God, who will?
- Kay Graham: Well, I've never smoked a cigar. And I have no problem holding Lyndon or Jack or Bob or any of them accountable. We can't hold them accountable if we don't have a newspaper.
- [last lines]
- Nixon: [on telephone] No reporter from The Washington Post is ever to be in the White House again... . None ever to be in. Now that is a total order... .
- [cut to guard making rounds]
- Police Dispatcher: DC Police, 2nd Precinct...
- Watergate Security Guard: Yes, hello, this is Frank Wills. I think we might have a burglary in progress at the Watergate.
- Daniel Ellsberg: Someone said this at some point about why we stayed when we knew we were losing. Ten percent was to help the South Vietnamese. Twenty percent was to hold back the Commies. Seventy percent was to avoid the humiliation of an American defeat. Seventy percent of those boys just to avoid being humiliated? That stuck with me.
- Ben Bradlee: Jack Kennedy. The night he was assassinated, Tony and I were down at the Naval Hospital so we would be there to meet Jackie when she landed. She was bringing Jack's body back on the plane from Dallas and she walked into the room. She was still wearing that pink suit, with Jack's blood all over it. She fell into Tony's arms and they held each other for quite a long time. And then Jackie looked at me and said, "None of this. None of what you see. None of what I say, is *ever* going to be in your newspaper, Ben." And that just about broke my heart. I never - never thought of Jack as a source. I thought of him as a friend. And that was my mistake. And it was something that Jack knew all along. We can't be both. We have to choose. And - that's the point. The days of us smoking cigars together on Pennsylvania Avenue were over.
- Kay Graham: This is no longer my father's company. It's no longer my husband's company. It's my company.
- Ben Bradlee: [to Kay] You know, the only couple I knew that both Kennedy and LBJ wanted to socialize with was you and your husband.
- Ben Bradlee: They'll be defending the first amendment. We'll tell them that the only way to protect the right to publish - is to publish.
- Fritz Beebe: The company's selling how many shares?
- Kay Graham: 1.35 million shares.
- Fritz Beebe: Price range is?
- Kay Graham: Between 24.50 and 27 dollars per share.
- Fritz Beebe: Not exactly a huge difference.
- Kay Graham: For them! But, you know, the bankers always fiddle with the prices. But, for *us*, that's over 3 million dollars and that represents over 5 years salary for 25 good reporters.
- Anthony Essaye: Ben, look, we know your reporters are talented. But, The New York Times spent three months going over these documents. You've got, what? Seven hours now until the paper goes to press? Can you honestly tell me that that is enough time to make sure not a single military plan, not a single U.S. soldier, not a single American life will be put in harms way? That this will do no damage to the United States if you publish?
- Ben Bradlee: Yes.
- Roger Clark: And you're sure about that?
- Ben Bradlee: No! That's why I've called you guys.
- Daniel Ellsberg: Someone said this, at some point, about why we stayed when we knew we were losing. Ten percent was to help the South Vietnamese. Twenty percent was to hold back the Commies. Seventy percent was to avoid the humiliation of an American defeat. Seventy percent of those boys just to avoid being humiliated? That stuck with me.
- Daniel Ellsberg: But it didn't take him long to figure out, well, for us to figure out if the public ever saw these papers they would turn against the war. Covert ops, guaranteed debt, rigged elections? It's all in there. Ike, Kennedy, Johnson... they violated the Geneva Convention. They lied to Congress and they lied to the public. They knew we couldn't win and still sent boys to die.
- Ben Bagdikian: What about Nixon?
- Daniel Ellsberg: He's just carrying on like all the others, too afraid to be the one who loses the war on his watch.
- Kay Graham: Are you sure we're striking the right tone here, Ben?
- Ben Bradlee: Oh, we're going to do this again.
- Kay Graham: No. The new Style section, sometimes that stiletto party coverage can be a little mean.
- Kay Graham: The Nixon White House is nothing if not vindictive. Just this morning they barred us from covering Trisha Nixon's wedding.
