Lyndon B. Johnson's tapes reveal Richard Nixon's treasonous act

[star-warrior]

Perhaps old news to some. Declassification sheds light on rumors.

I think every POTUS should have their office bugged for posterity.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21768668

In a series of remarkable White House recordings we can hear Johnson's reaction to the news.

In one call to Senator Richard Russell he says: "We have found that our friend, the Republican nominee, our California friend, has been playing on the outskirts with our enemies and our friends both, he has been doing it through rather subterranean sources. Mrs Chennault is warning the South Vietnamese not to get pulled into this Johnson move."

He orders the Nixon campaign to be placed under FBI surveillance and demands to know if Nixon is personally involved.

When he became convinced it was being orchestrated by the Republican candidate, the president called Senator Everett Dirksen, the Republican leader in the Senate to get a message to Nixon.

The president knew what was going on, Nixon should back off and the subterfuge amounted to treason.

 

[Sausy]

Neither one looks good here.... but as bad as Johnson was getting us into Vietnam so deep,and his machinations to reclaim the presidential nomination from the Democrats, though he backed off in the end... Nixon was truly vile and treacherous and damn if any of this had come out our whole history these past four plus decades later would have been changed immensely. Damn Nixon really was a sociopath....so many more dying in his actual extension of the war after his "election". I don't care if it's Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, Obama or who occupies the office in the future, I agree here with star-warrior.

 

[Benvolio]

It is not treason, based on what little we know. It would not have been illegal for Nixon to speak to our allies, the South Vietnamese, nor to the North Vietnamese, without knowing what was said. Nixon was a far more honest and honorable man than either Johnson, or Kennedy.

 

[Durango95]

It is not treason, based on what little we know. It would not have been illegal for Nixon to speak to our allies, the South Vietnamese, nor to the North Vietnamese, without knowing what was said. Nixon was a far more honest and honorable man than either Johnson, or Kennedy.

I wouldn't go that far. Nixon was a sleazoid. I'd say he was cut from the very same cloth as Johnson or Kennedy.

 

[Benvolio]

Nonsense. Watergate was a minor incident, no different from what other Presidents do, but blown out of proportion by the Democrats and their slavish media. When Clinton's mistress said on tape that the President had told her to lie under oath, the Democrats wanted to brush it aside as unimportant. Kennedy hid his serious Addison's disease and all his many mistresses, including the one he shared with a Mob boss,

 

[CowboyBob]

Nixon had a lot of character issues. Paranoia got the best of him.

Nonsense. Watergate was a minor incident, no different from what other Presidents do, but blown out of proportion by the Democrats and their slavish media. When Clinton's mistress said on tape that the President had told her to lie under oath, the Democrats wanted to brush it aside as unimportant. Kennedy hid his serious Addison's disease and all his many mistresses, including the one he shared with a Mob boss,

Oh Christ, now you're dismissing Watergate?!?!

You really stick your neck out for your political party. There are a lot of us who lived through it and re-writing history isn't going to change it.

 

[White Eagle]

Neither one looks good here.... but as bad as Johnson was getting us into Vietnam so deep,and his machinations to reclaim the presidential nomination from the Democrats, though he backed off in the end... Nixon was truly vile and treacherous and damn if any of this had come out our whole history these past four plus decades later would have been changed immensely. Damn Nixon really was a sociopath....so many more dying in his actual extension of the war after his "election". I don't care if it's Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, Obama or who occupies the office in the future, I agree here with star-warrior.

I think everyone in the forum knows what an ass I became last night and I apologize for it. The reason, ironically, was Vietnam, and now this. It had to come out of BBC. That is why I like the BBC.
I don't think I have mentioned on the forum that I am a Vietnam Veteran in the Navy. I have been becoming involved with Veteran websites and a lot of my time these days are with that. My radio station has started playing a song about a man who lost his brother in whatever senseless war. I have been crying all day yesterday and actually crying about my partners death. So please forgive me and I will turn off the radio when that song comes on.

