LBJ on Nixon’s ‘Treason’

Nixon isn’t the only president with unheard tapes to surface. New White House tapes of Johnson reveal the former president attacking Nixon over his attempt to slow down the Vietnam peace talks in 1968 to prevent Democratic candidate Hubert Humphrey from gaining good publicity ahead of the presidential election. “This is treason,” Johnson said, referring to Nixon associates in a conversation with the Senate Republican leader. “If Nixon keeps the South Vietnamese away from the [peace] conference, well, that’s going to be his responsibility.” Even more intriguing is a conversation between LBJ and Nixon, in which Nixon says, “I just wanted you to know that I feel very, very strongly about this. We’ve got to get them to Paris, or we can’t have a peace.”