The Chennault Affair and Beyond

So, this is the first timeline I've written in almost three years. It's mostly about LBJ and Humphrey deciding to make Nixon's sabotage of the Paris peace talks public.

1.​

“Do you solemnly swear that you will tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God?”
“I do.”
Nixon associate Anna Chennault being sworn before a Senate investigative committee, April of 1969


HUMPHREY: What will happen to them, Lyndon? If I do this?
JOHNSON: Forget them. Forget them. We have bigger things coming.
HUMPHREY: I still can’t believe…
[Johnson shifts and sighs on his end of the line]
JOHNSON: Dick was always a sneaky little son of a bitch, this isn’t out of his wheelhouse. You have to be ready for what’s coming, Hubert. Lots of people are gonna be asking how anyone knew Nixon was talking with the South Vietnamese.
HUMPHREY: I didn’t want it to come to this.
JOHNSON: It’ll have foreign repercussions. You’ll have to lean on Thieu. Force the bastard to respect you.
[Silence for a period of six seconds]
HUMPHREY: I understand.​
Transcript of a phone call between President Lyndon Johnson and Vice President Hubert Humphrey sometime in late October of 1968


Though often overshadowed by later events, the scandal that dominated the last week of the 1968 presidential contest cannot be understated in terms of political and social impact. From the moment that then Vice President Hubert Humphrey sounded the alarm on the Nixon campaign’s meddling in foreign affairs, the world became a very different place.
Excerpted from ‘Blood on His Hands: Richard Nixon and the Chennault Affair’ by Ron Chernow


RFK: Nixon ‘Responsible’ for Breakdown of Peace Talks
Senator becomes first elected official to echo Vice President’s accusations
The Washington Post, November 1, 1968


“The balls on Kennedy to say something like that. Like he himself hadn’t cheated Nixon out of Illinois back in 1960…”
Nixon associate Fred LaRue, quoted in ‘The Rise and Fall of Tricky Dick’ by Roger Stone


“What I remember most clearly from the days around when the…the allegations came out was a sense of profound disquiet from my father. We didn't spend much time on the campaign trail, my sister and I, but a day or two before the news broke he called us both out. I think he knew what was about to happen and wanted everyone close.”
Tricia Nixon, quoted in a CBS News interview, 1995


Nixon Denies Vietnam Meddling Allegations
Embattled Nominee Blames Democrats for ‘Smear Campaign’
The Wall Street Journal, November 1, 1968

“Speaking of ‘68…that election was the second biggest political clusterfuck I’ve ever seen in my life.” Hunter said. He bowed down to light a cigarette, face framed with bluish curls of smoke for a moment.

“What was the first?” I asked, all of my more pertinent questions fizzling as my brain slowly swam atop a lake of mescal.

“That thing with Evans and the Maniac. Y’know…”

“Right. Right…” I tried to shepherd the conversation in another direction. No fun to reminisce about that particular slice of the past.

“Gotta say, this was the funny kind of clusterfuck, like you could at least laugh at the absurdity. I was howling each time Nixon lost a close state and the cameras would show some Republican campaign headquarters full of people just looking shellshocked. The noise was endless.”

“Yeah.” I said.

“Yeah.” Hunter answered.

Then we were both silent.
An exchange with Hunter S. Thompson as described by an unnamed gonzo journalist, 1977


“What a great relief it was for everything to be over. All of this chaos boiled down and finally we got a very simple outcome. It was like the entire country before the election was a particle frantically flipping across every possible position it could take…then, on the morning of November 6th, we knew. We’d picked something at long last.”
Former NASA Deputy Director Carl Sagan recalling the 1968 elections


CHANCELLOR: It’s been a long night here, folks, the sun is nearly up, but after all this time we feel confident enough to call the election in favor of the Vice President. His performance in the South has been just strong enough to deliver him the crucial state of Texas. This, in concert with a surprisingly weak Nixon performance all across the Midwest appears to have ensured a narrow Democratic victory. Two hundred seventy electoral votes exactly for Vice President Humphrey, at least sixty four for Governor George Wallace, with North Carolina wavering on the edge…​
NBC Nightly News election coverage of the 1968 elections, presented by John Chancellor


