Daniel Ellsberg lit the fuse that exploded as "Watergate" with his release of the "utterly useless" Pentagon Papers. Without Ellsberg, there would have been no "Plumbers," and there would have been no Watergate.
At all relevant times, Ellsberg had "higher than Top Secret" clearances. In league with two of the major CIA Operation Mockingbird mouthpieces, the New York Times and the Washington Post, Ellsberg leaked the documents with the singular knowing intention of getting E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy moved into position in the White House and Nixon administration in order to launch