ambassador to the united states, saigon s man in washington. and then there s richard nixon. by 1968, the perennial republican presidential wannabe had lost his last two elections, and he knew that this was his last shot. in 1968, he wanted that presidency so bad that he was willing to do whatever was necessary. this is twice as big a crowd as we had in 1960, and the result is going to be twice as good as in 1960. so back on fifth avenue, july 12th, we have three men in a hotel room a veteran politician plotting his comeback, the man running his political operation, and south vietnam s man in washington. plus one lone woman, anna chennau chennault. of course i had the opportunity to not only talking to the leaders but the people. nixon knew that anna
asian-american woman could change the course of american and vietnamese history. she was a businesswoman. she was a journalist. she was a significant fund-raiser for the republican party. i think she would love to have been an ambassador or love to have had some major job, but i don t think that in those days, men didn t take women seriously that way. she was in a way ahead of her time to have these feelings about, gee, why are all the people making decisions white men? i ve seen hundreds of pictures of her. she s the only woman in the picture. you know, a dozen women, and there s anna chennault standing in the middle. what was going on in vietnam? i just returned from the far east and southeast asia two weeks ago. a globetrotting journalist, the widow of a war hero revered from burma to beijing, and by 1968, she s an executive for a global freight airline. anna had access.
once president johnson gets wind of the republican interference, he orders the fbi to wiretap the vietnamese embassy. october 30th, the fbi sends president johnson a classified memo. ambassador diem received a call from an unidentified woman believed to be anna chennault. johnson is flabbergasted. he did not see this coming. mrs. chennault, you know, mrs. chennault is kind of the go-between. she s young and attractive. i mean she s a pretty good-looking girl, and she s around town, and she is warning them to not get pulled in on this johnson move. it s not totally unusual that
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process, and he s ordering haldeman to make sure anna chennault stays active. nixon had always denied any personal knowledge of anna chennault s behavior. and, wow, all of a sudden, here he is in haldeman s notes saying, keep anna chennault working on the south vietnamese and any way else we can monkey wrench johnson s initiatives. it was not just one casual remark. it s a whole battle plan. the very next day after nixon orders his chief of staff to monkey wrench it, to keep anna chennault on the job, telling saigon to not go along with the peace talks the very next day, anna s friend, south vietnam s man in d.c., he wires his superiors back home in saigon. he says this, quote, many republican friends have contacted me and encouraged us to stand firm. u.s. intelligence intercepts that cable.