October 22 , 1968. A Treasonous Act

On this day in 1968, an event that would not come to light until 2016 occurred in which then Presidential candidate Richard M. Nixon called H. R. Halderman, then an aid of his, and ordered him to have intermediaries persuade South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu to refuse to participate in the Parish Peace Talks.

Thieu.

It seems likely that Thieu was already of the mind to refuse to participate, in which case Nixon's action, which asserted that, through intermediaries, that he was likely to win the election, which was in fact correct, had no real impact. Still, the action, designed to aid his position in the election, is shocking and far worse than his support of the cover up of the break in of the Watergate Hotel some years later.  It seems that President Johnson was aware of the action and ordered Nixon's campaign staff's phones bugged but he chose not to reveal the story, which makes sense in context. 

Also on this day the still controversial Gun Control Act of 1968 was signed into law by President Johnson. The act came about in the wake of the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Robert Kennedy.  It's provisions remain in effect today and in spite of the common claim to the contrary about American firearms legislation, it created universal registration, at the manufacturer level and the original retail level, of all firearms.  It also included other restrictions that remain including the necessity of new firearms being transferred only through licensed dealers and a restriction on the age of purchase, which was at two different ages for long guns and handguns.  Ammunition sales were likewise restricted.

On the same day the crew of Apollo 7, all of which had the common cold, returned to Earth.