Nixon's 1968 Treason

[book_worm]

The GOP would also commit treason in 1980 with regards to the Iranian Hostage Crisis:

After reading these secret FBI cables, Johnson began working the phones to counter the Nixon campaign's gambit. According to recordings of the phone calls that have since been declassified, Johnson complained to Senate Republican Leader Everett Dirksen about the subterfuge.

On Nov. 2, just three days before the election, an angry Johnson telephoned Dirksen at 9:18 p.m., to provide details about Nixon's activities and to urge Dirksen to intervene forcefully.

"The agent [Chennault] says she's just talked to the boss in New Mexico and that he said that you [South Vietnam] must hold out, just hold on until after the election," Johnson said. "We know what Thieu is saying to them out there. We're pretty well informed at both ends." [Johnson believed "the boss in New Mexico" was Nixon's running mate, Spiro Agnew, who was there on a campaign trip.]

Johnson then injected a thinly veiled threat to go public. "I don't want to get this in the campaign," Johnson said, adding: "They oughtn't be doing this. This is treason."

Dirksen responded, "I know."

Johnson continued: "I think it would shock America if a principal candidate was playing with a source like this on a matter of this importance. I don't want to do that [go public]. They ought to know that we know what they're doing. I know who they're talking to. I know what they're saying."

Dirksen: "I better get in touch with him [Nixon], I think."

"They're contacting a foreign power in the middle of a war," Johnson said.

After hearing from Dirksen, Nixon grew concerned that Johnson might just go public with his evidence of the conspiracy. At 1:54 p.m. on Nov. 3, trying to head off that possibility, Nixon spoke directly to Johnson, according to an audiotape released by the LBJ Library.

"Huh, no," Nixon responded. "My God, I would never do anything to encourage ... Saigon not to come to the table. ... Good God, we want them over to Paris, we got to get them to Paris or you can't have a peace. ... The war apparently now is about where it could be brought to an end. The quicker the better. To hell with the political credit, believe me."

Johnson, however, sounded less than convinced. "You just see that your people don't tell the South Vietnamese that they're going to get a better deal out of the United States government than a conference," the President said.

http://www.truth-out.org/progressivepicks/item/13994-how-richard-nixon-sabotaged-1968-vietnam-peace-talks-to-get-elected-president

It really was too late--The Nixon efforts convinced the VietCong to hold off until after the election and Nixon's Inauguration.

[merrily]

1. Coincidentally, I've been reading about 1968 lately and made the same connection

to 1980 when I learned of Johnson's suspicions.

The more things change, the more they stay the same, as the French supposedly say. "Southern strategy" has run through so many elections. First, it was the Republicans who needed one, thanks to Lincoln/Emancipation. Then, it was the Democrats who needed one, thanks to Kennedy/Johnson/Civil Rights Act.

[ErikJ]

2. I wonder if CNN's "Road to the Whitehouse" series is going to talk about this. LOL

Or Reagans Iraqn-Contra afffair to beat Carter..

[catnhatnh]

3. I've read elsewhere

that Nixon was afraid the DNC had evidence of his actions and this may have been the impetus for Watergate.

[book_worm]

4. I've read that, too.