LBJ tapes on Nixon treason on Vietnam
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 Nixons campaign had contacted the South Vietnamese embassy in the United States to encourage Saigons recalcitrance. Johnson phoned long-time advisor Richard Russell to inform him of the news. The Georgia senator was gravely ill, however, and this October 31 excerpt showed him ill-suited to give advice.
President Johnson: Well, Ive got one this morning thats pretty rough for you.
We have found that our friend, the Republican nomineeour California friendhas been playing on the outskirts with our enemies and our friends, bothour allies and the others. Hes been doing it through rather subterranean sources here.
He has been saying to the allies that youre going to get sold out. Watch Yalta, and Potsdam, and two Berlins, and everything. And theyre [the Johnson administration] going to recognize the NLF. I [Nixon] dont have to do that. You better not give away your liberty just a few hours before I can preserve it for you.
One or two of his business friends divulged it first a couple of days ago, about the time he [Nixon] made the statement that he had rumors that the staff was selling out, but he did not include me in it.
[Break.]
President Johnson: The next thing that we got our teeth in was one of his associatesa fellow named [John] Mitchell, who is running his campaign, whos the real Sherman Adams [Eisenhowers chief of staff] of the operation, in effect said to a businessman that were going to handle this like we handled the Fortas matter, unquote. Were going to frustrate the President by saying to the South Vietnamese, and the Koreans, and the Thailanders [sic], Beware of Johnson.
At the same time, were going to say to Hanoi, I [Nixon] can make a better deal than he [Johnson] has, because Im fresh and new, and I dont have to demand as much as he does in the light of past positions.
Now, when we got that (pure by accident, as a result of some of our Wall Street connections), that caused me to look a little deeper.
President Johnson: Mrs. [Anna] Chennault is contacting their [South Vietnamese] ambassador from time to timeseems to be kind of the go-between, the Chiang Kai-Shek deal. In addition, their ambassador is saying to em that Johnson is desperate and is just moving heaven and earth to elect Humphrey, so dont you get sucked in on that. (He is kind of these folks agent here, this little South Vietnamese ambassador.) - See more at: http://hnn.us/article/60446#sthash.FrPw74BL.dpuf