Nixon's Darkest Secrets; The Inside Story of America's Most Troubled President

832019 Nixons Darkest Secrets The Inside Story of Americas Most Troubled President

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullnixons-darkest-secrets-the-inside-story-of-americas-most-troubled 112



983156983144983151983149983137983155 983140983157983150983150983141 983138983151983151983147983155

An imprint o St Martinrsquos Press

983150983145983160983151983150rsquo983155 983140983137983154983147983141983155983156 983155983141983139983154983141983156983155 983156983144983141 983145983150983155983145983140983141 983155983156983151983154983161 983151983142 983137983149983141983154983145983139983137rsquo983155 983149983151983155983156 983156983154983151983157983138983148983141983140

983152983154983141983155983145983140983141983150983156 Copyright copy 2012 by Don Fulsom All rights reserved

Printed in the United States o America For inormation address St Martinrsquos Press

175 Fifh Avenue New York NY 10010

wwwthomasdunnebookscom

wwwstmartinscom

Library o Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Fulsom Don

Nixonrsquos darkest secrets the inside story o Americarsquos most troubled president

Don Fulsommdash1st ed

p cm

Includes bibliographical reerences

ISBN 978-0-312-66296-7 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-4299-4136-5 (e-book)

1 Nixon Richard M (Richard Milhous) 1913ndash1994mdashPsychology 2 Nixon

Richard M (Richard Milhous) 1913ndash1994mdashFriends and associates 3 United

StatesmdashPolitics and governmentmdash1969ndash1974 4 Political corruptionmdashUnited

StatesmdashHistorymdash20th century 5 Misconduct in offi cemdashUnited States

6 Watergate Affair 1972ndash1974 7 PresidentsmdashUnited StatesmdashBiography

I itle

E856F85 2012

973924092mdashdc23 2011035849

First Edition February 2012

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1



reason is the highest crime an American can commit against

his country And thatrsquos what one president accused his successor

o committing

Richard Nixonrsquos secret sabotaging o President Lyndon John-

sonrsquos 1968 Paris peace talksmdashmuch more than Watergate or his

longtime ties to the Ma1047297amdashshould stand as our thirty-seventh

presidentrsquos greatest sin Tere are no better words than ldquodespi-

cablerdquo and ldquosordidrdquo and ldquotreasonrdquo (used by LBJ in this context)

to describe Nixonrsquos betrayal o his country or his own political

gain In a newly released Johnson phone call to Senator Everett

Dirksen just beore the November 1968 election the Senate GOP

leader readily agreed with the presidentrsquos treason conclusion

about Nixon and pledged to call his partyrsquos presidential candi-

date on the carpet on it

Johnson himselmdasha number o times earlier and latermdash

scolded Nixon who repeatedly denied knowing anything about

the meddling with the Paris negotiations and pledged to do

ONE

TREASON WINS THE

WHITE HOUSE



6 DON FULSOM

nothing to hurt President Johnsonrsquos efforts to end the war (When

the phone was hung up afer at least one o these lies Nixon and

his cohorts reportedly burst into loud and sustained laughter)1

Te newest LBJ Library tapes tell the dramatic story o how

Johnson blew his stack and nearly the whistle on Nixonrsquos treach-

ery On November 2 1968 three days beore the election John-

son let Dirksen peek at Johnsonrsquos sel-described ldquohole cardsrdquo in

his unbeatable poker hand in a high-stakes showdown against

Nixon2

Alluding to NSA intercepts FBI wiretaps and CIA bugs

Johnson says on the tape that he knowsmdashbecause South Viet-

namese president Nguyen Van Tieursquos offi ces are buggedmdashthat

China Lobby stalwart Anna Chennault went to Tieu on Nixonrsquos

behal and told Tieu he should hold out on the peace talks until

afer the election ldquoTey oughtnrsquot be doing thisrdquo Johnson tells

Dirksen ldquoTis is treasonrdquo Dirksen agrees

Johnson says he doesnrsquot want to go public with the inorma-

tion but he wants Nixon to know that he is aware o what Nixonrsquos

doing and to whom he and his emissaries have been talking

ldquoTeyrsquore contacting a oreign power in the middle o a warrdquo John-

son tells Dirksen on the tape ldquoItrsquos a damn bad mistake You just

tell them that their people are messing around in this thing and i

they donrsquot want it on the ront pages they better quit itrdquo Dirksen

vows on the tape to get in touch with Nixon and call him off

Later as president in mid-1971 Nixon got wordmdashapparently

rom his chie o staff H R ldquoBobrdquo Haldemanmdashthat President

Johnsonrsquos Vietnam 1047297les were being housed at the lef-leaning



NIXONrsquoS DARKEST SECRETS 7

Brookings Institution in Washington DC Tese 1047297les included

not only the decision behind LBJrsquos pre-election bombing halt

(which Nixon erroneously thought was timed to help Demo-cratic candidate Hubert Humphrey) but also evidence o Nixonrsquos

