article_snippet: In 1968, a U.S. presidential election looked close.
article_snippet: With the Johnson administration edging toward a peace deal in Vietnam, Richard Nixon's team rolled the dice.
article_snippet: According to an account in Politico, Anna Chennault, a Republican activist, was given a message to pass onto the South Vietnamese government: If the South Vietnamese government undermined the peace talks by being stubborn, the Democrats would lose the election and Richard Nixon as the President would offer the Democrats better terms.
article_snippet: The South Vietnamese indeed proved intransigent, and the Republicans won the White House.
article_snippet: In a republic purposefully designed to have limited executive power, with a competitive two-party system bolted on to keep limited executive power politics fluid, this was arguably inevitable.