....There is no way to do this without compromising American prestige and LBJ's reputation and that of the office of POTUS.
I believe this was in fact LBJ's thought process, more or less. He was upset and bitter Nixon did this but there was no way, within due process, to nail it on him and trying would undermine the Presidency.
On the other side of things, desmirelle, Nixon believed that the Administration was bugging him even when it was technologically for anyone to do so, in 1968--as on his campaign airplane for instance. And Hoover
encouraged him to think so!
It definitely was not just Johnson playing the game dirty.
So South Vietnam is gonna break off diplomatic relations with its primary benefactor? I can't imagine that would really be in their strategic interests at all, however much they feel trod-upon by LBJ's espionage antics.
I think more likely, they'd just swallow their pride, write the humilation off as a cost of doing business, and continue on as a docile client of the US. What other option would they have?
Agreed to all--but the bold is qualified. Puppets yes--but bad puppets. Refusing to play nice in the 1968 peace talks was just one of a long pattern of SV politicians owing everything to US backing biting the hand that fed it--something they had some latitude to get away with because after all, the American premise was not a frank avowal that the Republic of South Vietnam was an American creation from the get-go and the revolving door Saigon regimes were indeed mere impositions of foreign influence with practically zero traction among Vietnamese; our whole ostensible premise was that the freedom-loving people of the South (indeed in all of Vietnam) were being terrorized by ruthless thugs who in no way enjoyed popular support; the Saigon government was supposed to be republican leadership elected by these put-upon people. Therefore American authorities could hardly state publicly that this or that President or assembly member had stepped out of line; they were supposed to be free to do that. Enforcement of US wishes would happen in frank and secret discussions, or take the form of a coup or assassination, which both removed a particularly stubborn maverick and sent a message to their potential replacements. Unfortunately it also sent a message to the world at large--cynically there was a "good" side to this in that it said the Yankees were not fooling around and were serious--but also badly undermined the ostensible premise of a scrappy small sovereign ally pleading for help.