In 1968 - President Lyndon Johnson was desperately trying to end the Vietnam war.
But Richard Nixon knew that if the war continued - it would tarnish Democrat Hubert Humphrey’s chances of winning the election.
So Nixon sent envoys from his campaign to talk to South Vietnamese leaders to encourage them not to attend an upcoming peace talk in Paris.
Nixon promised South Vietnam that he would give them a better deal when he was President than LBJ could give them then.
LBJ found out about this political maneuver to prolong the Vietnam war just 3 days before the 1968 election. He phoned the Republican Senate leader Everett Dirksen:
President Johnson:
Now, I can identify ‘em, because I know who’s doing this. I don’t want to identify it. I think it would shock America if a principal candidate was playing with a source like this on a matter this important.
I don’t want to do that.
But if they’re going to put this kind of stuff out, they ought to know that we know what they’re doing. I know who they’re talking to, and I know what they’re saying. ...
Some of our folks, including some of the old China lobby, are going to the Vietnamese embassy and saying please notify the president that if he'll hold out 'til November the second they could get a better deal. Now, I'm reading their hand, Everett. I don't want to get this in the campaign.
And they oughtn't to be doin' this. This is treason.
Sen. Dirksen: I know.
Those tapes were just released by the LBJ library last year. It's amazing. That’s Richard Nixon that Lyndon Johnson was accusing of treason.
But by then - Nixon’s plan had worked.
South Vietnam boycotted the peace talks - the war continued - and Nixon won the White House thanks to it.
- See more at:
http://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/20...-without-fraud-treason-1#sthash.7QGhHxnR.dpuf
Teabaggers aren't the first Rebublicons to commit treason...