The Russian Hack Was Trump S Nixon Moment

With proof recently surfacing that Richard Nixon was secretly plotting with South Vietnam to undercut his opponent in the 1968 presidential election, I realized that I’ve now lived through three acts of alleged electoral sabotage by foreign countries conniving with Republicans.

  And, of course, there’s the most recent case where Russian hackers, who may have been under the command of President Vladimir Putin, allegedly tapped into Democratic National Committee computers this summer and released embarrassing e-mails that undercut Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

  According to those notes, Nixon told Haldeman to “keep Anna Chennault working on SVN. . . . Anyway other way to monkey wrench it? Anything RN [Nixon] can do?”

  Thanks to his moles in the Johnson administration, Nixon knew all about Johnson’s negotiations with North Vietnam. So he directed one of his supporters—Anna Chennault—to secretly meet with the South Vietnamese ambassador. He wanted Chennault to deliver the message that South Vietnam would get a better deal if Nixon were elected, so they should not join the peace talks in Paris.

  One lie—as we now know from Haldeman’s notes.

  Johnson then headed into Trump country with a gratuitous aside about Mrs. Chennault.

    Dirksen: “I know. . .”

    Johnson: “They’re contacting a foreign power in the middle of a war.”

    Dirksen: “That’s a mistake.”

    Johnson: “And it”s a damn bad mistake.”

    Dirksen: “Oh, it is.”

    Johnson: “You better tell ’em they better quit playing with it. You just tell ’em that their people are messing around in this thing and if they don’t want it on the front pages, they better quit.”


    Johnson: “Yes.”

    Nixon: “This is Dick Nixon.”

    Johnson: “Yes, Dick.”