Arthur Ochs "Punch" Sulzberger is most celebrated--and rightly so--for his decision in 1971 to publish the Pentagon Papers, an archive detailing how the government had lied to the American people about the Vietnam War from the start. Punch was not a gifted journalist or a great editor. He was, however, something out of a Frank Capra movie--a man with a deep sense of decency and profound common sense who also had guts. It took great courage to publish the classified documents in defiance of the government, which was a seminal moment for American journalism.
Sulzberger, who died Sept. 29 at 86,...
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