Nixon Campaign Sabotages Vietnam Peace Talks Through Anna Chennault to Win Election - Johnson Calls It Treason

Richard Nixon’s campaign secretly communicates with the South Vietnamese government to sabotage President Johnson’s Paris peace talks, with H.R. Haldeman’s notes documenting Nixon’s direct instruction to “keep Anna Chennault working on SVN [South Vietnam].” Nixon uses Chennault, a Chinese-born Republican fundraiser and widow of World War II General Claire Chennault, along with South Vietnamese Ambassador Bui Diem, to promise South Vietnam a better deal if Nixon wins the presidency. When President Thieu abruptly refuses to participate in peace talks on October 31, just days before the election, the sabotage succeeds.

President Johnson learns of the back-channel communications through FBI, CIA, and NSA surveillance, telling Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen on November 2: “I’m reading their hand. This is treason.” Dirksen responds simply, “I know.” Johnson tells Dirksen that “We could stop the killing out there. But they’ve got this new formula put in there—namely wait on Nixon. And they’re killing four or five hundred a day waiting on Nixon.” However, Johnson never makes the information public, fearing damage to the presidency and having to admit government agencies spied on Chennault and South Vietnamese officials.

Nixon wins the extremely close election by just 0.7% of the popular vote. Historian Jules Witcover concludes that a peace agreement before Election Day could have been decisive, as even a small polling boost for Hubert Humphrey might have changed the outcome. The sabotage prolongs the Vietnam War for five more years, during which approximately 22,000 additional American soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese die. The Chennault affair demonstrates how presidential candidates can commit what amounts to treason—undermining U.S. foreign policy and prolonging a war for electoral advantage—without facing criminal prosecution or even public accountability when evidence remains classified.