Election

I just finished a book about the Pentagon Papers and came across some rather startling information that is eerily similar to what is going on today. When the Viet Nam War was going badly and Johnson decided not to run for reelection, Humphrey broke with Johnson and came out against the war. At that time Nixon had a large lead in the polls and this changed. His lead further declined when Johnson announced that peace talks would begin. Nixon had contacted a Chinese American woman named Anna Hennault who was an avid anticommunist and convinced her to contact the leadership in South Viet Nam and explain they would get a better deal if they waited for Nixon to be president. They then agreed to stop the peace talks and Nixon once again moved ahead in the polls. What Nixon didn't know was that Johnson had tapped the phones of the South Viet Nam President and knew of the Nixon plot. Johnson contacted Senator Dirksen and asked him to intercede with Nixon to stop the interference. Nixon then called Johnson and said he was not directly involved in any discussion with the South and Johnson accepted that. Johnson was not convinced but it was so close to the election he was afraid to release the information feeling it would be cause undo harm to the election process. He also would have to admit that he was tapping the phone of the South's president. In other words it was a case of an American presidential candidate using a foreign country to interfere with an American election. Apparently President Obama found himself in a similar situation and decided not to make a big deal out of the Russian interference feeling that Hilary would be elected and it would all go away. He also would have to reveal how he knew about the Russian involvement and perhaps there were things going on better left unsaid.