Many people compare Edward Snowden to me unfavorably for his leaving the country and seeking asylum, rather than facing trial as I did. I don't agree. The country I stayed in was a different America, a long time ago.
After the New York Times had been enjoined from publishing the Pentagon Papers (June 15, 1971) — the first prior restraint on a newspaper in U.S. history — and after I'd given another copy to The Post (also to be enjoined), I went underground with my wife, Patricia, for 13 days.
My purpose (quite like Snowden's in flying to Hong Kong) was to elude surveillance while I was arranging — with the crucial help of a number of others, still unknown to the FBI — to distribute the Pentagon Papers to 17 other newspapers, in the face of two more injunctions. The last three days of that period was in defiance of an arrest order: Like Snowden now, I was a "fugitive from justice."