NPR

'Nixon: The Life' Humanizes — But Doesn't Rehabilitate

John A. Farrell's new biography of Richard Nixon contains a bombshell about Nixon's interference in a Vietnam peace deal — and that's just one of the book's many extensively-researched revelations.
Source: CBS Photo Archive

Did Richard Nixon commit treason? Some evidence to that effect has been around for years, specifically in regard to what's become known as the Chennault Affair. According to the theory, Anna Chennault — a Chinese-American Republican insider — sabotaged Lyndon Johnson's efforts to strike a peace deal in Vietnam in October of 1968, and she did so at the direct request of the soon-to-be 37th President.

The purported goal of this treasonous act was, presents the Chennault Affair as more than a theory. Farrell substantiates the charges of Nixon's treachery with a slew of new facts, many drawn from a newly unearthed stash of notes written by Nixon's White House Chief of Staff, H. R. Haldeman.

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