 

[JayHawk]

Nixon used to make great cookie.....

Johnson had some brownies that were to die for......

Really ??? we are arguing about Nixon and Johnson... lol

fuck me

 

[star-warrior]

fuck me

OK. Bend over!

 

[chrisrobin]

Nonsense. Watergate was a minor incident, no different from what other Presidents do, but blown out of proportion by the Democrats and their slavish media. When Clinton's mistress said on tape that the President had told her to lie under oath, the Democrats wanted to brush it aside as unimportant. Kennedy hid his serious Addison's disease and all his many mistresses, including the one he shared with a Mob boss,

It wasn't the break-in. It was the cover-up. This was not a minor incident. It was a Constitutional crisis. Check a reputable history book if you are able to identify one. Squared away by 1974.

the Democrats and their slavish media.

 

[Jack Springer]

... and you and others were just trashing Bob Woodward for exposing the lies of the Obama Administration.

Can it get any more ridiculous.

Nixon had a lot of character issues. Paranoia got the best of him.



Oh Christ, now you're dismissing Watergate?!?!

You really stick your neck out for your political party. There are a lot of us who lived through it and re-writing history isn't going to change it.

 

[White Eagle]

It had to happen. Now it is a bash Obama thread.

 

[JayHawk]

OK. Bend over!

it'd be damn sight more entertaining than this discussion... but yeah I know I know... if you aint got nothing nice to say and all....

 

[chrisrobin]

it'd be damn sight more entertaining than this discussion...

............

 

[JayHawk]

............

lol OK YOU ASKED FOR IT....your gonna hafta feed me first

 

[CowboyBob]

... and you and others were just trashing Bob Woodward for exposing the lies of the Obama Administration.

Can it get any more ridiculous.

The only ridiculous crap here are your lies Springer.

Show me the post where I trashed Bob Woodward. Post a link to it.

And FYI, you're not supposed to bring arguments from one thread to another but when have you ever followed the rules.

Can it get any more ridiculous.

It had to happen. Now it is a bash Obama thread.

He turns every thread into a bash Obama thread. It's his obsessive hatred for the man.

 

[TX-Beau]

That's how they roll in the UnderBridge.

 

[Kulindahr]

Why does it not surprise me that Nixon would betray his country in order to achieve his political goals?

Humphrey should have made it all public.

 

[chrisrobin]

Why does it not surprise me that Nixon would betray his country in order to achieve his political goals?

What would you expect from a paranoid megalomaniac?

 

[Sausy]

It is not treason, based on what little we know. It would not have been illegal for Nixon to speak to our allies, the South Vietnamese, nor to the North Vietnamese, without knowing what was said. Nixon was a far more honest and honorable man than either Johnson, or Kennedy.

Excuse me, knowing we were close to possibly starting talks to end the war and then Nixon decides he has to prevent it and gives incentives to the South Vietnamese NOT to talk so he can pretend to be the candidate with a plan for the end of the war....WHICH HE EXPANDED after his narrow victory? Johnson was a jerk in a lot of ways in my book....but he couldn't hold a candle in sheer capacity for evil and duplicity as that perverse Richard Milhous Nixon!

I knew Nixon was pretty nasty, a bundle of contradictions as a big government Republican who was also a hateful bigot and divider, the father of the racially charged "Southern Strategy" to woo disaffected ultraconservative Southern Democrats to his Republican "Silent Majority". But his machinations changed history by not getting exposed in a major way. JayHawk is dead wrong on dismissing the impact of this as well.

Those on the left, who don't hold their guy's feet to the fire and demand accountability and transparency from our leadership and press are no heroes either. It still however stands that what the BBC has released is the fullest documentation of a shocking historic act of treasonous proportions, and YES it does equate to that. It's trite but those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it....and it becomes even more problematic and dfangerous when only a few know exactly what terrible things are going on but for their own purposes, keep the truth bottled up.