MSNBC documentary spotlight's 'Dragon Lady' Anna Chennault' & Nixon's 'Betrayal'

WHITE HOUSE FILE

Anna Chennault hobnobbed with the rich and powerful.

IF NOT FOR an Asian American businesswoman, dubbed by some as the Steel Butterfly or the Dragon Lady, Richard Nixon would never have become president -- and hundreds of thousands of lives, including the lives of 20,000 American soldiers -- would have been spared.

The role of Anna Chennault, widow of a WWII hero, in Nixon's 1968 campaign has almost been forgotten, thanks to President Lyndon Johnson's deep patriotism of putting country over partisanship, according to a recent television special Betrayal: The Plot That Won the White House, hosted by MSNBC's Rachel Maddow.

Maddow painted Chennault as a behind the scenes political wheeler-dealer and noted Washington socialite, who used her sex appeal and government connections to become the key figure in scuttling the peace talks between North and South Vietnam, thus continuing the Vietnam War for another six years.

Chennault, also known as Chen Xiangmei who came from a wealthy Chinese family, in 1947 married American war hero Gen. Claire Chennault, the dynamic and charismatic leader of the Flying Tigers, famous for its raids against the Japanese in Southeast Asia and China wuring WWII.

After the death of Gen. Chennault, she settled in Washington, D.C., where she became prominent among elite social circles, hosting lavish parties in her Watergate penthouse attended by “cabinet members, congressmen, diplomats, foreign dignitaries and journalists.” She was named vice president of the Flying Tigers, an air cargo company rumored to have dies with the CIA.

Long-time readers of Views From the Edge, have known about Chennault's infamous role from a two-part posting way back in 2014: Part 1: Nixon was worst that I thought and Part 2: Nixon - The Traitor.

Nixon knew that if Johnson was able to broker peace, the Democrat nominee Hubert Humphrey would win the election. After losing the Presidency twice in 1960 and 1964, Nixon was determined to win this time and he would do anything to win the White House.

That was when he decided to use his nuclear option: Anna Chennault. He asked Chennault's widow, who headed anan airline, to use her contacts in the South  Vietnam government. The message she delivered was, don't take part in the peae talks and when Nixon wins, he would give South Vietnam more favorable terms.

But it was not until this year, 50 years after Nixon's 1968 campaign, that Johnson's personal notes on his conversations with Nixon and his knowledge of Chennault's role  have become public. Johnson's handwritten notes have been locked away in President Johnson's Library. On the file was a note not to open for 50 years.

Hoping to fend off Nixon's interference in the peace process, Johnson talked to Sen. Everett Dirksen, who led the Republicans and described what Chennault had done under orders of Nixon. "It's treason," said Johnson.

Johnson knew of Nixon's and Chennault's role in sabotaging the peace talks and threatened Nixon that he would go to the press with his knowledge days before the election. 

On Meet The Press, Nixon denied the rumors of his interference -- an out-and-out lie.

Upon the advice of his close associates and his own belief that if he went public with the subterfuge, it would send the country into a downward spiral it might not be able to recover from. For the sake of the overall well-being of the country, Johnson chose to not reveal what he knew. A few days later, Nixon was elected president

A few years later in in the midst of Nixon's re-election campaign, the Nixon's win-at-any-cost outlook resulted in the Watergate scandal and ultimately, his resignation. The Presidency was toppled off its pedestal and ever since then, government has never regained the respect and trust of the people.

Betrayal: The Plot that Won the White House special is available online here.

EDITOR'S NOTE: U[dated Nov. 25 to clarify that Chennault was born in China.
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Anna Chennault: Key figure in Nixon's election dies

Anna Chennault, center, with former President Richard Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

IN SOME INNER CIRCLES in Washington D.C., Anna Chennault was known the Dragon Lady. She passed away last Friday but her daughter announced her death on Tuesday (April 4). She was 94.

Chennault was born Chen Xiangmei in Beijing on June 23, 1923, one of six daughters of P. Y. and Isabelle Liao Chen, members of a prosperous family of diplomats and scholars.

Chennault was one of the most visible private citizens in Washington: a vice president of the Flying Tiger Line, her husband’s postwar cargo operation; a writer of novels, poetry and nonfiction books; a Voice of America broadcaster; and the center of a social whirl at her Watergate penthouse that drew in cabinet members, congressmen, diplomats, foreign dignitaries and journalists, according to the BBC.

But it is her secret role that had the most impact on U.S. policy. She was an advocate for the Chinese Nationalists and South Vietnam, and a staunch anti-communist.

RELATED: Nixon, the traitor

She was known to have been a conduit for Nationalist Chinese funds for the Republican Party, and to have been a secret go-between for American officials and Asian leaders like Chiang Kai-shek, the Nationalist Chinese generalissimo, and President Nguyen Van Thieu of South Vietnam.

In the days before the 1968 presidential elections, it looked like the South Vietnam was willing to accept peace negotiations that would end the Vietnam War. If a peace treaty in Paris was signed, it would give a decided advantage to Democratic candidate Vice President Hubert Humphrey.

Chennault, acting as a behind-the-scenes liaison for Nixon’s campaign and the Saigon government, was recorded by FBI wiretaps urging South Vietnamese officials to boycott the Paris peace talks, saying they would get a better deal from a Nixon administration if they waited until after the election.

That same day, Nov. 2, South Vietnam's President Thieu announced that his government would not join the Paris talks. Three days later, Nixon was elected and the war was prolonged for two more years at the cost of thousands of Vietnamese and American lives.

Ironically, Chennault died in her apartment in the Watergate Apartment complex, the same locale that became synonymous for the "dirty tricks" that led to the resignation of Nixon.

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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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