“I recall encountered the President on the night of the election, just after everything had been settled. Everyone was cheering or screaming, absolutely crazy with relief, but he seemed perfectly collected. Humphrey had been President-elect for maybe fifteen seconds before Johnson took me aside and began laying out plans for investigations and just…just anything possible to sink Nixon and his entire campaign apparatus. He wanted to punish them for what they’d done. He wanted to hurt them all very, very badly.”
Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, quoted in an interview to Vanity Fair, 1994
 
upload_2018-8-4_11-21-8-png.400303


Rose - get her [find?] Louie Kung—
going on the SVN - tell him hold firm​

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/31/opinion/sunday/haldeman-notes.html
(from middle of second page)

Haldeman’s handwritten notes of instructions from Nixon, Oct. 22, 1968

---------------------------

Dead.
To.
Rights.​

=========

Nixon actually used two conduits: Anna Chennault, and businessman Louie Kung.

I like your idea in which LBJ advises Humphrey to use this to lean on South Vietnam President Thieu. The challenge in my mind will be to finesse this so that the north Vietnamese don’t expect too much of a sweetheart deal, but I think it can be pulled off.
 
Last edited:
How did RFK live ITTL?

Good start, BTW...
Thanks. My best assumption for RFK is that the assassination never happened and he lost to Humphrey at the convention. So now he's alive and well to take part in the upcoming Chennault investigations.

upload_2018-8-4_11-21-8-png.400303


Rose - get her [find?] Louie Kung—
going on the SVN - tell him hold firm​

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/31/opinion/sunday/haldeman-notes.html
(from middle of second page)

Haldeman’s handwritten notes of instructions from Nixon, Oct. 22, 1968

---------------------------

Dead.
To.
Rights.​

=========

Nixon actually used two conduits: Anna Chennault, and businessman Louie Kung.

I like your idea in which LBJ advises Humphrey to use this to lean on South Vietnam President Thieu. The challenge in my mind will be to finesse this so that the north Vietnamese don’t expect too much of a sweetheart deal, but I think it can be pulled off.

The investigators don't have Haldeman's notes (yet) but they do have some other things. The progress of the Chennault probe will be fairly slow at first, mostly glancing blows landed by both sides...but eventually the center will give and from there things will happen very, very fast.

As for foreign policy, I'm not focusing super heavily on this, but now that Hubert Humphrey is in the White House (and knows what Thieu just tried to do to him) I expect that American relations with South Vietnam might become a tad chilly.
 
2.​


“What I hate is that they all gave him so much flak for not conceding. Would you concede a stolen election?”
Nixon associate Fred LaRue, quoted in ‘The Rise and Fall of Tricky Dick’ by Roger Stone


“Lyndon Johnson has never been the sort of person to take a slight and do nothing about it. Dick should have known that, he should have figured that in trying to get one over LBJ and Humphrey he was inviting all sorts of terrible things in response. I mean, he worked with Goldwater in ‘64 for Christ’s sake, he should have known!”
A comment made to a Washington Post reporter in early 1970, allegedly by former White House Press Secretary George Christian


“In the end Richard Nixon never did officially concede the 1968 election, instead waiting on recounts in Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois and Alaska that would hopefully overturn the slim advantage that Humphrey held. Yet, though the states were all very close, none flipped against Humphrey. And though there were concerns that one or more electors would revolt and tip the election into the House of Representatives, nothing of the sort happened. It had to be on the minds of conservative activists that such an action would only delay a Humphrey victory, given the heavy Democratic bent of that body.

As of the third Wednesday in December it was official: Richard Nixon had lost the 1968 election.

After that, investigations into the Chennault Affair became inevitable.”
Excerpted from ‘Blood on His Hands: Richard Nixon and the Chennault Affair’ by Ron Chernow


“Republican presidential hopes weren’t the only things blunted when voters came to the polls on November 5th. Though the GOP made gains in the Senate, Minority Leader Dirksen would lament narrow losses in what he considered very winnable races in Ohio and Oregon. The Republican contingent in the Senate would remain a distinct minority, with Democrats holding sixty seats, plus the Vice Presidency.

House elections were similarly dissatisfying to the defeated Republicans, who only managed to pick up five seats, barely denting a two hundred forty seat Democratic majority. Despite the unorthodox nature of the election and the chaos surrounding it, the Democratic Party emerged from 1968 still firmly in control of the federal government.”
Excerpted from ‘American Elections from 1900-2000’ by Nathaniel Silver


“Nixon, though he was rattled by his loss in what he had assumed right up until the last moment was an already won election, pivoted swiftly away from electoral politics instead of remaining paralyzed.

