Nixon and the Dragon Lady

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  • Title: Nixon and the Dragon Lady: Did Richard Nixon Conspire with Anna Chennault in 1968 to Destroy Peace in Vietnam
  • Author(s): Evan Laine
  • Publisher: Common Ground Research Networks
  • Collection: Common Ground Research Networks
  • Series: New Directions in the Humanities
  • Date: August 15, 2015
  • ISBN (pbk): 978-1-61229-795-8
  • ISBN (pdf): 978-1-61229-796-5
  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.18848/978-1-61229-796-5/CGP
  • Citation: Laine, Evan. 2015. Nixon and the Dragon Lady: Did Richard Nixon Conspire with Anna Chennault in 1968 to Destroy Peace in Vietnam. Champaign, IL: Common Ground Research Networks. doi:10.18848/978-1-61229-796-5/CGP.
  • Extent: 201 pages

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Copyright © 2015, Common Ground Research Networks, All Rights Reserved

Abstract

On October 31, 1968, President Lyndon Johnson planned to inform the US public that due to long, hard negotiations, peace talks in Paris to discuss a realistic opportunity to end the Vietnam War were soon to occur. Optimism for an end to this bloody war was high in Washington, Hanoi and Moscow. Nevertheless, without warning, despite numerous assurances of cooperation, the South Vietnamese pulled out of the planned negotiations destroying these high hopes and transferring these talks into nothing more than exercises in frustration. The war would continue for another seven years leaving thousands more to die and be injured. A startled and angry Johnson administration, desperately needing to understand what happened, blamed republican nominee for president, Richard Nixon and renowned China lobbyist Anna Chennault as the culprits working against them in the shadows in a diabolic conspiracy designed to ensure Nixon’s victory in his campaign for president that November. Was this incredible accusation of a conspiracy hatched for personal gain over peace true, and, if so, was Nixon its author? Further, even if true, did Nixon and Chennault’s actions have actual effect and was peace a realistic goal? In this twisting tale of intrigue with global consequences, using an interdisciplinary approach employing history, law, political science, psychology and sociology, Nixon and the Dragon Lady deconstructs the critical evidence while exploring the questionable credibility of its iconic cast of characters leaving the reader as the ultimate juror in a historical trial to determine “truth.”