After learning the previous day that Newsweek magazine was about to identify Daniel J. "Dan" Ellsberg as the source of the Pentagon Papers leak, President Nixon and several White House aides speculated on the role of religion and ethnicity in Ellsberg's decision to commit espionage. Their conversation laid bare a host of prejudicial assumptions as they considered the presence of Jews in their administration, particularly on the staff of the National Security Council headed by Henry A. Kissinger.