Republican Who Sacrificed Thousands of US Soldiers to Win an Election

A President’s Greatest Betrayal Kept in the Shadows for Decades

Few betrayals in American history rival the sheer scale and consequence of the actions taken during the 1968 presidential election.

It is a story of political ambition that sacrificed thousands of lives, a secret so shocking that it would remain hidden for years.

This is not just a tale of backroom deals and shady politics—it is a stark reminder of how far some leaders are willing to go in their pursuit of power.

At the center of this betrayal is Richard Nixon, a man whose name is often synonymous with the Watergate scandal.

But what many don’t know is that years before Watergate, Nixon was involved in an act of treason so profound that it altered the course of history, prolonged a devastating war, and left a legacy of lives lost for political gain.

The Paris Peace Talks and Nixon's Greatest Act of Treason

The final batch of Johnson tapes released by the Johnson Library in 2013 covered 1968 and detailed Richard Nixon's greatest act of treason - he knowingly sacrificed the lives of thousands of U.S. soldiers to defeat his Democratic opponent, Vice-President Hubert Humphreys.

The Smithsonian reported that the 1968 Paris Peace Talks, intended to “end the 13-year-long Vietnam war,” stalled and ultimately failed because an aide who worked for Nixon

convinced the South Vietnamese to walk away from the dealings [...] By the late 1960s Americans had been involved in the Vietnam War for nearly a decade, and the ongoing conflict was an incredibly contentious issue.

How Nixon Sabotaged the Peace Talks to Win the 1968 Election

Nixon was campaigning for president in '68 on a platform that opposed the war and needed the war to continue.

BBC reported that:

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. [...]

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.

Public Promises vs. Private Sabotage

The History News Network (HNN) reported that Nixon promised not to meddle in the ongoing peace talks. He told attendees of the Republican National Convention,

We all hope in this room that there’s a chance that current negotiations may bring an honorable end to that war […], and we will say nothing during this campaign that might destroy that chance.

However, media outlets reported that Johnson's negotiating breakthrough before election day would clearly help Humphrey’s campaign.

Evidence of Nixon's Interference

A week before the election, Johnson got a tip from Alexander Sachs that Nixon was trying to sabotage the negotiations.

Johnson considered Sachs a credible source because of his remarkable track record.

Sachs had previously predicted the Great Depression, Hitler's rise to power, and the imminent threat of Nazi Germany building a nuclear bomb—a revelation to President Franklin Roosevelt in 1939 that led to the Manhattan Project.

HNN reported that Johnson “took a closer look” at intercepted cables collected by the National Security Agency (NSA) between then-South Vietnamese Ambassador Bui Diem from his Washington, DC office and officials in Saigon.

Likewise, Johnson reviewed information the Central Intelligence Agency collected using bugs planted in the office of then-South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu.

“[I am] still in contact with the Nixon entourage, which continues to be the favorite despite the uncertainty provoked by the news of an imminent bombing halt,” Ambassador Diem cabled President Thieu on Oct. 28, 1968.

FBI Surveillance and the Role of Anna Chennault

Johnson subsequently directed the FBI to place a wiretap on the embassy’s phone and tail one of “our partisan friends,” Anna Chennault, the Republican Party’s top female fundraiser.

The Smithsonian confirmed the Johnson tapes from 1968 "detailed that the FBI had indeed 'bugged' the telephones of the South Vietnamese ambassador and Chennault.”

The BBC reported that those transcripts revealed that

[I]n the time leading up to the Paris Peace talks, 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 [were] elected, they would get a much better deal.

HNN then reported that the FBI sent the White House a wiretap report three days before the election, noting that:

Mrs. Anna Chennault contacted Vietnamese Ambassador Bui Diem and advised him that she had received a message from her boss [not further identified] which her boss wanted her to give personally to the ambassador.

She said the message was that the ambassador is to ‘hold on, we are gonna win’ and that her boss also said, ‘Hold on, he understands all of it.’

Nixon's Treachery and Johnson's Dilemma

That day, President Thieu had announced that the South would not send a delegation to Paris, rendering any war settlement impossible for the time being and stalling Humphrey’s surge in the polls.

The Atlantic Wire reported, “We can hear Johnson being told about Nixon's interference by Defense Secretary Clark Clifford” in the tapes.

The FBI had bugged the South Vietnamese ambassador’s phone. They had Chennault lobbying the ambassador on tape. Johnson was justifiably furious -- he ordered Nixon's campaign be placed under FBI surveillance.

The Atlantic Wire noted that Johnson passed along a note advising Nixon that he knew about his treason and that he told Humphrey.

The Democratic campaign decided they were close enough in the polls not to release the information. They thought a treason accusation could potentially damage the country's security.

The Decision to Keep Nixon's Actions Secret

Johnson had concerns about keeping the information secret, but like Humphrey and the Democrats, he had greater concerns regarding security.

Johnson thought going public would reveal the NSA’s decision to intercept the South Vietnamese ambassador’s communications with Saigon and the FBI’s decision to bug his phone.

So, in the end, he didn’t disclose Nixon’s meddling with the peace negotiations.

Nixon's Presidency and Its Aftermath

Nixon went on to win the election by a narrow margin, and as the BBC reported:

Once in office, he escalated the war into Laos and Cambodia, with the loss of an additional 22,000 American lives - quite apart from the lives of the Laotians, Cambodians, and Vietnamese caught up in the new offensives - before finally settling for a peace agreement in 1973 that was within grasp in 1968.

Conclusion

The actions of Richard Nixon during the 1968 presidential election represent a dark chapter in American political history.

By interfering in the Paris Peace Talks and prolonging the Vietnam War, Nixon prioritized his political ambitions over the lives of thousands of American soldiers and countless others affected by the conflict.

This calculated betrayal not only highlights the lengths to which some leaders will go to secure power but also underscores the devastating consequences of placing politics above humanity.

As historians continue to uncover these details, Nixon’s legacy remains a stark reminder of the cost of unchecked ambition.

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