intererence with the Paris peace talks ldquoYou can blackmail John-

son on this stuffrdquo Haldeman excitedly asserted about the bomb-

ing halt material3 (Haldeman thought that perhaps Johnson

could be blackmailed into supporting Nixonrsquos Vietnam policies)

Nixon biographer Anthony Summers noted that Nixon had an-other reason or wanting to get the Vietnam 1047297les ldquo[Nixon] had

actively worked to sabotage the 1968 peace talks and the record

in question might actually prove more damaging to him than to

President Johnsonrdquo4

So President Richard Nixon endorsed a wild scheme shock-

ingly wild the 1047297rebombing o and thef o 1047297les rom the Brook-

ings Institution in Washington Te documents were well worth

the risk he 1047297gured i they held evidence o his deliberate subver-

sion He also thought they might offer proo that his own 1968

campaign plane was bugged it wasnrsquot Without speci1047297cally men-

tioning his Brookings break-in demand in his 1975 memoirs

Nixon did admit he had told his staff he wanted the Vietnam 1047297les

he believed were in Brookingsrsquo possession delivered to him ldquoeven

i it meant having to get it surreptitiouslyrdquo5

Te Brookings plan was bizarre ldquoMastermindedrdquo by G Gor-

don Liddy o later Watergate inamy it would have eatured an old

1047297re truck repainted with the markings o the District o Colum-

biarsquos Fire Department Operated by a group o pro-Nixon Cubans

rom Miami disguised as a 1047297re crew the ake 1047297re engine would

make its way to Brookings While ostensibly there to battle their



8 DON FULSOM

own Molotov cocktailndashcaused blaze the break-in experts rom

Miami would enter the building crack open the vaults make off

with the Vietnam 1047297les and then quickly ditch the slow-moving1047297re enginemdashafer transerring the 1047297les and themselves to a nearby

waiting van

In his autobiography Liddy surmised that a successul Brook-

ings caper might have prompted some guessing games about the

identities o the miscreants ldquoin the liberal pressrdquo but that ldquobe-

cause nothing could be proved the matter would lapse into theunsolved-mystery categoryrdquo6

John Dean President Nixonrsquos White House lawyer had a ar

more sensible take on the contemplated 1047297rebombing Dean

claims he was able to shut down the operation (the ldquojointrdquo had

already been ldquocasedrdquomdashin Deanrsquos wordsmdashby Nixon agents who

were turned away by an alert security guard) Dean convinced

presidential aide John Ehrlichman that i anyone died in the blast

it would be a capital crime that might be traced back to the White

House Ehrlichman later acknowledged calling off the planmdash

and con1047297rmed that Nixon knew o it in advance7

Just think Had Dean not prevailed with Ehrlichman had

this break-in actually occurred had it involved a death and had

it been botched as badly as Watergate then murder and domes-

tic terrorism might well have been added to Nixonrsquos list o im-

peachable offenses

In addition just ordering the Brookings break-in ldquowould be

an impeachable offenserdquo according to erry Lenzner who was a

top offi cial on the Senate Watergate committee ldquoIt is the Presi-

dent ordering a elony to obtain inormationrdquo8

And donrsquot orget treasonmdashhad DC police recovered the 1968

campaign 1047297les rom the phony 1047297remen or ake DC 1047297re engine




What would have been ound Piles o evidence o Nixonrsquos

treachery including this ldquosmoking gunrdquo intercept o a back-door

message rom Nixon to Tieu ldquoHold on Wersquore gonna winrdquo Temessage was plain according to Nixonrsquos go-between Anna Chen-

nault ldquoStay away rom the peace talksrdquo9

In 1968 Vietnam was the No 1 issue in the campaign Nixon

was generally viewed as the dovish candidate because he promised

to implement a secret plan to ldquoend the war and win the peacerdquo

Humphrey was viewed as a candidate who would continue Presi-dent Lyndon Johnsonrsquos unpopular hawkish war policies

