Richard Nixon's 'treason'

[Don]

The Lyndon Johnson tapes

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21768668

Declassified tapes of President Lyndon Johnson's telephone calls provide a fresh insight into his world. Among the revelations - he planned a dramatic entry into the 1968 Democratic Convention to re-join the presidential race. And he caught Richard Nixon sabotaging the Vietnam peace talks... but said nothing.

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.

"They will provide history with the bark off," Johnson told his wife, Lady Bird.

The final batch of tapes released by the LBJ library covers 1968, and allows us to hear Johnson's private conversations as his Democratic Party tore itself apart over the question of Vietnam.

The 1968 convention, held in Chicago, was a complete shambles.

Tens of thousands of anti-war protesters clashed with Mayor Richard Daley's police, determined to force the party to reject Johnson's Vietnam war strategy.

As they taunted the police with cries of "The whole world is watching!" one man in particular was watching very closely.

Lyndon Baines Johnson was at his ranch in Texas, having announced five months earlier that he wouldn't seek a second term.

The president was appalled at the violence and although many of his staff sided with the students, and told the president the police were responsible for "disgusting abuse of police power," Johnson picked up the phone, ordered the dictabelt machine to start recording and congratulated Mayor Daley for his handling of the protest.

The president feared the convention delegates were about to reject his war policy and his chosen successor, Hubert Humphrey.

So he placed a series of calls to his staff at the convention to outline an astonishing plan. He planned to leave Texas and fly into Chicago.


He would then enter the convention and announce he was putting his name forward as a candidate for a second term.

It would have transformed the 1968 election. His advisers were sworn to secrecy and even Lady Bird did not know what her husband was considering.

On the White House tapes we learn that Johnson wanted to know from Daley how many delegates would support his candidacy. LBJ only wanted to get back into the race if Daley could guarantee the party would fall in line behind him.

They also discussed whether the president's helicopter, Marine One, could land on top of the Hilton Hotel to avoid the anti-war protesters.

Daley assured him enough delegates would support his nomination but the plan was shelved after the Secret Service warned the president they could not guarantee his safety.

The idea that Johnson might have been the candidate, and not Hubert Humphrey, is just one of the many secrets contained on the White House tapes.


They also shed light on a scandal that, if it had been known at the time, would have sunk the candidacy of Republican presidential nominee, Richard Nixon.

By the time of the election in November 1968, LBJ had evidence 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".

The BBC's former Washington correspondent Charles Wheeler learned of this in 1994 and conducted a series of interviews with key Johnson staff, such as defence secretary Clark Clifford, and national security adviser Walt Rostow.

But by the time the tapes were declassified in 2008 all the main protagonists had died, including Wheeler.

Now, for the first time, the whole story can be told.

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, and he knew this would derail his campaign.

He therefore set up a clandestine back-channel involving Anna Chennault, a senior campaign adviser.

At a July meeting in Nixon's New York apartment, the South Vietnamese ambassador was told Chennault represented Nixon and spoke for the campaign. If any message needed to be passed to the South Vietnamese president, Nguyen Van Thieu, it would come via Chennault.

In late October 1968 there were major concessions from Hanoi which promised to allow meaningful talks to get underway in Paris - concessions that would justify Johnson calling for a complete bombing halt of North Vietnam. This was exactly what Nixon feared.

Chennault was despatched 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.

So on the eve of his planned announcement of a halt to the bombing, Johnson learned the South Vietnamese were pulling out.

He was also told why. The FBI had bugged the ambassador's phone and a transcripts of Anna Chennault's calls were sent to the White House. In one conversation she tells the ambassador to "just hang on through election".

Johnson was told by Defence Secretary Clifford that the interference was illegal and threatened the chance for peace.

In a series of remarkable White House recordings we can hear Johnson's reaction to the news.

In one call to Senator Richard Russell he says: "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, he has been doing it through rather subterranean sources. Mrs Chennault is warning the South Vietnamese not to get pulled into this Johnson move."

He orders the Nixon campaign to be placed under FBI surveillance and demands to know if Nixon is personally involved.

When he became convinced it was being orchestrated by the Republican candidate, the president called Senator Everett Dirksen, the Republican leader in the Senate to get a message to Nixon.

The president knew what was going on, Nixon should back off and the subterfuge amounted to treason.


Publicly Nixon was suggesting he had no idea why the South Vietnamese withdrew from the talks. He even offered to travel to Saigon to get them back to the negotiating table.

Johnson felt it was the ultimate expression of political hypocrisy but in calls recorded with Clifford they express the fear that going public would require revealing the FBI were bugging the ambassador's phone and the National Security Agency (NSA) was intercepting his communications with Saigon.

So they decided to say nothing.

The president did let Humphrey know and gave him 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.

Nixon ended his campaign by suggesting the administration war policy was in shambles. They couldn't even get the South Vietnamese to the negotiating table.