This was still a political contest, but the stakes had just become much higher. If he was to survive this without going to prison then he would not only have to keep a leash on everyone involved in any potential illegalities…he would also need to control the public narrative.”
Excerpted from ‘Law and Order: Richard Nixon after 1968’ by Rick Perlstein


“The early assumptions made by Chennault investigators was that the entire scheme had been masterminded by two men in particular: John Mitchell and Richard Nixon.

Mitchell was a Fordham University educated lawyer who had known Nixon for six years by the time of the 1968 election. The two men had served as partners in the same law firm and worked well together. It was no surprise when Nixon recruited Mitchell to help with his second presidential run, placing the municipal bonds lawyer high within the ever growing structure of his emerging campaign.

Mitchell thrived in the rough and tumble world of politics and sometimes exceeded even Nixon himself in ruthlessness. It was soon decided that when Nixon won the presidency Mitchell would be named as his nominee for Attorney General.

But before that could happen they would need to win the election first.”
Excerpted from ‘Blood on His Hands: Richard Nixon and the Chennault Affair’ by Ron Chernow


Members of a Senate investigative committee will be as such:
  • Sam Ervin (D-NC) [Chair]
  • Robert C. Byrd (D-WV)
  • Philip Hart (D-MI)
  • Robert F. Kennedy (D-NY)
  • Hiram Fong (R-HI) [Ranking member]
  • Charles Mathias (R-MD)
  • Howard Baker (R-TN)
Internal Senate notice announcing the membership of the new Chennault Affair Committee, February of 1969


“Starting off, our position was deceptively tenuous. We had the tapes, Chennault’s voice on them, and this one very damning phrase directed towards the South Vietnamese ambassador:

'Hold on — we’re gonna win.'​

At the same time we had no concrete proof that Nixon or really anyone other than Chennault was directly involved. The way Chennault spoke implied that she was in contact with Richard Nixon or at least some high ranking member of his staff, but that was it as of February, when the committee was being convened.

What we did have, and this was plentiful, were lots and lots of little incidents that made the entire campaign apparatus look culpable. We had members of Nixon’s staff camped out in Saigon, we had Henry Kissinger making use of foreign policy contacts during the election in order to try and find out if peace talks or a bombing freeze were forthcoming…and of course we had the fact that the South Vietnamese government listened to Anna Chennault, which they definitely shouldn’t have done if she was actually an unconnected nobody like the Nixon camp insisted.

We knew that Nixon was going to try and muddy the waters…he was already doing that with the Chennault tapes, having associates come out and say that they were fake, made up by Johnson and Humphrey in order to steal the election. In the face of that all we could do was hit back by slowly releasing a drip feed of really tantalizing, sometimes exaggerated stuff about South Vietnam and the Nixon campaign.

It was unsustainable, really, since neither us or the Nixon camp really had anything in the way of a smoking gun just yet…so we had to hurry. Hurry before the whole thing came crashing down on top of us.”
Peter Edelman, legal aide to Senator Robert F. Kennedy, quoted in ‘Scandal of the Century’ by Newt Gingrich


“An often overlooked quirk of the committee model is that there is no built in obligation for witnesses to be sworn or to take an oath promising truthfulness. The final decision as to whether or not they should is in practice left up to the committee chair.

In the case of Chennault that chair was filled by Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina. A dyed in the wool Southern conservative, Ervin had been in the Senate for a decade and a half by the time of the 1968 elections. During this time he had proven to be an intractable opponent of Civil Rights legislation, though ostentatiously for constitutional reasons as opposed to any real expression of racial bigotry.

This strict constitutionalism had also given him an abiding suspicion of federal power and he took the committee chair only reluctantly, concerned about both the malfeasances of the Nixon campaign and the wiretap powers the Johnson administration had used to reveal them. In his mind one was about as bad as the other…though Ervin knew even then that given the makeup of the federal government and who currently occupied the presidency, Lyndon Johnson would remain untouchable.

Ervin’s first action as committee chair was dedicated to uncovering as much of the truth as possible. Before the first subpoena was so much as drafted, the committee convened and took a vote. The results were unanimous. Anybody brought before the Chennault committee to testify would need to be sworn.”
Excerpted from ‘Blood on His Hands: Richard Nixon and the Chennault Affair’ by Ron Chernow


CRONKITE: This is a CBS news bulletin. Senators today have met in Washington to officially begin investigating what has become known as the Chennault Affair, the controversial scandal surrounding former Vice President Richard Nixon and President Lyndon Johnson.

