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The problem was that Lyndon Johnson desperately wanted to have
the Vietnam War settled before he left office. Whereas, I am ashamed to
admit, we were trying to prolong it.

Anna Chennault—the Dragon Lady, as we called her—was our
liaison to South Vietnamese government officials. Her task was to dissuade
their ambassador to the U.S, Bui Diem, from attending the Paris peace
talks.

But LBJ got wise to this. I had to call and cajole him personally. He
was absolutely furious. He complained bitterly at how "shit-kickin’
pissed off" he was. "Thieu is our boy," he shouted, "and don’ t you
fuckin’ forget that!"

On November 1, 1968, only four days before the American election,
President Nguyen Van Thieu announced that Saigon was pulling out of the
peace talks. The Dragon Lady had obviously convinced his associates that
they would obtain a juicier deal under our new administration than under
Johnson or his chosen successor, Hubert Humphrey, who would surely
have won if the Democrats had ended the war.

And so, because it was in the mutual interest of the South
Vietnamese and the Republicans to extend the war for several more years,

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