He won by less than 1% of the popular vote.

Once in office he escalated the war into Laos and Cambodia, with the loss of an additional 22,000 American lives, before finally settling for a peace agreement in 1973 that was within grasp in 1968.

The White House tapes, combined with Wheeler's interviews with key White House personnel, provide an unprecedented insight into how Johnson handled a series of crises that rocked his presidency. Sadly, we will never have that sort of insight again.

[steveo777]

Reads like architecture for a movie..........

[slucero]

Once in office he escalated the war into Laos and Cambodia, with the loss of an additional 22,000 American lives, before finally settling for a peace agreement in 1973 that was within grasp in 1968.

Not one of these fucktards or their handlers saw the decency in getting the truth to the public or Congress because winning an election was more important than the lives of 22,000 soldiers

This is why Nixon is burning in hell, and LBJ and Humphrey should be right there with him.

And why most Americans despise Washington.

[steveo777]

Once in office he escalated the war into Laos and Cambodia, with the loss of an additional 22,000 American lives, before finally settling for a peace agreement in 1973 that was within grasp in 1968.

and this is why Nixon is burning in hell, and LBJ and Humphrey should be right there with him.

Kind of like we'll be saying about Clinton, Bush & Obama in 30 years? We haven't had a good president since Ronald Reagan.
Clinton didn't build that, more about just being poised to harvest the seeds that were planted by his predecessors.

[slucero]

Once in office he escalated the war into Laos and Cambodia, with the loss of an additional 22,000 American lives, before finally settling for a peace agreement in 1973 that was within grasp in 1968.

and this is why Nixon is burning in hell, and LBJ and Humphrey should be right there with him.

Kind of like we'll be saying about Clinton, Bush & Obama in 30 years? .

yup.

[The Sushi Hunter]

Tricky Dick lives on.

[Boomchild]

Not one of these fucktards or their handlers saw the decency in getting the truth to the public or Congress because winning an election was more important than the lives of 22,000 soldiers

It is things like this that will cause America to fall and it is just around the corner. Sadly few are willing to wake up and smell the coffee.

[The_Noble_Cause]

Old news. Only a matter of time until Reagan's treachery with the Carter hostage situation comes to light. Much like Nixon's treachery, even when it's confirmed, nobody (including the "liberal media") will give a shit.

[The Sushi Hunter]

Old news. Only a matter of time until Reagan's treachery with the Carter hostage situation comes to light. Much like Nixon's treachery, even when it's confirmed, nobody (including the "liberal media") will give a shit.

I seriously doubt there was any "treachery" involved in the Iran hostage release. The situation was getting old and the hostage takers just wanted to stop playing the game, tired of living at the "Zoo" and cleaning out the "cage", as far as I am concerned, I was just a little kid then so I didn't know too much about the motive behind the hostage situation or what the demands were.

[Arkansas]

Recently watched the film, Frost/Nixon. I loved it.


later~

[The_Noble_Cause]

Old news. Only a matter of time until Reagan's treachery with the Carter hostage situation comes to light. Much like Nixon's treachery, even when it's confirmed, nobody (including the "liberal media") will give a shit.

I seriously doubt there was any "treachery" involved in the Iran hostage release. The situation was getting old and the hostage takers just wanted to stop playing the game, tired of living at the "Zoo" and cleaning out the "cage", as far as I am concerned, I was just a little kid then so I didn't know too much about the motive behind the hostage situation or what the demands were.

Believe what you want. When it comes to presidential conspiracies, where there's smoke there's usually fire.

[The Sushi Hunter]

Old news. Only a matter of time until Reagan's treachery with the Carter hostage situation comes to light. Much like Nixon's treachery, even when it's confirmed, nobody (including the "liberal media") will give a shit.

I seriously doubt there was any "treachery" involved in the Iran hostage release. The situation was getting old and the hostage takers just wanted to stop playing the game, tired of living at the "Zoo" and cleaning out the "cage", as far as I am concerned, I was just a little kid then so I didn't know too much about the motive behind the hostage situation or what the demands were.

Believe what you want. When it comes to presidential conspiracies, where there's smoke there's usually fire.

So where's the smoke from the Iran hostage release of '81?

[Boomchild]

Old news. Only a matter of time until Reagan's treachery with the Carter hostage situation comes to light. Much like Nixon's treachery, even when it's confirmed, nobody (including the "liberal media") will give a shit.

I seriously doubt there was any "treachery" involved in the Iran hostage release. The situation was getting old and the hostage takers just wanted to stop playing the game, tired of living at the "Zoo" and cleaning out the "cage", as far as I am concerned, I was just a little kid then so I didn't know too much about the motive behind the hostage situation or what the demands were.

Believe what you want. When it comes to presidential conspiracies, where there's smoke there's usually fire.