Former Vice President Richard Nixon has called the special committee a ‘farce’ and a ‘witch hunt’. He has received support from several Republican elected officials, most prominently Senator John Tower of Texas…
CBS Evening News for February 19, 1969, as presented by Walter Cronkite


“Tower speaking out was rash. I understand that Nixon likely prodded him to do it, but John had to have known it would come out that he’d traveled to Paris on behalf of the Nixon campaign during the election. It was a matter of public record after all.

Sharing Senate space after that was a little bit awkward…especially when we subpoenaed him.”
Former Senator Charles Mathias (R-MD), recalling his role in the Chennault Senate Committee, 1990


“The case against the Nixon campaign was immediately a very compelling one, accompanied by many scattered and interesting bits of evidence. There were high ranking Nixon campaign officials traveling to South Vietnam and Paris, President Thieu directing a senior ambassador to stall progress on the peace talks…and of course there was Anna Chennault herself, the centerpiece of the scandal. She was very glamorous, and very well connected with the China Lobby.

Her main contribution to the scandal, beyond talking to the South Vietnamese ambassador, was calling Spiro Agnew on the telephone during the campaign. She only did this once, at least according to what records we had at the time, but the call was very long and nobody seemed to remember what it was about once we started asking questions. That was the only time in my life I’ve ever wished even halfway seriously for a wiretap.”
Former Senator Sam Ervin (D-NC), recalling his part in the Chennault Senate Committee, 1981


“Accompanying the Senate Committee on the Chennault Affair were some of the finest legal minds in the country, foremost amongst them an unassuming New Jersey native named Archibald Cox.

Cox had served in the Kennedy administration as Solicitor General before working closely with then Attorney General Katzenbach on a variety of far reaching civil rights legislation. Due to these experiences he was closely tied not only to Presidents Johnson and Humphrey, but to committee member Robert F. Kennedy as well. Now he was to serve as special counsel to the committee.

Serving as Cox’s second in command was Rufus Edmisten, chief legal aide to committee chair Sam Ervin. The two worked well together and immediately began assembling evidence and lining up subpoenas against an ever growing cast of suspects and witnesses.

It would be more than a year before their task was completed."
Excerpted from ‘Blood on His Hands: Richard Nixon and the Chennault Affair’ by Ron Chernow
 
I'll be watching this story. I'm excited to see the consequences for Nixon and his team... and the consequences for everyone else.
 
Consider me subscribed. I am guessing that Kissinger won't be getting a secretary of state job any time soon and also we can assume US relations with SVN and even Taiwan (Madame Chennault was very close to the China Lobby and Chiang Kai Shek and Madame Chiang) will be quite frosty afterwards....
 
One thing about LBJ: if he decides to screw you over, you will stay screwed over...
Yes. Nixon is probably very lucky that Johnson will be leaving on January 20th, replaced by the much more mild mannered Hubert Humphrey.

I'll be watching this story. I'm excited to see the consequences for Nixon and his team... and the consequences for everyone else.
And what consequences there will be. This probably won't go super in depth as to all of the minor figures indicted or imprisoned as a result of this, but the major ones (Nixon, Chennault, Haldeman, etc.) will be covered in some detail.

Consider me subscribed. I am guessing that Kissinger won't be getting a secretary of state job any time soon and also we can assume US relations with SVN and even Taiwan (Madame Chennault was very close to the China Lobby and Chiang Kai Shek and Madame Chiang) will be quite frosty afterwards....
No, Kissinger will be relegated to the wilderness at best and indicted at worst. As for US/SVN relations heading forward, I get into that a little bit in the coming update. Taiwan remains to be seen, though I expect that the Democratic Party as a whole will be a bit more cautious when interacting with the China Lobby and their beneficiaries.
 
3.​

“Of all the myriad takes I’ve heard on the Chennault mess, there’s always very little attention paid to how Brezhnev and the Soviets have profited from it. It was only due to Soviet pressure that the North Vietnamese ever attended the Paris talks in the first place, and this was a very transparent foreign effort to swing the election to Humphrey.

Yet…do we come away from the television news coverage on Chennault with ‘LBJ colluded with communists to get his man elected’? No. Of course not. Because the media is corrupted, the establishment is corrupted and biased and utterly unfazed by a very visible example of liberal treason.

