Page 269 - 1968 News Today

That existed. a lot of people didnt recognize it. >> by august of 1968, americas war in vietnam had already killed yet another 11,700 americans that year alone. for the vietnamese, those numbers were even more grim. at least 116,000 dead in just seven months. >> on a standard day, youd go into a village, and youd start searching it, throwing stuff around inside of somebodys house, and worse. you dont win hearts and minds by burning down houses and shooting chickens and by taking target practice ...

Asian-american woman could change the course of american and vietnamese history. >> she was a businesswoman. she was a journalist. she was a significant fund-raiser for the republican party. >> i think she would love to have been an ambassador or love to have had some major job, but i dont think that -- in those days, men didnt take women seriously that way. >> she was in a way ahead of her time to have these feelings about, gee, why are all the people making decisions white men? >> ive seen hun...

>> but she always operated from behind the scenes because she was a back-channel operator. >> all they care is who is going to have the power to keep peace. >> and now artillery is being called in, as you can hear, very close. >> war and peace in vietnam. in 1968, that was the issue. how to end a war that had turned malignant. >> vietnam was the war that we saw in our living rooms every night. >> keep rolling. >> people would be watching the 6:00 news during dinner, and they would see the carnag...

Days before the 1968 presidential election. >> mr. president, im getting him right on. >> mr. president? >> yes. >> this is dick nixon. >> yes, dick. >> in a call secretly recorded by the white house, president lyndon johnson draws a line in the sand for his old adversary, richard nixon, the republican candidate for president. >> lyndon johnson is present before his term runs out to get the north vietnamese and the south vietnamese at the peace table. >> we all want them to come and hope theyll ...

August 1968. anna chennault touches down in saigon, south vietnams wartime capital. >> mrs. chennault feared that south vietnam would be the next domino to fall to the communists unless america held the line against communist north vietnam. n n >> now anna had come to join the struggle as richard nixons secret agent. >> i went with her on one of her trips to saigon. we stayed at the hotel caravel downtown where most of the reporters were staying. its a weird atmosphere from the hotel restaurant ...

Nights 6:00 p.m. eastern on "the beat with ari melber" right here on msnbc. >> announcer: this is an msnbc special presentation. this is a jagged little puzzle of a story. here are some of the pieces. a bitter race for the white house. a candidate who would do anything to win, maybe even conspire with a foreign government. a secret campaign meeting in an iconic tower on new yorks fifth avenue. and in this case a mysterious woman who may have tipped the scales at a time when america seemed to b...

>> the plot is born. july 12th, the pierre hotel, 39th floor. nixon campaign headquarters. the candidate and a top foreign diplomat meet in secret in an iconic tower on new yorks fifth avenue. >> the only people present at this meeting were nixon himself, his campaign chairman, john mitchell, anna chennault, and the south vietnamese ambassador. nixon decided to make it a very, very shady operation indeed. >> just four people alone in a back room at nixons headquarters. lets break it down. john m...

Politicians as well as protesters. >> when the strongest nation in the world can be tied down for four years in a war against a fourth-rate military power in vietnam with no end in sight, then i say its time for new leadership in the united states of america. >> and, yes, at the apex of the war, the u.s. was holding a presidential election. so now lets back up to march 31st, 1968, the day that vietnam ended the presidency of linden b. johnson. >> gosh, this is hard to read. you have no idea. >> ...

Prosecutor staff, media. we had a partisan judiciary committee staff, and a fifth column. i gave them a sword, and they stuck it in, and they twisted it with relish. >> the real story of the war nixon describes is one that few americans know. its a story of a small group of men who turned impeachment into an act of patriotism. it all begins on june 17th, 1972. >> five men were arrested early saturday while trying to install eavesdropping equipment at the democratic national committee. >> why was...

Than the impeachment of a president. as a nation tunes into the first televised impeachment hearings in two decades, we are reminded of the watergate hearing also televised before nixon resigned rather than being impeached. altering history forever by offering the publics blockbuster moment such as this mome moment, john dean. >> it was the first impeachment scandal, the first president being impeached at all being andrew johnson in 1968. in the 1970s, the nation was died divided on nixons fate....