So where's the smoke from the Iran hostage release of '81?

People will say there is "treachery" because it was a Republican in office who defeated a Democrat. The reality is conspiracies are part of the position. Doesn't matter who or which party is in charge.

[The_Noble_Cause]

So where's the smoke from the Iran hostage release of '81?

Go do your homework. Not my job. The BBC didn't break the story about Nixon sabotaging peace talks. This stuff is all out there.

[The Sushi Hunter]

So where's the smoke from the Iran hostage release of '81?

Go do your homework. Not my job. The BBC didn't break the story about Nixon sabotaging peace talks. This stuff is all out there.

Do My homework? It's not my job to back your claim up. The hostages were released within "hours" of Reagan taking office. Did he really have time to work a deal out with Iran that fast? Iran released the hostages cause they had bigger things moved into the fire, like for example the war efforts against Iraq. Do your homework to back your claim.

[The_Noble_Cause]

Do My homework? It's not my job to back your claim up.

It's not my job to enlighten you, either. Give it a few more years. When a "trusted" news source, like the BBC, carries the story, maybe then you will be informed.

The hostages were released within "hours" of Reagan taking office. Did he really have time to work a deal out with Iran that fast? Iran released the hostages cause they had bigger things moved into the fire, like for example the war efforts against Iraq. Do your homework to back your claim.

Oh..so important government figures (like then ex-Governor Reagan and ex-CIA director, Bush Sr) need to first be elected president before cutting deals, eh? is that how it works? Did you even read the article that this entire post revolves around, you stupid fuck? Nixon was engaged in back-channel talks BEFORE he got elected. Idiot!

[The Sushi Hunter]

Two words: "Political Paranoia"

[The_Noble_Cause]

Two words: "Political Paranoia"

Thirty eight words: Nixon was most certainly paranoid. Americans who distrust government officials are not. As the BBC article proves, Nixon came close to selling out his country to get ahead. That "conspiracy theory" was circling the public domain for ages.

[The Sushi Hunter]

Two words: "Political Paranoia"

Thirty eight words: Nixon was most certainly paranoid. Americans who distrust government officials are not. As the BBC article proves, Nixon came close to selling out his country to get ahead. That "conspiracy theory" was circling the public domain for ages.

So what do you make of the American President opening up the borders of America, allowing illigals to be here legally, all the while America is becoming more and more broke dick, no jobs, laying off police, letting criminals out of prison because there isn't enough money to keep them off the street? Don't you think it makes more sense to fix this fucked up country first before doing all this other stuff?

What's your conspiracy theory on that?

[The_Noble_Cause]

So what do you make of the American President opening up the borders of America, allowing illigals to be here legally, all the while America is becoming more and more broke dick, no jobs, laying off police, letting criminals out of prison because there isn't enough money to keep them off the street? Don't you think it makes more sense to fix this fucked up country first before doing all this other stuff?

What's your conspiracy theory on that?

You're changing the topic. We already have a "President Obama Sucks" thread. Say, what exactly is a "broke dick"? Is that what's permanently snapped off and stuffed up your dumb yellow ass?

[The Sushi Hunter]

Broke dick, tits up, all the same.

As for the "yellow ass" comment, well yeah, I am what I eat, though I never understood why they call Japanese women yellow. They don't look yellow to me anyways.

[slucero]

Two words: "Political Paranoia"

Thirty eight words: Nixon was most certainly paranoid. Americans who distrust government officials are not. As the BBC article proves, Nixon came close to selling out his country to get ahead. That "conspiracy theory" was circling the public domain for ages.

So what do you make of the American President opening up the borders of America, allowing illigals to be here legally, all the while America is becoming more and more broke dick, no jobs, laying off police, letting criminals out of prison because there isn't enough money to keep them off the street? Don't you think it makes more sense to fix this fucked up country first before doing all this other stuff?

What's your conspiracy theory on that?

The borders have been "open".. for a lot longer than Obama has been POTUS... blaming Obama for open borders is like blaming him for the sky being blue..

If I recall.. there's been something like 7 immigration reform acts since the 60's.... funny how Congress can't seem to get it "right"... maybe its because they don't want to.. and it's really just a political football they trot out every once in awhile to rally their respective bases..

[conversationpc]

So what do you make of the American President opening up the borders of America, allowing illigals to be here legally, all the while America is becoming more and more broke dick, no jobs, laying off police, letting criminals out of prison because there isn't enough money to keep them off the street? Don't you think it makes more sense to fix this fucked up country first before doing all this other stuff?

What's your conspiracy theory on that?

You're changing the topic. We already have a "President Obama Sucks" thread. Say, what exactly is a "broke dick"? Is that what's permanently snapped off and stuffed up your dumb yellow ass?

Boy, I don't want to hear any crap from libs on this board in regards to racially charged rhetoric.