1968 - LBJ had evidence of Nixon treason

rhadamanthus · Mar 21, 2013

After the Watergate scandal taught Richard Nixon the consequences of recording White House conversations, none of his successors has dared to do it. But Nixon wasn't the first. He got the idea from his predecessor Lyndon Johnson, who felt there was an obligation to allow historians to eventually eavesdrop on his presidency. Now David Taylor reports on BBC that the latest set of declassified tapes of President Lyndon Johnson's telephone calls show that by the time of the Presidential election in November 1968, LBJ had evidence that Nixon had sabotaged the Vietnam war peace talks — or, as he put it, that Nixon was guilty of treason and had 'blood on his hands'. It begins in the summer of 1968. Nixon feared a breakthrough at the Paris Peace talks designed to find a negotiated settlement to the Vietnam war that he knew would derail his campaign. Nixon therefore set up a clandestine back-channel to the South Vietnamese involving Anna Chennault, a senior campaign adviser. In late October 1968 there were major concessions from Hanoi which promised to allow meaningful talks to get underway in Paris. This was exactly what Nixon feared. Chennault was dispatched to the South Vietnamese embassy with a clear message: the South Vietnamese government should withdraw from the talks, refuse to deal with Johnson, and if Nixon was elected, they would get a much better deal. Meanwhile the FBI had bugged the ambassador's phone and transcripts of Chennault's calls were sent to the White House. Johnson was told by Defense Secretary Clark Clifford that the interference was illegal and threatened the chance for peace. The president gave Humphrey enough information to sink his opponent but by then, a few days from the election, Humphrey had been told he had closed the gap with Nixon and would win the presidency so Humphrey decided it would be too disruptive to the country to accuse the Republicans of treason, if the Democrats were going to win anyway. In the end Nixon won by less than 1% of the popular vote, escalated the war into Laos and Cambodia with the loss of an additional 22,000 American lives, and finally settled for a peace agreement in 1973 that was within grasp in 1968.
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Much more at the link.

bobrek · Mar 21, 2013

http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=235561

glynch · Mar 22, 2013

Sadly Obama, like Nixon, also plays electoral politics with war-- in this case Afghanistan. He knows we have lost in trying to put our guys in over the Taliban and their allies and there is nothing to salvage, but he will not withdraw except subject to electoral considerations.

Obama and his type of Dems don't want to be blamed by the GOP for "losing" in Afghanistan. The GOP would love to use this to whip up the yahoos as they still do to this day with Vietnam. It continues the whole idea that the GOP, despite allegiance to corporate military profits and budget busting wars, is somehow stronger in defending the "Homeland"..

iconoclastic · Mar 22, 2013

I was wondering what LeBron James was doing in 1968.

Dairy Ashford · Mar 22, 2013

iconoclastic said: ↑

I was wondering what LeBron James was doing in 1968.
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Barf.

bucket · Mar 22, 2013

glynch said: ↑

Sadly Obama, like Nixon, also plays electoral politics with war-- in this case Afghanistan. He knows we have lost in trying to put our guys in over the Taliban and their allies and there is nothing to salvage, but he will not withdraw except subject to electoral considerations.

Obama and his type of Dems don't want to be blamed by the GOP for "losing" in Afghanistan. The GOP would love to use this to whip up the yahoos as they still do to this day with Vietnam. It continues the whole idea that the GOP, despite allegiance to corporate military profits and budget busting wars, is somehow stronger in defending the "Homeland"..
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Not remotely the same thing. If true, this wasn't Nixon "playing electoral politics with war"--every President who was ever at war has done that. This was Nixon, the candidate, illegally derailing the policy objectives of the US government.

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1968 - LBJ had evidence of Nixon treason

rhadamanthus Contributing Member

bobrek Politics belong in the D & D

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