- Fritz Beebe: Somehow, I doubt that will rise to the level of catastrophe.
- Kay Graham: [laughs] No. Probably not. Although, when Ben sets his mind to plunder, its not hard to imagine something more serious. Catastrophic events - do occur, you know.
- Kay Graham: Ben, that's not my role. You know that. I wouldn't presume to tell you how to write about him. Just as I wouldn't take it upon myself to tell him he should hand over a classified study, which would be a crime, by the way, just so he can serve as your source.
- Ben Bradlee: Our source, Katherine.
- Kay Graham: A bit hard to read, isn't it?
- Lally Graham: Harder for you, I imagine.
- Kay Graham: No. Why?
- Lally Graham: These were your people: McNamara and Kennedy and Johnson.
- Kay Graham: Well, Jack and Lyndon were your father's friends.
- Eastern Air Stewardess: Must be precious cargo.
- Ben Bagdikian: Yeah. Just government secrets.
- Eastern Air Stewardess: [laughs] Please fasten your seatbelt.
- Daniel Ellsberg: The study had 47 volumes. I slipped out a couple at a time. It took me months to copy it all.
- Ben Bagdikian: They're going to come after you, you know. I got to be honest, the bread crumbs weren't too hard to follow.
- Daniel Ellsberg: I know.
- Ben Bradlee: Join the fight?
- Tony Bradlee: Yeah, who's winning?
- Ben Bradlee: Nixon!
- Tony Bradlee: I didn't see him come in.
- Ben Bradlee: Really? He's got his hands so far up Fritz's ass.
- Kay Graham: Oh well, we don't always get it right. You know, we're not always perfect. But, I think if we just - keep on it, you know, that's the job, isn't it?
- Ben Bradlee: Yes, it is.
- Kay Graham: When Phil died it was just - I was 45 years old and I had never held - I never had to hold a job in my life. But, I just, I loved the paper, you know. I do. I do so love the paper. I don't want it to be my fault. I don't want to be the one - I don't want to let Phil and my father and all of you kids and everybody down.
- Kay Graham: This company has been in my life for longer than most of the people working there have been alive. So, I don't need the lecture on legacy.
- Kay Graham: Oh, Ken Clawson came by to see me earlier.
- Ben Bradlee: Oh?
- Kay Graham: Apparently, Justice is still considering criminal charges against us.
- Ben Bradlee: Yeah, well, I bet they are.
- Kay Graham: And you're not worried.
- Ben Bradlee: Nope. No, Katharine, that's your job.
- Kay Graham: I suppose it is. Oh, thank God the court ruling was very clear.
- Ben Bradlee: Yeah. Yeah, well, I'm sure Nixon will fall right in line.
- Daniel Ellsberg: I was struck, in fact, by President Johnson's reaction to these revelations as close to treason. Because it reflected to me the sense that what was damaging to the reputation of a particular administration, a particular individual, was in itself treason. Which is very close to saying, "I am the State".
- Daniel Ellsberg: I think the lesson is the people of this country can't afford to let the President run the country by himself.
- Arthur Parsons: No offense. Kay, it's unfortunate, the buyers are obviously skittish about having a woman in charge.
- Nixon: You mean, to prosecute the Times? My view is to prosecute the goddamn pricks that gave it to them. If you can find out who that is.
- Arthur Parsons: Kay throws a great party; but, her father gave the paper to her husband. The only reason she's running things is because he - because, Phil died.
- Ben Bradlee: When I get my hands on that study, what are you going to do, Mrs. Graham? Oh, happy birthday, by the way.
- Ben Bagdikian: There's a fella I overlapped with at RAND. He was a bit of a showboat; but, smart. And he worked for McNamara and he had opinions on the decision-making that went into Vietnam.
- Ben Bradlee: Okay.
- Ben Bagdikian: The word is, he doved. Pretty hard.
- Ben Bradlee: Would he have access to the study?
- Ben Bagdikian: I'm sure RAND had a copy.