A top-secret study leaked to The New York Times by famed Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg reveals the U.S. military pressed then-President Dwight Eisenhower to prepare a nuclear first strike against mainland China during the Taiwan Strait crisis of 1958. The document shows U.S. military planners were ready to accept the risk that the Soviet Union would launch its own nuclear retaliation on behalf of its ally China and that millions of people would die. Daniel Ellsberg told the Times he decided to disclose the document now due to rising tensions between the United States and China over Taiwan.