The very worst part of this is Nixon’s blunder…because of that the Soviets get to have their cake and eat it too. They get Hubert Humphrey in the White House and the American public ripping itself apart over a completely manufactured influence scandal.

If you ask me none of it matters, not unless we’re willing to burn the entire establishment class to the ground…because every single one of them are guilty as sin.”
Alabama Governor George Wallace, quoted in an interview with Lou Gordon, late 1969


“It perhaps wasn’t a surprise when the North Vietnamese expressed a decided hesitance over continuing peace talks. South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu hadn’t quite succeeded in imploding them before President Johnson and Vice President Humphrey had blown the whistle on his interference, but as the fall of 1968 passed into winter they were clearly on shaky ground.

Thieu did end up going to Paris, but representatives of both Vietnams only spoke haltingly. Neither side really wanted to be there and did not believe that any peace was truly possible, especially after a very public demonstration of South Vietnamese indifference to drafting a ceasefire. Regardless, their backers, the United States and the Soviet Union respectively, begged to differ.

Leonid Brezhnev, Premier of the Soviet Union, was rapidly being drawn into a border squabble with Red China at home and did not want the suppurating ulcer that was Vietnam to expand out of control while he was otherwise distracted. A peace in Vietnam, orchestrated behind the scenes by both powers, would also be a good opportunity to calm tensions with the United States and elect a coolheaded, domestically focused liberal.

He had gotten part of what he wanted with the election of Hubert Humphrey, but as November ended he began facing resistance from hardliners in the North Vietnamese government, who did not trust South Vietnam to keep their end of any bargain that could be made. Who was to say that the South Vietnamese would not simply wait until the election of a hawkish, Nixon type and then restart the war?

The South Vietnamese did not trust their northern counterparts either. North Vietnam had broken ceasefires in the past, most spectacularly in the case of the Tet Offensive, which was not yet a year old, and showed no sign of having changed their m.o. This did not worry Johnson, though. He had faith that Humphrey, in succeeding him, could force the South Vietnamese to keep to their path, even if it meant leveraging coldblooded threats against Thieu.

Humphrey himself seemed reluctant to follow such an aggressive path, but after the actions of the South Vietnamese government he felt he had little choice. To simply do nothing would be a clear demonstration of American weakness in a time of strife. From his advisors came suggestions that included forcing Thieu to resign, but those were never seriously considered. Thieu, though he had committed a nearly unforgivable sin by allying himself to the Republican Party rather than America as a whole, was still a stabilizing force in South Vietnam.

What the President-elect did instead was make a phone call to Saigon.”
Excerpted from ‘The Happy Warrior: Hubert Humphrey in the White House’ by Carl Solberg


SVN President Thieu Visits Washington
Heads of state ‘all smiles’ despite prevailing tensions
The Washington Post, December 4, 1969


“As soon as it became clear that Thieu was going to come to the United States, ostentatiously as a pit stop on his way to Paris, Lyndon [Johnson] and Humphrey pulled their staffs together and began to establish objectives. Thieu was only going to be in town for a single night and Humphrey, in his first real act as commander in chief…even if he had not yet been sworn in, would need to extract some assurances from his South Vietnamese counterpart.

Aside from the usual promises that he would negotiate in good faith and never do anything so boneheaded and borderline treasonous ever again was something else.

Humphrey was going to have to tell Thieu, to his face, that high level South Vietnamese officials were almost certainly going to be implicated in the coming Chennault investigations. More than that, he was going to instruct Thieu to hand them over should they be subpoenaed or indicted.

Thieu himself was involved in the Chennault Affair, in a fair world he would’ve been taken into the town square and horsewhipped, but both the President and the President-elect knew that he couldn’t be touched. They would need to extract pragmatic legal guidelines from the South Vietnamese President and make it clear that they were running the show…all without making South Vietnam look like an American puppet state or undermining Thieu in front of his rivals back home.