LBJ had dropped out o the presidential race to devote the

remainder o his tenure to peace in Vietnam Hersquod hoped since

quitting to bring the 1047297ghting to an end through three-way (Ha-

noi Saigon and Washington) peace talks in Paris Nixon eared

that i Johnson succeeded Humphrey would win the November

election It was the kind o ldquoOctober Surpriserdquo the paranoid GOP

nominee eared most

Shortly beore voters went to the polls to ensure that Hanoi

would attend the Paris talks President Johnson announced a halt

in the US bombing o the North Nixon learned o this impor-

tant development through Henry Kissingermdashan inormal LBJ

advisor to the peace talks In Nixonland Rick Perlstein observes

ldquoTe Johnson team trusted [Kissinger] implicitly Tey shouldnrsquot

have Kissinger was a double agent eeding the intelligence to

Nixon that let him scotch the peace deal beore the electionrdquo10

Johnsonrsquos bombing halt announcement just days beore the

election brie1047298y gave Humphrey a slight lead in public-opinion

pollsmdashthough he would go on to lose to Nixon by about 500000

votes

All during the 1968 campaign working through a separate



10 DON FULSOM

secret agentmdashone even more secret than KissingermdashNixon had

been telling South Vietnamrsquos president Nguyen Van Tieu to boy-

cott any LBJ-sponsored talks and hold out or a better deal undera Nixon presidency Tieu obliged wrecking the talks and any

chance or peace during the 1047297nal months o Johnsonrsquos presidency

Nixonrsquos back channel in his contacts with Tieu was Anna

Chennault aka the Dragon Lady Te gorgeous orty-three-year-

old widow o World War II US ldquoFlying igersrdquo hero General

Claire Chennault had moved rom aiwan to the United States in1960 Anna was co-chairman o Women or Nixon-Agnew

At Nixonrsquos request Chennault established contacts with the

South Vietnamese ambassador to Washington Bui Diem In July

1968 Chennault introduced the ambassador to the GOP presi-

dential hopeul at a hush-hush meeting at Nixonrsquos New York

apartment According to Chennault Nixon told Bui Diem he

could ldquorest assuredrdquo that i elected ldquoI will have a meeting with

[Tieu] and 1047297nd a solution to winning the warrdquo He added that

Chennault was to be ldquothe only contact between mysel and your

governmentrdquo11

Anna Chennault also had some dealings ace-to-ace and on

the telephone with Nixonrsquos campaign manager John Mitchell

Unless he was speaking on a secure phone line however Mitchell

kept most o his thoughts to himsel He strongly suspected

that government agents were monitoring the Dragon Ladyrsquos ac-

tivities

Mitchellrsquos suspicions were spot-on And a urious Johnson

didnrsquot hesitate to let Mitchellrsquos boss himsel know what he knew

about Nixonrsquos underhanded antipeace maneuverings

On a number o occasions President Johnson talked directly

to Nixon about the sabotage In one conversation afer 1047297lling




Nixon in on his campaignrsquos dealings with Tieu LBJ added ldquoIrsquom

not trying to trick yourdquo It was a not-so-subtle dig at Nixon or his

well-deserved nickname ricky Dick O course Nixon deniedknowing anything about the sabotage And he reassured the pres-

ident he would do nothing to undercut the peace process

Even afer the election Johnson kept pressing the issue with

Nixon

LBJ Tese people [the South Vietnamese] are proceedingon the assumption that olks close to you tell them to

do nothing rsquotil January the 20th

Nixon I know who theyrsquore talking about too Is it John

ower

LBJ Well hersquos one o several Miss Chennault is very much

in there

Nixon Well shersquos very close to John ower

In this discussion Nixon not only threw loyal exas Republi-

can senator John ower under the bus but he also stressed the

words ldquovery closerdquo What Nixon was apparently alluding to was

a not-so-secret affair Senator ower was having with the abled

Dragon Lady

Te supposed lovers were both right-wingers and heavy par-

tiers on the Washington cocktail circuit ower had replaced

Lyndon Johnson in the Senate Te two men were bitter enemies

So Nixon probably had that in mind when he ratted out ower to

LBJ

A ormer ower associate says the senator long afer his sec-

ond ailed marriage reely admitted having a long-term liaison

with Chennault ower was very ond o Anna and the source



12 DON FULSOM

added afer they broke up ower claimed Chennault went on to

ldquoa torrid 1047298ingrdquo with Tomas McIntyre a lef-wing Democratic

Senator rom New Hampshire and a ldquoheavy oreign policy hitterrdquoPerhaps Chennault became soured on Republicans afer Nixon

quickly proceeded to betray her and the South Vietnamese gov-

ernment Her ldquobossrdquo as she reerred to Nixon in her clandestine

communications was soon publicly voicing the LBJ line on Viet-

nam Chennault and Tieu rightly concluded they had been duped

by the soon-to-be thirty-seventh president o the United StatesIn a 2002 interview with the Shanghai Star a bitter Mrs

