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Ends. >> it's classic johnson. it's classic. you know, get to the head of the republican party to try to get nixon to do this. >> i'm reading their hand everett, i don't want to get this in the campaign. and they ought to be doing this, this is treason. >> i know. >> they're contacting a foreign power in the middle of a war. >> that's a mistake. >> it's a bad mistake, you tell them that their people are messing around in this thing. if they don't want it on the front pages, they have to quit it. >> he's olding out the prospect of going public with this explosive story. the same time, you can h...

August 1968, anna chenault touches down in siaigon. now anna had come to join the struggle as richard nixon's 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. it's 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 everybody's life. >> chenault arrived in saigon with an ironclad ally, her work

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. then i say it's 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 let's back up to march 31st, 1968. the day that vietnam ended the presidency of lyndon b. johnson. >> gosh, this is hard to read, jim, you have no idea. >> on that last evening in march, tv cameras rolled into the president's office. johnson spoke live to an anxious nation. >> tonight i want t...

That existed. a lot of people didn't recognize it. >> by august of 1968, america's war in vietnam had already killed 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, you'd go into a village and you'd start searching it, throwing stuff around inside of somebody's house. and worse. you don't win hearts and minds by burning down houses and shooting chickens and by taking target practice on some farmer. not that these things were typical, but they happened often enough to not win he...

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 the peace talks that president johnson believes will end the war. sabotage any negotiations that mi...