I personally would have been terrified to have such a task left up to me, especially if I were a person in the President-elect’s position…but he hardly batted an eye when we laid out the stakes. He’d been through so much at this point that pressuring the South Vietnamese hardly seemed interesting by comparison.”
Johnson White House aide Harry J. Middleton, quoted in ‘Scandal of the Century’ by Newt Gingrich


SVN Ambassador Subpoenaed over Chennault
Bui Diem will appear before Senate special committee in March
The Washington Post, February 29, 1969


“It remains a matter of debate to this day what exactly Hubert said to President Thieu when they were alone in the Roosevelt Room. Rumors abound that he threatened a full withdrawal of American forces from Vietnam if Thieu did not concede to his demands, but I don’t personally believe that to be true. It wouldn’t match the character of the man I served alongside for so many years.”
Former Vice President Edmund Muskie, recalling Nguyen Van Thieu’s 1968 visit to Washington


“Even as the White House scrambled to both salvage and strictly define their relationship with the House Vietnamese, Richard Nixon and his fellow Chennault conspirators bunkered down in preparation for a long legal siege. But though Nixon and his core group (Mitchell, Haldeman, Erlichman and others) remained closely knit both in terms of communication and physical proximity, the remainder of their election time network was scattered. Anna Chennault remained in Washington D.C. and holed up in her home, which was often picketed by protesters. Though she attempted at least once to speak to Nixon, this effort was blocked by Haldeman.

In Nixon’s mind Anna Chennault could not be proved to be associated with him, thus he had no further need of her. On December 23, 1968, after it became clear that Humphrey would definitely become President, Nixon instructed everyone close to him not to interact with Chennault or anyone she was associated with.

Chennault, alarmed by the icy silence coming from the Nixon camp, and frightened that she would soon find herself in legal trouble (indeed she was the very first person subpoenaed by the Senate special committee), withdrew from her usual social circles, instead spending much of her time with lawyers, trying to determine the best path forward.

As Nixon plotted and Chennault scrambled to survive, Spiro Agnew found himself in a strange sort of legal purgatory. As Nixon’s running mate he was immediately under suspicion, but as of December 1968 there was no real evidence connecting him to the Chennault Affair other than proximity.

This would change when phone records surfaced showing that he had taken at least one phone call from Chennault during the election. By this time the Senate committee had officially convened and it wasn’t long before Agnew found himself subpoenaed as well.

Nixon watched this latest development with some concern but no real fear. So long as both Chennault and Agnew gave the committee nothing then that would be it. There would be nowhere else for the investigators to turn.
Excerpted from ‘Blood on His Hands: Richard Nixon and the Chennault Affair’ by Ron Chernow


SENATOR KENNEDY: You’re saying that you have no memory of what you discussed on the phone with Mrs. Chennault?
GOVERNOR AGNEW: I don’t recall any specifics.
SENATOR KENNEDY: Records indicate this call lasted for nearly an hour. That’s a lot to forget.
[Laughter in the gallery]
GOVERNOR AGNEW: We were very busy campaigning in a presidential election, it can’t be expected that I’d remember the exact contents of every phone call I took in those days. Especially the ones President Johnson didn’t see fit to wiretap.
An exchange between Senator Robert F. Kennedy and subpoenaed witness Governor Spiro Agnew, early March of 1969


“This was one of the first big television media spectacles of the twentieth century…this and the Tet Offensive. Someone, Senator Ervin I think, he had the idea to present the happenings of the Senate committee not only on CSPAN but on all of the major networks as well. NBC and CBS would cut to it every so often, whenever there was somebody doing something interesting. Thirty million Americans watched Robert Kennedy and Sam Ervin and Howard Baker try to get to the bottom of everything. It was excellent television. I remember being glued to it, just kept in suspense all day long.”
CNN founder Ted Turner, describing his own impressions of the Chennault investigation, 1999


“I think what people forget about the Chennault Affair is the fact that it involved both sides about evenly. Richard Nixon attempted to meddle in foreign affairs and involved a number of South Vietnamese and GOP officials…but we must also remember that the only way President Johnson ever discovered this was because he was using FBI and NSA wiretap powers to monitor people critical of his presidency.

The fact that he was never put before a Senate investigative committee in the same way that Spiro Agnew, John Mitchell and, yes, Richard Nixon all were speaks to a fundamentally unequal application of justice. We cannot forget that when looking back on this moment in history.”
William F. Buckley Jr., quoted in an interview for the Washington Post, 1981


“I will never forget William Buckley looking me dead in the eyes on the second night of the 1968 Democratic Convention and telling me that the only moral choice for President was Richard Nixon. He at least had the sense to (quietly) admit his mistake since then, but given the sorts of people he keeps pushing for it must be wondered…did he ever truly mean it?”
Gore Vidal in an Esquire opinion piece, 1988


“Agnew’s testimony, though almost caustically belligerent, did not give up anything of great legal value to the Senate special committee. His fierce denials of being in any way involved with foreign meddling made Agnew something of a hero to conservatives across the country…but it did not close the question of what exactly had taken place on the phone between him and Anna Chennault.

