Playing with Fire: The 1968 Election and the Transformation of American Politics

by Lawrence O'Donnell

Diplomats had said President Thieu could get a South Vietnamese negotiating team to Paris right away. Johnson planned to go on TV the next night to announce the news to the American people. Talks could begin within three days. An end to the war in Vietnam was in sight. A few hours after he made his decision and scheduled the speech, Johnson received some disturbing news. The veteran Democratic foreign policy strategist Alexander Sachs had an unimpeachable source saying that Nixon’s campaign manager, John Mitchell, was trying to scuttle the peace talks. Johnson didn’t know John Mitchell. He didn’t know what to make of this. Then Dean Rusk called. President Thieu had just balked. The South Vietnamese president was suddenly saying that three days weren’t enough to get a delegation to Paris. Because Thieu had said earlier that one day would be plenty of time, Johnson sat up straight. The president looked again at the message from Alexander Sachs and what Sachs’s source said about John Mitchell. Things started making horrible sense. Johnson went into a frenzy of activity trying to keep the peace process on track, beginning with finding out what Nixon was up to. The CIA and the NSA had listening devices in the South Vietnamese embassy in Washington and in President Thieu’s office in Saigon. Johnson started reading those surveillance reports and quickly saw the outline of what the Nixon campaign was up to. Johnson knew Anna Chennault. It instantly made sense to him that Nixon wou...