Chennault

According to Politico, Nixon’s promises of unconditional support, conveyed by Chennault and others, “no doubt helped to persuade the South Vietnamese government to boycott proposed peace talks, shutting a door that Johnson had opened and clinching Nixon’s victory.”

Seeds of ideological division were even visible during the convention, with the protests and when former American Express Chief Executive Kenneth Chennault appeared to challenge the party’s populist wing in a speech praising Harris for understanding it’s “necessary for a president to be both pro business and pro worker.”

Chennault founded the Flying Tigers as a group of American pilots flying for China’s air force.

They were later absorbed by the U.S. military when it expanded its operations in China and put Chennault in command.

Born in China in 1925, Chennault was fiercely anti-communist, and chair of the Republican Women for Nixon.