What happened next—what transpired over the four months between that first meeting and election day, November 5, 1968—has been a source of fascination and mystery to historians for decades. The Chennault Affair has loomed as one of the great litmus tests in the history of Richard Nixon—in understanding his character and his methods, in measuring just how far he would go to attain power. Did Nixon, through Chennault, secretly conspire to persuade the South Vietnamese to thwart LBJ’s “October Surprise” that would halt the bombing and bring peace negotiations—and possibly hand the November
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