Anna Chennault dies

[Steve Thomas]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/anna-chennault-formidable-washington-hostess-and-secret-emissary-dies-at-94/2018/04/03/45aa3c12-36c4-11e8-8fd2-49fe3c675a89_story.html?utm_term=.ea1ff9ef1b84

 

In the weeks before the 1968 election, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced plans to suspend U.S. bombing of North Vietnam as an attempt to jump-start peace talks in Paris. Nixon feared that an agreement to end the Vietnam War could tip the election to the Democratic nominee, Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey.

Nixon’s campaign asked Mrs. Chennault to approach South Vietnamese officials with a request to delay or abandon the negotiations in Paris, in an effort to thwart Humphrey.

 

The back-channel meeting was wiretapped by the FBI, and a furious Johnson was listening to Mrs. Chennault’s message.

“This is treason,” the president told Senate Minority Leader Everett M. Dirksen (R-Ill.), referring to the apparent efforts to interfere with U.S. diplomacy.

 

At the end of the war, Claire Chennault co-founded an air-cargo company called Civil Air Transport. After his death, the company was purchased by the CIA and renamed Air America, which operated largely without public oversight into the 1970s.

 

Steve Thomas

Edited April 3, 2018 by Steve Thomas

[Kirk Gallaway]

Steve, I think you're talking about the  Anna Chenault (Chen Xiang Mei), Claire Chenault's (1883) second wife. Chenault had 10 kids by 2 marriages.

I rented a room once to a guy who was related, I believe a grandson, Rawson, who was quite a character.

[Steve Thomas]

7 hours ago, Kirk Gallaway said:

Steve, I think you're talking about the  Anna Chenault (Chen Xiang Mei), Claire Chenault's (1883) second wife. Chenault had 10 kids by 2 marriages.

I rented a room once to a guy who was related, I believe a grandson, Rawson, who was quite a character.

Kirk,

 

I'm sorry. You're right. Claire was her husband.

Silly me.

 

Steve Thomas