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The problem was that Lyndon Johnson desperately wanted to have the Vietnam War settled before he left office. Whereas, | 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. | 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, HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015105