Foreign powers interfered in the 1968 election. Why didn't LBJ stop them?

[elleng]

Was his disdain for his vice president greater than his desire for Democrats to win?

'On the eve of the midterm elections, Americans are nervous about foreign interference, especially since we still have not resolved just how much Russia interfered in the 2016 elections and whether they colluded with President Trump’s campaign. Amazingly, however, whatever special counsel Robert S. Mueller III finds, the Russian interference in 2016 won’t be the most jaw-dropping case of foreign involvement in an American election.

The reason: In 1968, Richard Nixon sought help from South Vietnam to defeat Democratic Vice President Hubert Humphrey. And when President Lyndon B. Johnson learned of this “treason,” he did nothing to reveal or halt it — because he wanted his own vice president to lose.

Johnson’s animosity toward Hubert Humphrey revealed itself as soon as the latter started his term as vice president. In March 1965, the newly sworn-in vice president warned Johnson against expanding the Vietnam conflict. In a memo, he argued that the war was unwinnable militarily and that the public, especially the Great Society political coalition, would not support a war based on a vague “national security” claim for long. Humphrey held that the best time to settle was now, following Johnson’s landslide victory in November 1964, which included a pledge of no wider war.

Humphrey’s memo proved prescient, but it infuriated the president, who in near-paranoid fashion presumed his vice president had written it to leak later, in the event he needed political cover.'>>>

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2018/11/04/foreign-powers-interfered-election-why-didnt-lbj-stop-them/?

[RockRaven]

1. Also -- it is alleged by many parties -- 1980 (Iran hostage crisis)

If you count GHW Bush as fruit of that poisonous tree, then the Republicans haven't won a non-incumbency legitimate (*ahem* Bush v Gore *ahem*) presidential election since Ike.

[displacedtexan]

6. That would be 1956.

And I agree. Assassinations, criminal deals with foreign adversaries and voting machine manipulation are the only means Republicans have to "win" elections. The rest of the time, they subvert the American education system and choke local and state coffers to the point where 35% is dumber than dirt and don't know the difference between tax cuts for the rich and higher state and local fees on everything from fishing licenses to everything else.

[NBachers]

2. Johnson's historical profile is getting worse & worse. Nixon's evil will live in infamy.

[Nitram]

3. I don't see Johnson's profile getting worse. We always knew he was first and foremost a politician.

He played hardball. He got Civil Rights legislation passed. He really did try to end poverty in America. Unfortunately, he foolishly refused to de-escalate the Vietnam conflict. I suspect he was taken in by the military's numbers game, where the body count was supposed to prove that we were "winning."

[JayhawkSD]

4. I agree with and thank you for your comment.

In today's political discussion the overall position is seldom to never considered. We pick one issue and priase or condemn the candidate/legislator based on that one issue alone.

LBJ is a case in point. He is debased for his conduct of the war in Vietnam and his courage for getting civil rights passed by a Congress that did not want to even touch it is forgotten.

It seems like today's voter can only grasp one idea at a time, and so we have not only the "single issue voter," but the "single issue discussion" as well.

[Scruffy1]

5. I disagree with this article.

Humphrey and Johnson had a relationship going back to 1948 and worke well together for many years. Also, Hubert was very laoyal to Johnson. so much so that he refused to go aginst the war in the election of 1968, which might of cost him the election. One letter and a moment of anger doesn't equate to he wanted Humphrey to lose. Johnson simply knew their was nothing he could do about the Republicans dirty deal bwecause he was a lame duck and he he couldn't muster up much support on the hill once the election was over. He already had calle in all of markers to get the Civil Rights bill passed and other legislation and the war he inherited and then made the mistake of trying to win by massive force made him unpopular. Old, sick and tired he left to live out his last days at his ranch.