Nixonian Guile

"Newly declassified tapes of President Lyndon B. Johnson's White House telephone conversations confirm that Richard Nixon sabotaged Vietnam peace talks in October 1968 in order to strengthen his own presidential campaign. In the recordings, Defense Secretary Clark Clifford tells Johnson that the FBI has overheard a Nixon campaign adviser persuading the South Vietnamese government to withdraw from peace talks, promising them a better deal if they wait until Nixon is elected. Hanoi was offering major concessions at the time, and a settlement would have allowed Johnson to stop bombing North Vietnam. Knowing that this would derail his campaign, Nixon intervened. Johnson accused Nixon of "treason", but said nothing publically for fear of revealing that the FBI was bugging South Vietnameses government figures. Nixon went on to escalate the war--at the expense of 22,000 more American lives-- before signing a peace accord in 1973." The Week Vol.13 Issue 610 p.5