Episode 49 UPHEAVAL!! ( Part 8 ) The Finish Line & the Un-Smoking Gun

This episode opens in the final two days of the 1968 campaign as the election polls  have tightened to an even race. Vice President Hubert Humphrey has made up enormous ground and with the announced bombing halt of North Vietnam it looks like all the momentum is with him. Here you see both Humphrey and former Vice President Richard Nixon out on the stump working overtime trying to get the race won. In a last day rally in Texas at the Houston Astrodome President Lyndon Johnson comes out to sway Texas voters on behalf of the Democratic standard bearer. 

The race is to close to call but finally by the closest of  margins, even closer than the 1960 election, Richard Nixon holds on to win the Presidency. Hear both candidates speak to their supporters and hear President Lyndon Johnson console the Humphrey's just moments after Vice President Humphrey concedes the race. 

Then we listen in as President Johnson puts to use all his skills to persuade Senator Everett Dirksen and President - Elect Richard Nixon to work on making the Paris Peace talks happen. It is in these calls, and in another to Florida Senator George Smathers, that we hear what Johnson really thinks about who has been meddling in the attempts to bring the South Vietnamese to the table. It is the Un-smoking gun that sinks the Chennault Affair as being an act of treason committed by Richard Nixon, if you really care about truth that is.  

You will also hear a promise from Richard Nixon to Lyndon Johnson the we will see Richard Nixon live up to throughout the next four years, at his own political detriment. 

It is a fascinating end to a fascinating year of massive UPHEAVAL in our country, the United States of America. 

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