Back Then: 1971.

Last week, The New York Times, The Guardian of London and the German magazine Der Spiegel published articles based on thousands of secret military and intelligence reports on the war in Afghanistan obtained by the group Wikileaks. The articles recalled another affair. On June 13, 1971, The Times began publishing the Pentagon Papers, a secret government history of the Vietnam War. The next day, word leaked out that Times reporters were assembling the series from a clandestine location -- the Hilton Hotel in New York. Harrison F. Salisbury recounted what happened next in ''Without Fear or Favor'': ''The secret was out and the staff was told to leave immediately. Staff men took taxis pell-mell back to The Times. Copy boys and porters were dispatched to load up typewriters and equipment. Bob Rosenthal of the foreign desk put all the papers -- 200 pounds or more -- into a suitcase. He was given $20 and told to get out the back door of the Hilton. If there were FBI men outside The Times building he was to just keep going.'' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]