Chennault declared ldquoo end the war was my only demand But

afer [Nixon] became president he decided to continue the war

Politicians are never honestrdquo12

In the phone call in which he alsely 1047297ngered John ower as a

possible traitor Nixon promised Johnson he would contact Am-

bassador Bui Diem and urge South Vietnam to take part in the

Paris negotiations He didnrsquot say exactly how he would do this but

Nixon pretended to know little about the ambassador even ask-

ing LBJ at one point ldquoDoes he speak Englishrdquo Afer all Nixon

had conerred with Bui Diemmdashwho spoke perect Englishmdash just

months beore

So no wonder when President Nixon heard that LBJrsquos 1047297les on

Nixonrsquos 1968 ldquotreasonrdquo might be at Brookingsmdashhe repeatedly

insisted that the liberal think tank be raided

At a Nixon meeting with National Security Advisor Henry

Kissinger and chie o staff Bob Haldeman Kissinger observed

ldquoI wouldnrsquot be surprised i Brookings had the 1047297lesrdquo

Haldeman Te bombing halt is in the same 1047297le or in

some o the same hands




Nixon Do we have it Irsquove asked or it You said you donrsquot

have it

Kissinger We have nothing here Mr PresidentNixon Damn it I asked or that [unintelligible] Get in

there and get those 1047297les13

In a later conversation with Haldeman Nixon asked ldquoDid they

get the Brookings Institute (sic) raided last night No Get it

done I want it done I want the Brookings Institutersquos sae cleanedout and have it cleaned out in a way that it makes somebody else

responsiblerdquo14

Freshly declassi1047297ed documents make it evident that Nixon had

unsuccessully tried even earlier to 1047297nd out what the CIArsquos 1047297les

contained about possible connections among LBJrsquos bombing

halt the Paris peace negotiations and the 1968 US presidential

campaign At 1047297rst he approached CIA director Richard Helms

through NSC Advisor Henry Kissinger

In response on March 19 1970 Helms sent Kissinger

a three-page ldquosecretrdquo document outlining some o the in-

telligence data the agency collected in Vietnam in October

and November o 1968 Several sections o the document are

still classi1047297ed but Helms told Kissinger that because o

the sensitivity o the Paris peace talks President Johnson had

put a ldquoreezerdquo on the distribution o such intelligence during

that time period allowing only a small number o people to

see it

ldquoTe President personally had to approve every reader o this

material No one at the agency saw it except mysel and even



14 DON FULSOM

I read the documents down at the White Houserdquo the CIA chie

declared

Helmsrsquos memo to Kissinger continues ldquoIn compliance withPresident Johnsonrsquos explicit instructions all o the 1047297eld intelli-

gence on matters germane to the subject o your request was

shortstopped by my offi ce Te only dissemination o this datardquo

he added was ldquosent on an EYES ONLY basis to Secretary [o

State Dean] Rusk and Mr [Walt] Rostow For this reason we

cannot give you a list o [SEVERAL WORDS CENSORED] dur-ing October o 1968 because there were none until the lsquoreezersquo

ended on 1 Novemberrdquo In other words No you canrsquot have those

particular CIA records

Nixon didnrsquot give up hounding the agency or the 1047297les On

October 21 1971 White House chie o staff Bob Haldeman sent

a ldquosecretsensitiverdquo memo to John Ehrlichman the White House

go-to guy on CIA matters

An exasperated Haldeman asks Ehrlichman to try his hand at

persuading Helms to ork over the documents ldquoI tried once beore

to get the inormation rom the CIA through Henry Kissingerrsquos

offi ce Director Helms claims that this inormation is not available

in their 1047297les because it was orwarded directly to the White House

I canrsquot help but believe that the CIA would keep a copy o all intel-

ligence reports even i they were only lsquobootlegrsquo copiesrdquo

Ehrlichman wasted no time in getting on Helmsrsquos case On

the same day in a ldquosecretsensitiverdquo memo to Helms the White

House aide cited the CIA bossrsquos earlier reusal to provide the

requested material to Kissinger And then Ehrlichman bluntly

stated ldquoIt has been requested that these documents be obtained

despite prior restrictions on their distribution Would you please

orward copies o the requested documentsrdquo



983156983144983151983149983137983155 983140983157983150983150983141 983138983151983151983147983155

