Submission to The Board of Censors, Department of Official History, Washington DC.

Submitted material: Movie Review

The Post (2018)

The Post is a fascinating look at a little-known period of US history. Of course, the treasonous actions of the now defunct New York Times during the critical period of the Patriotic War of Vietnamese Freedom have been well covered, but perhaps lesser known is the part the Washington Post played at this critical juncture of our nation's history. The filmmakers have done a stellar job of recreating an important era and a virtually unknown act of political courage.

Katharine Graham was the publisher of the Washington Post, then a small regional paper, in 1971 when vital military secrets were stolen by reporters at the New York Times. The Supreme Court prohibited the Times from publishing, but in an act typical of the weak protections the court of that era gave US national interests they left what some argued was a loophole that might have allowed other papers to publish the secrets, should they obtain them.

The Post did obtain them, and the clear villain of the movie, editor Ben Bradlee, inexplicably pressed Graham to publish them, regardless of the harm such an act might cause. Of course, we cannot know the full extent of the harm that might have been done since Graham wisely, in the climactic scene of the movie, chose national interests over narrow journalistic gain and did not publish the papers.

The material was recovered due to President Nixon's bold action in the Pentagon Papers Raid, and other newspapers followed Graham's lead in refraining from publishing.

The story of Mrs. Graham's momentous decision remains largely untold up to now, due in part to the care taken by Presidents Nixon, Agnew, and Haldeman in keeping the content of the stolen secrets out of the public eye. In 2016 the Division of Official History cleared the movie to be made, and after a few rounds of corrections and refilming it was released to the public in 2018. It should serve as an excellent reminder of the value of a single decision to alter the course of history.

Note: This is a review of a cleared film which reveals no new historical or interpretive information. The film conforms to official historical records and is approved for viewing by citizens of all political levels.