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The national security adviser who colluded with foreign powers -- decades before Michael Flynn
Source: Washington Post
The national security adviser who colluded with foreign powers — decades before Michael Flynn
New documents reveal that Richard Nixon’s 1968 campaign colluded with a foreign government far more than historians thought.
By Shane O’Sullivan
December 26 at 6:00 AM
The delayed sentencing of former national security adviser Michael Flynn — for lying to investigators about “sensitive matters” discussed with the Russian ambassador to the United States during the Trump presidential transition — leaves unanswered questions about alleged collusion between Flynn and the Russians during the 2016 campaign.
It also evokes parallels with another former national security adviser, Richard Allen. Allen played a leading role in the Anna Chennault affair, a secret plan formed by Richard Nixon’s campaign to collude with the South Vietnamese government during the 1968 presidential campaign and sabotage Vietnam peace talks in Paris to ensure a Nixon victory.
The Chinese-born widow of a U.S. Air Force general, Chennault was the Nixon campaign’s conduit to the government in Saigon during the 1968 campaign through her friendship with Bui Diem, the South Vietnamese ambassador in Washington and Saigon’s representative at the peace talks.
Newly discovered documents show that, as foreign-policy coordinator to the Nixon campaign, Allen was deeply involved with Chennault’s election interference and secret meetings with the South Vietnamese ambassador, which began five months earlier than historians previously thought. President Lyndon B. Johnson discovered Nixon’s double-dealing in the final days of the campaign, but he didn’t go public with what he knew, and the Chennault affair was never officially investigated. Allen denied any involvement, and although Nixon chose Henry Kissinger as national security adviser, Allen later assumed the role in the Reagan White House.
Though most historians trace the beginning of the Nixon campaign’s collusion with the South Vietnamese to a secret meeting with Bui Diem in July 1968, previously unpublished calendar entries from Chennault’s personal papers show an earlier meeting, in February that year, just two weeks after Nixon announced his candidacy in New Hampshire. This previously undiscovered meeting means the collusion, involving senior political and foreign-policy staffers, was part of the campaign from the start, transforming our understanding of the Chennault affair and its role in Nixon’s victory.
-snip-
New documents reveal that Richard Nixon’s 1968 campaign colluded with a foreign government far more than historians thought.
By Shane O’Sullivan
December 26 at 6:00 AM
The delayed sentencing of former national security adviser Michael Flynn — for lying to investigators about “sensitive matters” discussed with the Russian ambassador to the United States during the Trump presidential transition — leaves unanswered questions about alleged collusion between Flynn and the Russians during the 2016 campaign.
It also evokes parallels with another former national security adviser, Richard Allen. Allen played a leading role in the Anna Chennault affair, a secret plan formed by Richard Nixon’s campaign to collude with the South Vietnamese government during the 1968 presidential campaign and sabotage Vietnam peace talks in Paris to ensure a Nixon victory.
The Chinese-born widow of a U.S. Air Force general, Chennault was the Nixon campaign’s conduit to the government in Saigon during the 1968 campaign through her friendship with Bui Diem, the South Vietnamese ambassador in Washington and Saigon’s representative at the peace talks.
Newly discovered documents show that, as foreign-policy coordinator to the Nixon campaign, Allen was deeply involved with Chennault’s election interference and secret meetings with the South Vietnamese ambassador, which began five months earlier than historians previously thought. President Lyndon B. Johnson discovered Nixon’s double-dealing in the final days of the campaign, but he didn’t go public with what he knew, and the Chennault affair was never officially investigated. Allen denied any involvement, and although Nixon chose Henry Kissinger as national security adviser, Allen later assumed the role in the Reagan White House.
Though most historians trace the beginning of the Nixon campaign’s collusion with the South Vietnamese to a secret meeting with Bui Diem in July 1968, previously unpublished calendar entries from Chennault’s personal papers show an earlier meeting, in February that year, just two weeks after Nixon announced his candidacy in New Hampshire. This previously undiscovered meeting means the collusion, involving senior political and foreign-policy staffers, was part of the campaign from the start, transforming our understanding of the Chennault affair and its role in Nixon’s victory.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2018/12/26/national-security-adviser-who-colluded-with-foreign-powers-decades-before-michael-flynn/