Did Nixon sabotage peace in 1968? LBJ thought so

[WI_DEM]

Independently of Humphrey’s efforts, the President authorized a bombing pause in early October—persuading the North Vietnamese to concede that South Vietnam could have independent representation at the Paris peace talks. On October 29, Cyrus Vance reported back to Washington that a settlement appeared imminent; Secretary of State Dean Rusk and Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford urged the President to seize the opportunity.


In Saigon, however, the Thieu regime informed U.S. diplomats that it would not send a delegation to Paris. As it did so, the President learned that representatives of Nixon’s campaign had contacted the South Vietnamese embassy in the United States to encourage Saigon’s recalcitrance. Johnson phoned long-time advisor Richard Russell to inform him of the news:

President Johnson: Well, I’ve got one this morning that’s pretty rough for you.


We have found that our friend, the Republican nominee—our California friend—has been playing on the outskirts with our enemies and our friends, both—our allies and the others. He’s been doing it through rather subterranean sources here.


He has been saying to the allies that “you’re going to get sold out. Watch Yalta, and Potsdam, and two Berlins, and everything. And they’re going to recognize the NLF. I don’t have to do that. You better not give away your liberty just a few hours before I can preserve it for you.

Two days later, armed with more information about Nixon’s actions, Johnson telephoned the Senate minority leader, Illinois Republican Everett Dirksen. In this remarkable call, the President accused the Nixon operatives of “treason” (Dirksen agreed), and threatened to go public with his information unless the GOP representatives ceased contact with the South Vietnamese:

President Johnson: Both Thieu and Ky stressed on us the importance of a minimum delay . Then we got some of our friends involved, some of it your old China crowd.


Here’s the latest information we’ve got: the agent says that they’ve just talked to the boss in New Mexico, and that he says that you must hold out, that . . . Just hold on until after the election.


Now, we know what Thieu is saying to ‘em out there. We’re pretty well informed on both ends.





President Johnson: Now, I’m reading their hand, Everett. I don’t want to get this in the campaign.


Dirksen: That’s right.


President Johnson: And they oughtn’t to be doing this. This is treason.


Dirksen: I know.

http://hnn.us/articles/60446.html

[joeybee12]

1. So, when Reagan interfered witht he Iran hostage negotiations he was

apparently only carrying on a proud GOP tradition.

[bluestateguy]

2. LBJ bugged Nixon's campaign airplane

which was illegal, so he couldn't call out Nixon.

[Warpy]

3. He was on his way out of office

and for the good of the country, he should have admitted it and played the tape.

Our subsequent history would have been very different, IMO, if Nixon had been exposed as the traitor he undoubtedly was in this case.

The lesson for everyone is to beware of any Republican with a secret plan to do anything, because it generally results in either no plan at all or a firm plan to do the opposite.

[WI_DEM]

5. I suppose too, he could have said that he had heard rumors that Nixon was selling out the country

and for national security reasons bugged his plane to find out if it were the truth??

[bluestateguy]

6. Well perhaps

But that opens up quite a Pandora'a box. Keep in mind how Bush and Cheney (and Obama too) say that we need to bug people's phones in the interest of national security too.

[David Zephyr]

4. Yes, he did. And Henry Kissinger delivered the sabotage and got to be Secretary of State for it.

It's history.

[villager]

7. The country has been destroyed by the Dems never holding the GOP accountable

...for the things they actually do.

[gratuitous]

8. None dare call it treason

"Treason doth never prosper: what's the reason? Why if it prosper, none dare call it treason." Since Nixon won the election, it couldn't have been treason. Thanks a lot, LBJ.

Can we judge Nixon's career based on this, or do we have to consider the totality of his life, specifically the number of puppies Nixon never kicked? Sorry Mr. Clinton; Richard Nixon was and always will be the nadir of American politics, spawned from the sewage spill of McCarthyism, that begat generations of political sludge including Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, Caspar Weinberger, Eliot Abrams, two George Bushes, John Yoo, Condoleezza Rice, and others too numerous to list.