Which best describes why the government tried to prevent the new york times from publishing articles on the vietnam war?
a. the articles included classified information.
b. the articles criticized the military.
c. the articles threatened national security.
d. the articles supported communists.

The articles threatened national security interests (C). The Pentagon Papers, as they have come to be known, were a series of documents from 1971 that were given to the Times by a general who was in opposition of the US's presence in Vietnam. The US tried to block their further release on security grounds, but were not successful.