WI: 1968 Nixon campaign's meddling in peace talks leaked?

In keeping with the recent spate of 1960s threads here...

It's fairly well established that Richard Nixon's 1968 campaign - through aide Anna Chennault - effectively sabotaged the Vietnam peace talks by assuring the Vietnamese that they'd get a better deal when Nixon was elected.

So, what if Johnson - who knew about it - makes this public? Does Humphrey win? Or do people see it as a political stunt on Johnson's part?
 
Humphrey wouldn't leak even though LBJ begged him to: it would jeopardize national security almost as much as what Nixon did. Unlike Nixon, LBJ, and Bobby Kennedy, Hubert didn't have the cutthroat, Rovian instincts for that sort of thing. Lyndon got the Chennault information by bugging the SVN Embassy and both Nixon's and Humphrey's campaign planes. Hoover told his longtime friend Nixon this at a November transition meeting.
 
I think Nixon's margin might be even narrower, but it goes to the House instead. Dixie holds the balance of power, and they're uber-hawkish. LBJ can probably twist enough arms to give Humphrey the White House, but in addition to all the OTL '68 problems, he'll have the problem Bush had in 2000- being perceived as somehow illegitimate.
 
Not Illegitimate, Criminal. Stop The Counting! Stop The Counting!

LBJ can probably twist enough arms to give Humphrey the White House, but in addition to all the OTL '68 problems, he'll have the problem Bush had in 2000- being perceived as somehow illegitimate.
Somehow illegitimate? The man was elected on the grounds of Sandra Day O'Connor's sick husband, Rehnquist's bad back, and their ruthless determination to be replaced by Republicans, even if it meant using the US Constitution as toilet paper. The US Constitution gives no role for the Federal Judiciary to determine Presidential Elections, on the obvious grounds that it allows said Federal judges, at all levels, to influence their replacements. Bush wanted the White House in the worst way possible, and so he got it in the worst way possible. And ruled as President, in the worst way possible. I do not excuse Gore from this, but his only sin in this was only asking the 4 democratic districts to recount, not the other 27. Though the 27 Republican county supervisors swore to a (wo)man they would not allow their ballot boxes to be opened, and of course Florida Secretary of State (And future US Congresswoman:mad::rolleyes:) Kathy Harris refused to do her duty by ordering a full statewide recount. Gore should have resigned rather than participate in the farce of the Electoral College that he had to preside over as President of the Senate. Sometimes, when wickedness stands triumphant, you just have to walk away.


P.S. When a legally forced recount was done 4 months after Dubya was sworn in, the result was: Gore wins Florida by three votes. The butterfly ballots alone would have pushed his majority into the thousands.:eek:
 
UT: That's irrelevant to the thread. The US political system operated under Daley Rules for both parties until the mid-1970s. Not just in the general elections, but in primaries as well. So there's a renaissance of Daley Rules. Do you have comments on the OP?
 
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You brought it up

UT: That's irrelevant to the thread. The US political system operated under Daley Rules for both parties until the mid-1970s. Not just in the general elections, but in primaries as well. So there's a renaissance of Daley Rules.

P.S. Please don't tell me you subscribe to RFK Jr.'s Ohio theories that Bush, like Hugo, purchased the voting machine companies and delivered Marcosian results.
No, I don't subscribe to such conspiracy theories. The voters in SW OHIO are quite far enough to the right to have chosen Dubya by a wide enough margin to give him Ohio by 30,000 votes ('04). And you're right, it is irrelevant to this thread. But I'm not the person who brought up the comparison, which you have now done twice. I simply wasn't going to allow "somehow" to slip by. I completely support this country's actions in Afghanistan. I was all for Bush then and now for that war. After all, the Taliban, Al-Queda, and the NW Frontier of Pakistan have so completely interwed there's nothing to tell between them. But Shrub took the capital he'd gained from our country and the world to pursue a family vendetta in Iraq that had absolutely NOTHING to do with 911. In my job, I see every day the wreckage of human lives destroyed by Bush and his flock of Neo-Conservative chickenhawks. It turns your thinking around about war, and those who act so cavalier about sending our young people off to a slaughterhouse. But then, Bush and Cheney weren't sending their kids, were they?
 
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My bad. Now back to the OP, I don't think that would be leaked for national security purposes, even if Hubert grows a pair or is not the candidate. Until mid-October, the polling was 43-28-21 Nixon. Those numbers only became close IOTL because of the October (not a surprise thanks to Mme Chennault) Surprise.
 
It's unlikely unless the NV government owns up to it. Still, I think too many people would be confused by the meaning to take angry action.:confused:
 
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