I Have a Plan

“I have a plan,” said Richard Milhous Nixon in 1968. He was going to end the Vietnam War he told us. “What was his plan?” we asked?  Nixon couldn’t tell us. It involved secret negotiations. It would end the War in dignity.

            1968 was a tough, divisive year for America. The Vietnam War was dragging on. In January, the Tet Offensive had demonstrated that our control of the situation was more tenuous than we had been led to believe. Images of our besieged troops had been all over out TV’s. Major cities like Hue were attacked. Marines were besieged hat Khe Sahn. We saw our embassy in Saigon under attack. Walter Cronkite came on the news and told us the war was unwinnable. Protests against the war increased.

            The beleaguered President Johnson narrowly won the Democratic primary in New Hampshire. Anti-war Democrats turned to anti-war Senator Eugene McCarthy for answers. With Johnson’s political future looking dim, he withdrew from the race, saying. “I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president.” He announced that he would spend the remainder of his term seeking a negotiated peace agreement in Vietnam. The pressure off, he did his best.

            Meanwhile the presidential race turned into chaos. Johnson’s logical successor was Vice President Hubert Humphrey. He wasn’t very popular and he wasn’t saying much about how he would end the war. Soon, Robert F. Kennedy joined the race as a peace candidate. McCarthy, who was showing some strength, beat him in Oregon. Kennedy came back strong in California only to be assassinated on the eve of his victory. The convention in Chicago turned into absolute chaos as demonstrators and police battled in the streets outside the convention hall. Humphrey won enough delegates to become the nominee.

            The Republicans met in Miami to choose their nominee. Richard Nixon beat out Nelson Rockefeller and Ronald Reagan for the nomination. This set up a contest between the sallow Nixon and the unpopular Humphrey. As the campaign progressed Humphrey became a bit more of a dove on ending the war. Nixon was hawkish. He made it clear that he would only accept peace with honor.

            In spite of the differences on the war issue in the Democratic party, the race was close. The peace talks began in Paris that May. The nation was hoping they would succeed. If they proved fruitful, the election would swing to Humphrey and the Democrats.

            Then Nixon did something we would not learn about for years. He approached the South Vietnamese leadership through an intermediary. Anna Chen Chenault was the Chinese widow of Claire Chennault, Commander of the Flying Tigers in World War II China. Chennault met with the Vietnamese ambassador to encourage his country’s leader, President Thieu, to slow progress on the peace talks because Nixon could get a better deal. On October 23, 1968, the ambassador cabled Thieu, telling him, “Many Republican friends have contacted me and encouraged us to stand firm.”

Johnson had his CIA closely monitoring Vietnamese communications. He considered Nixon’s actions to be treason, but said nothing. By conducting negotiations with a foreign power as a private citizen, Nixon had violated the Logan Act which had been in effect since 1799.

            The Vietnamese did stall the talks. With no peace in sight, Nixon won the election. His secret plan to end the war never materialized. It dragged on for another 4 and ½ years with 30,000 more American deaths. The 1973 peace that finally ended the war was a sham. The North Vietnamese invaded South Vietnam and took it over 2 years later.

LDT August 21, ‘24

            I was thinking of Nixon’s infamous act the other day when it was reported that Donald Trump had met with Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, at Mar-a-Lago on July 26, 2024. Both men are battling for their political lives. Netanyahu is hanging on to power primarily because of the war he is conducting in Gaza. The current US administration is catching a lot of heat from Americans who are developing sympathies for the plight of innocent Palestinians caught up in the war that Hamas started. The administration is working hard on a negotiated settlement. If a peace deal should happen, Donald Trump’s chances for winning the 2024 election will decrease.

            Were Trump and Netanyahu engaging in a conspiracy to violate US law and prolong the war in Gaza?

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