Vietnam War: Peace Process - "Chennault Affair" - "Nixon's October Surprise" Documents Download

Vietnam War:  "Chennault Affair" - "Nixon's October Surprise" Documents

1,606 pages of Johnson and Nixon White House, FBI, CIA, NSA, NSC and State Department files,  oral history transcripts and 2 hours and 22 minutes of audio recordings of President Johnson phone conversations, related the "Chennault Affair," also sometimes referred to as "Nixon's October Surprise."

On October 31, 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced a halt to the bombing of North Vietnam. Johnson believed this would result in peace talks to end the Vietnam War. At the time, Johnson knew that some supporters of the Nixon campaign, chiefly Anna Chennault, were secretly communicating with the South Vietnamese Government in an effort to affect their approach to a peace process.

Anna Chennault was a Chinese-born Republican fundraiser and widow of U.S. Major General Claire Chennault, who led the World War II Flying Tigers.  Records of FBI wiretaps show that Chennault phoned South Vietnam's ambassador to the United States Bui Diem on November 2 with the message "hold on, we are gonna win." When he learned of the back-channel communications, President Johnson called the effort "treason." However, he never made the information public, fearing damaging the presidency as well as having to admit that he used government agencies to spy on Chennault and the South Vietnamese. In addition, Nixon denied involvement in the efforts.

On January 2, 2017, The New York Times reported that historian John A. Farrell, a biographer of Nixon, had found a memo written by H.R. Bob Haldeman of a conversation with Nixon, that some interpret as proof that he was cognizant of Chennault’s actions.

 

Highlights of this collection:

The X-File removed from the White House by Walt Rostow.

Handwritten notes dated Oct. 22, 1968,  by Nixon aide H.R. Haldeman - Notes taken during a phone conversation with Nixon. They include Nixon’s orders to “Keep Anna Chennault working on” South Vietnam, and also separately under the heading Bombing Halt, Nixon is noted as saying: “Any other way to monkey wrench it? Anything RN [Richard Nixon] can do.”

An audio recording of a phone conversation between LBJ and Richard Nixon, LBJ recounts the intelligence he has received concerning  Chennault's contact with the South Vietnamese.

 
Chennault Affair -  X-File

The 185-page White House file on the Chennault matter was maintained by National Security Advisor Walt Rostow, and he kept it after leaving the White House. It contains White House, FBI, CIA, NSA, NSC and State Department files.

In 1973, after Johnson's death, Rostow gave the sealed package to the director of the LBJ Presidential Library. Under the plain outer wrapping a letter size envelope was taped to the large inner envelope. Written on the small envelope was "the 'X' envelope," so it became known as the X-File or X-envelope. At the time the file was to be kept secret, with instructions that it was to be opened 50 years later. However, the LBJ Library opened it in 1994, and released some related telephone conversations in 2008. Some of the documents remain classified.

The file contains a November 2, 1968 FBI cable reporting that a source has reported that Chennault contacted Ambassador Bui Diem to convey “a message from her boss (not further identified),” according to an FBI cable. Further it reports that Chennault said “her boss wanted her to give [the message] personally to the ambassador. She said the message was that the ambassador is to ‘hold on, we are going to win’ and that her boss also said, ‘hold on, he understands all of it.’ She repeated that this is the only message ‘he said please tell your boss to hold on.’ She advised that her boss had just called from New Mexico.” At the time Republican vice-presidential nominee Spiro Agnew had recently campaigned in New Mexico.

 

President Lyndon B. Johnson Phone Conversations Audio Recordings

2 hours and 22 minutes of audio recordings of LBJ phone calls related to the Chennault Affair.

Highlights include:

An October 16, 1968  conference call between LBJ, Richard Nixon, Hubert Humphrey, and George Wallace. LBJ briefed the presidential candidates on his position on a Vietnam bombing halt, asks them not to make speeches that will impair negotiations, says he will advise all of them of any break through.

A November 2, 1968 conversation with U.S. Republican Senator Everett Dirksen. LBJ says South Vietnam had agreed to a bombing halt and to participate in peace talks, discusses investigative reports of Anna Chennault’s contacts with South Vietnam government, warns Dirksen of consequences of such contacts; Dirksen says he will talk to Nixon.

LBJ emphasized that several times during mid and late October Thieu had agreed to the bombing halt but he pointed out to Dirksen that actions on the Republican side had impacted the negotiations: “Then we got some of our friends involved, some of it your old China crowd, and here's the latest information we got. The [FBI] agent says that she's—they've just talked to the ‘boss’ in New Mexico, and he says that ‘you must hold out’—just hold on until after the election. Now, we know what Thieu is saying to them out there. We're pretty well-informed on both ends. Nixon's man traveling with him today said quote ‘that he did not understand that Thieu was not aboard.’”

A November 3, 1968 conversion with Nixon friend George Smathers, a conservative Democrat Senator from Florida. They discussed Smathers' Talk with an unnamed person (Richard Nixon) on reports that John Tower and Anna Chennault encouraged South Vietnam not to join peace talks; LBJ expresses concern about Nixon campaign's comments, LBJ reviews negotiations and reports of Chennault's contacts  .

A November 3, 1968 phone conversation between LBJ and Richard Nixon. During the conversation during LBJ recounts the intelligence he has received concerning  Chennault's contact with the South Vietnamese.

A November 4, 1968 conference call with Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford, Secretary of State Dean Rusk, National Security Advisor Walt Rostow, and LBJ aide Jim Jones. They discuss intelligence reports of Anna Chennault’s activities. Rusk and Clifford urge that LBJ not make the information public. They cited negative political implications of the story for LBJ.

A November 12, 1968 conversation with Deputy Associate Director of the FBI Cartha "Deke" DeLoach. LBJ asks DeLoach to investigate calls between Spiro Agnew and Anna Chennault concerning efforts to influence South Vietnam not to join Paris peace talks.

 
State Department Document Transcripts

450 pages of State Department transcripts of telegrams, telephone conversations, memos,  and reports dating from November 1, 1968 to January 20, 1969, concerning the Chennault  Affair, and the Johnson Administration efforts for a Vietnam War peace plan.

 
Nixon White House Papers

351 pages of Nixon White House documents related to the Chennault  Affair and President Johnson's Vietnam War negotiations for a bombing cessation.


President Richard Nixon Recordings Transcripts

77 pages of transcripts of two Nixon tapes containing content related to the Chennault Affair.

 
Oral Histories

500 pages of Lyndon B. Johnson Library and Richard M. Nixon Library oral histories. Interviews in which the Chennault Affair is mentioned. Interviewees include William Safire, Cartha Deke DeLoach, Lawrence  O'Brien Jr., Joseph Wright Alsop V, James H. Rowe Jr. and Bryce Nathaniel Harlow.