General Chenault News Today

Co-conspirators. sigh begans man in washington. then theres richard nixon. by 1968 the presidential want to be had lost his last two elections. >> in 1968 he wanted that presidency so bad, he was willing to do whatever was necessary. >> this is twice a big a crowd than we had in 1960, and the result is going to be twice as good. >> back on fifth avenue, we have three men in a hotel room. a veteran politician plotting his comeback. the man running his political operation. and south vietnams man i...

U.s. intelligence intercepts that cable. once president johnson gets wind of the republican interference. he orders the fbi to wiretap the vietnamese embassy. >> october 30th, the fbi sends president johnson a classified memo. ambassador received a call from an unidentified woman, believed to be anna chenault. >> johnson is flabbergasted. he didnt see this coming. >> shes young and attractive. shes a pretty good looking girl, and shes around town. and she is warning them to not get pulled in on ...

Party for another term as your president. >> johnsons speech shocked the world. the president would not run for re-election. and here was his offer to finally end the war. for presidential candidate richard nixon, lbjs peace proposal was a political nightmare. nixon needed the democratic party to own the horror show of the vietnam war, not to solve it. and the steel butterfly, anna chenault, she saw lbjs proposed bombing halt as a military blunder. >> every time we stop the bombing, only give th...

Process and hes ordering haldeman to make sure anna chenault stays active. nixon had always denied any personal knowledge of anna chenaults behavior, and wow! all of a sudden, here he is in haldemans notes saying, keep chenault working on the south vietnamese. anyway else we can monkey wrench johnsons initiatives. its a whole battle plan. >> the very next day after nixon orders his chief of staff to monkey wrench it, to keep anna schenn at on the job. telling saigon to not go along with the peac...

Nbc news predicted richard nixon. >> nixon wins by the second narrowest margin of the 20th century. the single narrowest margin was in 1960, the election that nixon lost to president kennedy. >> winning is a lot more fun. >> so nixon wins, and chenault thinks i will be a big deal in this administration because richard nixon owes me, and basically he wants no part of her. >> the nixon administration, they were afraid of any position for which you would have to have senate confirmation, have to be...

August 1968, anna chenault touches down in siaigon. 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 are staying. its a weird atmosphere from the hotel restaurant on top. you could see flairs on the edge of the city, bright lights in the night sky. bombs, and so on. the war was a part of everybodys life. >> chenault arrived in saigon with an ironclad ally, h...

Wants nixon to think hes got the goods on nixon himself. nixon wants johnson to think he has nothing to do with this. >> my god, i would never do anything to encourage hanoi -- "mean saigon, i mean we want them in paris. you have to get them to paris or you cant have a peace. >> lbj knew there was collusion with the south vietnamese government to keep them from negotiating peace. what lbj couldnt prove definitively is that nixon was involved. >> some of the old china lobby are going around and i...

Peace. nixon was playing to win. ready to undermine lbj, to steer sigh began away from the negotiating table with a word in the ear from richard nixons asian connection, mrs. anna chenault.

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, loved to have some major job. but i dont think 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 hundreds of pictures of her, shes the only woman in the picture. you kn...

Proposed this meeting to nixon. >> nixon is eager to meet but wants to keep it secret, even from his own secret service detail. which is suspicious all by itself. >> secret meetings, middlemen and women, foreign ambassadors and a tower in new york city. >> exactly what is said is not really recorded anywhere. but the clear message from nixon to the ambassador was, if you want to communicate anything to me. use mrs. chenault as a way to talk to me. >> the intrigue begins. the goal is to undermine...