What Did Nixon Do and How Did He Do It?

Ever since I was in middle school in the late 1960s, I have closely followed American politics. I have always been an avid follower of Richard Nixon and his crimes, which we know now were vastly worse than we ever thought possible. They are not just bad, they are heinous because of all of the lives needlessly lost in Southeast Asia when the Vietnam War could have ended years before it did.

The best thing that ever happened for American history were those tapes, both Nixon's and LBJ's. In a way it's unfortunate no subsequent president has had a taping system in the White House. When you hear these tapes, it's like being a fly on the wall, being a witness to history. What has been released so far is just incredible.

A few of those infamous Chennaultgate tapes have also been uploaded on YouTube as well as at the LBJ Library. Here is the infamous "This is Treason" phone call by Johnson to Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen:



Of course Dirksen told Nixon about LBJ's concerns, and then Nixon talked to LBJ, lying his ass off like he didn't know about this, and oh, how terrible it was, and how he support LBJ's efforts to bring about peace in Southeast Asia, and other such things that made the Old Nixon the Nixon we who lived through the time loved to loathe so much. After all, there never was a "new Nixon"; even if he had been cloned, it would still be the Old Nixon no matter what.

Tricky Dick on the phone with LBJ. Of course LBJ KNEW Nixon was up to his shifty eyeballs in the scheme, but he played along with him:



Chennaultgate wasn't Watergate, but instead it complemented it while both insulted the law, the American people, and American history. This country has never recovered from the trauma resulting from both the Vietnam War and Watergate. What I say about both scandals is that Chennaultgate was Nixon's way to guarantee his election, while Watergate--especially the break-in and the "dirty tricks" operation knocking out the strongest Democratic candidates running for the Democratic presidential nomination against Nixon in 1972--ensured his re-election. Vietnam was the dark undercurrent beneath both scandals, as we now know.

Both were heinous, downright EVIL, because countless people died solely because of one person's political ambitions.

It's also clear if it wasn't before that Nixon was psychologically unfit to be president. Yes, he did do many good things as president that would be considered liberal today, but in the end it just doesn't matter at all. He had a dark side to him, an utterly vindictive streak, to lash out at others no matter what the cost. He demanded loyalty from people who were basically decent people to commit crimes on his behalf while Nixon pretended to be above the fray. He can never get out of the cellar of the worst U.S. presidents. With more and more of the tapes and classified documents being available to historians, Nixon is destined to return to the bottom of the presidential pantheon, even below Buchanan and Harding.

Yet another commentary about Chennaultgate, Watergate, and Ken Hughes's new book is here:

There was one last twist to the story, playing out the day before the election. The Christian Science Monitor’s Saigon correspondent Beverly Deepe filed a story based on her local sources describing the Republican gambit to prevent the peace talks. In Washington, the Monitor’s Saville Davis ran Deepe’s information past Bui Diem, who denied it, and then past the White House.

President Johnson considered confirming the story but consulted with several of his top advisers – national security adviser Walt Rostow, Secretary of State Dean Rusk and Defense Secretary Clark Clifford – who all urged him to stay silent. Clifford warned that if the story was published and Nixon still won, Nixon might be unable to lead the country. With the White House declining comment, the Monitor decided not to go with Deepe’s scoop.

Humphrey ended up losing the election by less than one point in the popular vote, leaving history to ponder the painful question of whether the disclosure of Nixon’s operation might have cost him the election and brought the war to an end years earlier saving countless lives.

Lots of "what ifs" there.

Nixon's Treason

I just started reading the new book about the so-called "Rosetta Stone" of what would be called Watergate titled Chasing Shadows. Based on the Johnson and Nixon White House tapes, it is well worth the read. While I don't entirely agree with the author that everything sleazy Nixon did as president was to cover up his treasonous act of sabotaging the 1968 Paris peace talks to ensure his election, there is little doubt Nixon was Machiavellian and would do anything to get elected and re-elected.

The Chennault scandal, like the rigging of the 1972 election via dirty tricks in order for Nixon to get an easy candidate to run against him in the fall elections (meaning Senator George McGovern), was a symptom, not the cause, of Nixon doing what he did. Nixon's overwhelming paranoia and hatred for his enemies were actually the causes of his lawbreaking.

Nixon's fatal character flaws made him unsuitable to be president despite being obviously intelligent and experienced in the political realm. His story is utterly tragic, not just for himself but for the country.

The Channault scandal is much worse than the somewhat similar "October Surprise" of 1980 because of the thousands of Americans and Vietnamese who died needlessly when the Vietnam War could have ended much, much earlier, and all because of somebody's presidential ambitions.

One summary of the Chennault scandal can be found from Robert Parry in this article from last month. An excerpt:

The documents – many based on FBI wiretaps – show that Johnson had strong evidence about Nixon’s peace-talk sabotage, particularly the activities of campaign official Anna Chennault who passed messages to South Vietnamese Ambassador Bui Diem in Washington urging the South Vietnamese leaders to maintain their boycott of the Paris peace talks.

On Nov. 2, the FBI intercepted a conversation in which Chennault told Bui Diem to convey “a message from her boss (not further identified),” according to an FBI cable. Chennault said “her boss wanted her to give [the message] personally to the ambassador. She said the message was that the ambassador is to ‘hold on, we are going to win’ and that her boss also said, ‘hold on, he understands all of it.’ She repeated that this is the only message … ‘he said please tell your boss to hold on.’”

That same day, Thieu recanted on his tentative agreement to meet with the Viet Cong in Paris, pushing the incipient peace talks toward failure.

Several years ago, the National Archives released tape recordings of Johnson’s phone calls further clarifying the depth of Johnson’s knowledge – and anger. On the night of Nov. 2, Johnson telephoned Senate Republican Leader Everett Dirksen of Illinois and urged him to intercede with Nixon.

It just boggles the damned mind.