Part 2: Nixon - The Traitor

 Anti-war demonstrators march to Golden Gate Park from  San Francisco's City Hall in 1967. 

PART TWO

THAT IS a pretty harsh headline: "Nixon - The Traitor."

For years, it was rumored that Nixon was behind the failure of President Johnson to negotiate a peace treaty with North Vietnam in 1968. The audiotapes of President Lyndon Johnson White House conversations revealed that Johnson accused Richard Nixon’s 1968 campaign of treason for undermining the peace negotiations to end the war in Vietnam.

It wasn’t until earlier this summer that those rumors were confirmed by conservative columnist George Will.

If you're not a policy wonk, most likely you haven't heard of this sordid episode of American history. It's a story of greed, blind ambition, a coverup and winning at all costs. It may also be the beginning of the America's downfall.

In 1968, America was stuck in an Asian land war in which we had no business being in. It was the result of the Cold War wherein the U.S. saw a communist under every rock and would do anything to stop the spread of communism, which Americans thought was our country's greatest threat.

That fear meant that we would support fascist dictators who oppressed their people, fostered rampant corruption for personal gain as long as the despots declared that they opposed communism.

While a lot has been written about the banana republics of central and South America, the same dynamic was happening in Asia.

For fear of the communist Huks, the U.S. supported Ferdinand Marcos for decades, even if it mean that "democracy's showcase in Asia" was really a showcase for strongman politics and how wrong American policy had become.

A similar policy had already taken root in Vietnam. A series of ineffective rulers supported first by the colonial French and then by the anti-communist Americans, made Vietnam a perfect breeding ground for the type of dictatorship that America supported throughout the world. "He may be a dictator, but he's OUR dictator," was the ruling mantra among America's military and political strategists.

Mired in Vietnam for just over a decade, it became evident that a clear-cut military victory would be too costly, if not impossible. It was a virtual stalemate.

By 1968, fearing the divisions that wracked America over our involvement in Vietnam would grow even more deeper, President Johnson announced that he would not seek reelection. He also began serious negotiations to broker a peace between South and North Vietnam, led by the brilliant Ho Chi Minh. (By the way, Ho Chi Minh initially sought America's help and even pattered his constitution after the American constitution. For some reason, America chose his counterpart in South Vietnam over the popular leader of the north.)

With Johnson not running, Vice President Hubert Humphrey took up the Democrat's banner to run against the Republican candidate, Richard Nixon, who was President Eisenhower's vice president and lost to President Kennedy in 1960. The contest was a close one with Nixon holding on to a narrow lead in the polls.

In the fall of 1968, peace negotiations were making progress. As an act of good faith, Johnson stopped the bombing of North Vietnam in October. Peace - it seemed - was right around the corner. If peace was brokered before the November election, it could tilt the election towards the Democrat, Hubert Humphrey. Humphrey, as one of his campaign promises, announced in October that if he was elected president, he would stop the bombing, which won him the support of growing and influential peace movement. The polls signaled a virtual toss-up. 

Catching wind of the pending peace treaty, Nixon’s campaign team sent Anna Chennault, a Chinese-American in Nixon’s inner circle, to South Vietnam with a message from “her boss.” She told the South Vietnamese President Nguyen van Thieu to hold out because Nixon – when he was elected president – promised a sweeter deal.

South Vietnam pulled out of the negotiations and the treaty went unsigned. Humphrey never got the bump he would have received from a peace treaty. Nixon squeaked by Humphrey and was elected President. In 1973, under Nixon a peace treaty was finally brokered. 

To say Johnson was "pissed" would be an understatement. Intelligence agencies' surveillance had revealed the plan to undermine the peace talks. Johnson called Senate leader Everett Dirkson to see if he could intervene. "This is treason," said Johnson. "I know," said Dirkson.

Under the 1797 Logan Act, no private citizen can interfere with negotiations with a foreign country. It is difficult to think that Chennault did anything – especially something as significant as sabotaging the peace talks -- without Nixon’s knowledge. He saw the memo outlining Channault's trip to Vietnam and he had written on top of it, "Top Secret."

Not surprisingly, Nixon, called by Johnson, denied any knowledge of the betrayal. 

Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford advised in a conference call a day before the Nov. 5 election: “Some elements of the story are so shocking in their nature that I’m wondering whether it would be good for the country to disclose the story and then possibly have a certain individual [Nixon] elected. ... It could cast his whole administration under such doubt that I think it would be inimical to our country’s interests.”

The next day, Nixon won by the narrowest of margins: 100,000 votes. In January, 1973, Nixon eventually brokered a peace treaty with the same terms that Johnson had on the table in 1968.

Imagine if a peace treaty was signed in 1968. The war would have ended four years earlier, saving the lives of 22,000 American soldiers  and untold Vietnamese who died during those four additional years. 

Nixon might never have won the 1968 election, Watergate would never have happened, he never would have been reelected and a U.S. president never would have been impeached and forced to leave office in disgrace in 1974.

Because of Watergate, we Americans have lost our idealism and faith in our government; the trust and optimism we used to have has been replaced by cynicism and a distaste of anything, any idea, any proposal coming from government. The act of treason changed the course of our country's history. Our country has been on a downward spiral ever since.

Why does it matter now? Johnson and Nixon are both dead. What's done is done. 

The other rumor that may some day be proven to be true is that Ronald Reagan's campaign - staffed by people with the same win-at-any-cost values as Nixon's people - acted to delay the 1978 hostage negotiations with Iran to practically assure his victory over President Carter. 

History has a way of repeating itself if we don't learn from our mistakes. History needs to be rewritten, even if the truth is unflattering. People exist today who have the same twisted principles as Nixon, (and perhaps Reagan's staff). They would do anything to preserve their status and privileges under the guise of a faux patriotism, even if it means destroying our way of life. Win-at-any-cost is not a principle we live by. Its unAmerican. Its treason.

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