In other words, Nixon's friends on Wall Street were placing their financial bets based on the inside dope that Johnson's peace initiative was doomed to fail. (In another document, Walt Rostow identified his brother's source as Alexander Sachs, who was then on the board of Lehman Brothers.)
A separate memo from Eugene Rostow said the speaker had added that Nixon "was trying to frustrate the President, by inciting Saigon to step up its demands, and by letting Hanoi know that when he [Nixon] took office 'he could accept anything and blame it on his predecessor.'" So, according to the source, Nixon was trying to convince both the South and North Vietnamese that they would get a better deal if they stalled Johnson.
In his later memo to the file, Walt Rostow recounted that he learned this news shortly before attending a morning meeting at which President Johnson was informed by U.S. Ambassador to South Vietnam Ellsworth Bunker about "Thieu's sudden intransigence.... Walt Rostow said, "the diplomatic information previously received plus the information from New York took on new and serious significance."
That same day, Johnson "instructed Bromley Smith, Executive Secretary of the National Security Council, to get in touch with the Deputy Director of the FBI, Deke DeLoach, and arrange that contacts by Americans with the South Vietnamese Embassy in Washington be monitored," Rostow wrote.
The White House soon learned that Anna Chennault, the fiercely anti-communist Chinese-born widow of Lt. Gen. Claire Chennault and a member of Nixon's campaign team, was holding curious meetings with South Vietnamese Ambassador to the United States Bui Diem. On Oct. 30, an FBI intercept overheard Bui Diem telling Mrs. Chennault that something "is cooking," and asking her to come by the embassy.
Johnson Complains
On Oct. 31, at 4:09 p.m., Johnson -- his voice thick from a cold -- began working the phones, trying to counteract Nixon's chicanery. The Democratic president called Republican Senate Leader Everett Dirksen and broached a concern about Nixon's interference with the peace talks. Johnson said he considered Nixon's behavior a betrayal because he had kept Nixon abreast of the peace progress, according to an audio recording of the conversation released by the LBJ Library in late 2008.
"I played it clean," Johnson said. "I told Nixon every bit as much, if not more, as Humphrey knows. I've given Humphrey not one thing."
Johnson added, "I really think it's a little dirty pool for Dick's people to be messing with the South Vietnamese ambassador and carrying messages around to both of them [North and South Vietnam]. And I don't think people would approve of it if it were known."
Dirksen: "Yeah."
Referring to his political trouble with Democrats as well as Republicans, Johnson continued, "While they criticized my conduct of the war, they have never told the enemy that he'd get a better deal, but these last few days, Dick is just gotten a little shaky and he's pissing on the fire a little."
Johnson then told Dirksen, "We have a transcript where one of his partners says he's going to frustrate the President by telling the South Vietnamese that, 'just wait a few more days,' ... he can make a better peace for them, and by telling Hanoi that he didn't run this war and didn't get them into it, that he can be a lot more considerate of them than I can because I'm pretty inflexible. I've called them sons of bitches."
Dirksen responded by expressing the Republican concern that Johnson might spring a breakthrough on the peace talks right before the election. "The fellas on our side get antsy-pantsy about it," the Illinois Republican said. "They wonder what the impact would be if a cease-fire or a halt to the bombing will be proclaimed at any given hour, what its impact would be on the results next Tuesday," Election Day.
Johnson denied he would play politics with the war and recalled Nixon's pledges to support his handling of the war. Johnson said, "With Nixon saying 'I want the war stopped, that I'm supporting Johnson, that I want him to get peace if he can, that I'm not going to pull the rug out [from under] him,' I don't know how it could be helped unless he goes to parting under the covers and gets his hand under somebody's dress."
Knowing Dirksen would report back to Nixon, Johnson also cited a few details to give his complaint more credibility. "He better keep Mrs. Chennault and all this crowd tied up for a few days," Johnson said.
Bombing Halt
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