Can we have a Cadaver Impeachment, along the lines of the Cadaver Synod?
Nixon was a Scientologist? 
There’s happy drunks, there’s quiet drunks … and there’s nasty drunks.
Seems to be more the rumours. Here’s the source of the OP’s article with links to alot of the original documents. They apparently had a Nixon aid on a wiretap asking the S. Vietnamese ambassador to delay on behalf of her “boss”. Some debate apparently whether “boss” meant Agnew or Nixon, but in any case, seems pretty clear the Nixon camp was trying to stop the talks, and Johnson was aware of it.
So, you’re saying that this Nixon character was up to no good?
The Anna Chennault thing is old news to anyone who still cares about it. HNN does a better job at covering it than Washington Post.
There are a couple competing theories as to why LBJ sat on it, but there’s no question that he did. I trust Robert Caro will get to the bottom of it and IMHO it’s a much more interesting question than anything to do with the JFK assassination.
Is this significantly different from Reagan’s dealings with the Iranians behind Carter’s back in 1980?
Yes. A hell of a lot more people died for it. Reagan’s move was ultimately just cynical, not truly evil.
Why? Power. An ace in the hole. If Nixon won, which was by no means certain, then he had something over the President. But only so long as he didn’t play the card, once it was out, he had no more control.
It was cynics (So. Viet Nam regime) against the fanatics (NLF and N. Viet Nam). I remember a line told me by my cousin: “You’re about to meet some of the bravest, most dedicated and resourceful men you will ever meet. Trouble is, they are the enemy.”
“Peace with honor” was a shuck, a beard. The NLF was never going to give up, ever. And the South Viet regime was ready to fight to the last American. No overt messaging was necessary, a wink, a shrug, a hint, all that was required. So Nixon could have it both ways, he could rely on the base Republican certainty that he was much more a warrior than Humphrey Dumphrey, and still restrain the anti-war sentiment with some bullshit about “peace with honor”. It worked, may the Goddess forgive us, it worked. We bought it.
I’m thinking the file would be embarrassing, would be a problem, but not definitive, no fingerprints, no “smoking gub”. At worst, he’d have to toss Kissinger overboard. Which wouldn’t be nice, he most likely would have hesitated for about two seconds. Adios, smart-ass Jewboy!
It’s a similar incident, if it occurred.
The linked article has some Nixon tapes where it is very clear that Nixon is worried about what the Johnson administration knew about doings of Nixon. Nowhere in the conversation does Nixon describe what was in the files he was looking for.
Never heard anyone call Nixon a drunk. Was he?
LBJ had so much emotional and political investment in the war – perhaps he was actually ambivalent as to whether he wnated the Paris Peace Talks to succeed or not.
Covered in the same article, BTW; apparently the Iran-Contra scandal was a direct result of the October Surprise.
This part of the story cracks me up:
Here just deal with shit until I’m dead, and then do whatever.
Worse, Nixon ran in 1968 on strongly implying (never outright promising) that he would end the war in his first term (that would be his motive for sabotaging the peace talks, to preserve the war as a live campaign-issue); but he kept it going until well into his second, at the cost of thousands more American lives and at least tens of thousands more Vietnamese lives.
Too soon!
Is this a whoosh?
Absolutely. He was a very heavy drinker. Google Nixon dunk and you’ll get a lot if hits, including claims he was at times too drunk to discuss critical foreign policy issues. Here’s a recording of Nixon allegedly drunk talking to Bob Haldeman. He’s not falling down drunk and slurring every word, it’s a little more subtle than that, but he is clearly being affected by … something.
Ignoring ElvisL1ves’s snarky “LMGTFY” collection of blogs, IIRC, Nixon was a lightweight around alcohol. It’s conceivable that on a given night he may have had a few drinks at a function, been unable to handle himself, and an outsider saw it - thus begins the “Nixon is a drunk” stories. People want to attribute things like that to important men, especially an easy target like Nixon, when the truth is that most of the personal slurs on Nixon are false. There’s a whole raft of goofy rumors about him, like one that he was in a gay love affair. If you hear something about him that disagrees with his image as an uptight square, take it with a huge grain of salt.
I wish I could remember where I read the lightweight thing.
While we’re dispelling Presidential rumors: LBJ’s dick was average. Definitely not the size that could browbeat visiting officials into submission.