This did not bother Agnew, however, who seemed to believe that he had beaten the rap and was now beyond the purview of the investigation. Unbeknownst to him, his new national presence had awakened old suspicions from his rivals in Maryland…who were, even now, busily digging into his past.”
Excerpted from ‘Blood on His Hands: Richard Nixon and the Chennault Affair’ by Ron Chernow


Agnew Faced with New Charges
Vice-presidential hopeful took ‘kickbacks’, investigators allege
The New York Times, April of 1969


Agnew Denies Wrongdoing
Embattled Governor lashes out at opponents in fiery press conference
New York Post, April of 1969


“On Saturday I had the extreme good fortune to be present at the press conference held by Spiro Agnew. The sort of anxious bluster he can call forth is an inspiration to windbags everywhere. It’s a true shame that he did not succeed at conning his way into the White House, can you imagine what a Vice President he would have made?

‘Damned lies’ he pronounced the new financial crimes he stands accused of. He said this with such force that the frontmost rank of journalists shivered in place. Doubtlessly they were not as well fortified as I, for I could not help but let out a little yip of amusement.

Agnew immediately gave me a very unhappy look, as I am doubtlessly the exact sort of nattering nabob he hates so much, then launched back into his denials.

I shall not be paying too much attention to Spiro Agnew from now on. In my opinion, dear reader, the man from Maryland is fucked.”
Excerpted from an untitled Rolling Stone article by Hunter S. Thompson, late April of 1969


“It’s my understanding that Nixon, Mitchell and just about everyone else under direct investigation reacted with nothing short of horror to what Agnew did…and they were absolutely right to.

Though Agnew was speaking primarily about his own financial wrongdoings in Maryland, he did sneak in a few statements about the Chennault investigation too. Whether they were off the cuff or not, I still have no idea why his lawyer let him go on national television and do something so irresponsible. It boggles the mind.”
Rufus Edmisten, quoted in ‘Scandal of the Century’ by Newt Gingrich


“It soon became clear to Nixon, Haldeman and Mitchell that Spiro Agnew was in deep trouble. The Maryland Governor was facing at least one count of felony tax evasion in addition to a number of bribery and extortion charges, all of which could potentially land him in prison for as long as a decade.

This was undoubtedly a precarious position for a man at the center of a conspiracy to be in.

Nixon himself, preoccupied with rumblings that he could soon be indicted, bemoaned ever trusting Agnew with anything as important as the Chennault scheme. Agnew, already isolated from the Nixon camp since the election, found himself almost completely cut off aside from stern instructions to keep his mouth shut no matter what. Pleas for help with the corruption and tax evasion charges fell upon deaf ears.

It was at about that point he was approached by representatives of Archibald Cox and the Senate special committee.”
Excerpted from ‘Blood on His Hands: Richard Nixon and the Chennault Affair’ by Ron Chernow
 
Last edited:
3.​

“Of all the myriad takes I’ve heard on the Chennault mess, there’s always very little attention paid to how Brezhnev and the Soviets have profited from it. It was only due to Soviet pressure that the North Vietnamese ever attended the Paris talks in the first place, and this was a very transparent foreign effort to swing the election to Humphrey.

Yet…do we come away from the television news coverage on Chennault with ‘LBJ colluded with communists to get his man elected’? No. Of course not. Because the media is corrupted, the establishment is corrupted and biased and utterly unfazed by a very visible example of liberal treason.

The very worst part of this is Nixon’s blunder…because of that the Soviets get to have their cake and eat it too. They get Hubert Humphrey in the White House and the American public ripping itself apart over a completely manufactured influence scandal.

If you ask me none of it matters, not unless we’re willing to burn the entire establishment class to the ground…because every single one of them are guilty as sin.”
Alabama Governor George Wallace, quoted in an interview with Lou Gordon, late 1969
Curiously, George Wallace is both decrying the decline of the establishment, and doing his dead level best to run it down!

Would love to see him get some pushback on this. And just maybe angry conservative populism channels itself in a more constructive direction than OTL?
 
Top