An imprint o St Martinrsquos Press

983150983145983160983151983150rsquo983155 983140983137983154983147983141983155983156 983155983141983139983154983141983156983155 983156983144983141 983145983150983155983145983140983141 983155983156983151983154983161 983151983142 983137983149983141983154983145983139983137rsquo983155 983149983151983155983156 983156983154983151983157983138983148983141983140

983152983154983141983155983145983140983141983150983156 Copyright copy 2012 by Don Fulsom All rights reserved

Printed in the United States o America For inormation address St Martinrsquos Press

175 Fifh Avenue New York NY 10010

wwwthomasdunnebookscom

wwwstmartinscom

Library o Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Fulsom Don

Nixonrsquos darkest secrets the inside story o Americarsquos most troubled president

Don Fulsommdash1st ed

p cm

Includes bibliographical reerences

ISBN 978-0-312-66296-7 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-4299-4136-5 (e-book)

1 Nixon Richard M (Richard Milhous) 1913ndash1994mdashPsychology 2 Nixon

Richard M (Richard Milhous) 1913ndash1994mdashFriends and associates 3 United

StatesmdashPolitics and governmentmdash1969ndash1974 4 Political corruptionmdashUnited

StatesmdashHistorymdash20th century 5 Misconduct in offi cemdashUnited States

6 Watergate Affair 1972ndash1974 7 PresidentsmdashUnited StatesmdashBiography

I itle

E856F85 2012

973924092mdashdc23 2011035849

First Edition February 2012

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1





o committing















ONE

TREASON WINS THE

WHITE HOUSE



6 DON FULSOM









Nixon2



















































8 DON FULSOM




waiting van


















peachable offenses
























nominee eared most












votes




10 DON FULSOM

















governmentrdquo11






tivities














Nixon




ower


in there






Dragon Lady





LBJ






12 DON FULSOM



















months beore













have it






responsiblerdquo14















see it





14 DON FULSOM


declared































o committing















ONE

TREASON WINS THE

WHITE HOUSE



6 DON FULSOM









Nixon2



















































8 DON FULSOM




waiting van


















peachable offenses
























nominee eared most












votes




10 DON FULSOM

















governmentrdquo11






tivities














Nixon




ower


in there






Dragon Lady





LBJ






12 DON FULSOM



















months beore













have it






responsiblerdquo14















see it





14 DON FULSOM


declared





























6 DON FULSOM









Nixon2



















































8 DON FULSOM




waiting van


















peachable offenses
























nominee eared most












votes




10 DON FULSOM

















governmentrdquo11






tivities














Nixon




ower


in there






Dragon Lady





LBJ






12 DON FULSOM



















months beore













have it






responsiblerdquo14















see it





14 DON FULSOM


declared



























































8 DON FULSOM




waiting van


















peachable offenses
























nominee eared most












votes




10 DON FULSOM

















governmentrdquo11






tivities














Nixon




ower


in there






Dragon Lady





LBJ






12 DON FULSOM



















months beore













have it






responsiblerdquo14















see it





14 DON FULSOM


declared





























8 DON FULSOM




waiting van


















peachable offenses
























nominee eared most












votes




10 DON FULSOM

















governmentrdquo11






tivities














Nixon




ower


in there






Dragon Lady





LBJ






12 DON FULSOM



















months beore













have it






responsiblerdquo14















see it





14 DON FULSOM


declared












































nominee eared most












votes




10 DON FULSOM

















governmentrdquo11






tivities














Nixon




ower


in there






Dragon Lady





LBJ






12 DON FULSOM



















months beore













have it






responsiblerdquo14















see it





14 DON FULSOM


declared





























10 DON FULSOM

















governmentrdquo11






tivities














Nixon




ower


in there






Dragon Lady





LBJ






12 DON FULSOM



















months beore













have it






responsiblerdquo14















see it





14 DON FULSOM


declared



































Nixon




ower


in there






Dragon Lady





LBJ






12 DON FULSOM



















months beore













have it






responsiblerdquo14















see it





14 DON FULSOM


declared





























12 DON FULSOM



















months beore













have it






responsiblerdquo14















see it





14 DON FULSOM


declared































have it






responsiblerdquo14















see it





14 DON FULSOM


declared





























14 DON FULSOM


declared



























Documents

Nixon's Darkest Secrets; The Inside Story of America's Most Troubled President