<P> In October, Humphrey--who was rising sharply in the polls due to the collapse of the Wallace vote--began to distance himself publicly from the Johnson administration on the Vietnam War, calling for a bombing halt . The key turning point for Humphrey's campaign came when President Johnson officially announced a bombing halt, and even a possible peace deal, the weekend before the election . The "Halloween Peace" gave Humphrey's campaign a badly needed boost . In addition, Senator Eugene McCarthy finally endorsed Humphrey in late October after previously refusing to do so, and by election day the polls were reporting a dead heat . </P> <P> The Nixon campaign had anticipated a possible "October surprise," a peace agreement produced by the Paris negotiations, to boost Humphrey and thwarted any last - minute chances of a "Halloween Peace ." Nixon told campaign aide and his future White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman to put a "monkey wrench" into an early end to the war . Johnson was enraged and said that Nixon had "blood on his hands" and that Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen agreed with Johnson that such action was "treason ." Defense Secretary Clark Clifford considered the moves an illegal violation of the Logan Act . A former director of the Nixon Library called it a "covert action" which "laid the skulduggery of his presidency ." </P> <P> Bryce Harlow, former Eisenhower White House staff member, claimed to have "a double agent working in the White House...I kept Nixon informed ." Harlow and Nixon's future National Security Advisor and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who was friendly with both campaigns and guaranteed a job in either a Humphrey or Nixon administration, separately predicted Johnson's "bombing halt": "The word is out that we are making an effort to throw the election to Humphrey . Nixon has been told of it," Democratic senator George Smathers informed Johnson . </P> <P> Nixon asked Anna Chennault to be his "channel to Mr. Thieu" in order to advise him to refuse participation in the talks, in what is sometimes described as the "Anna Chennault Affair ." Thieu was promised a better deal under a Nixon administration . Chennault agreed and periodically reported to John Mitchell that Thieu had no intention of attending a peace conference . On November 2, Chennault informed the South Vietnamese ambassador: "I have just heard from my boss in Albuquerque who says his boss (Nixon) is going to win . And you tell your boss (Thieu) to hold on a while longer ." In 1997, Chennault admitted that "I was constantly in touch with Nixon and Mitchell ." The effort also involved Texas Senator John Tower and Kissinger, who traveled to Paris on behalf of the Nixon campaign . William Bundy stated that Kissinger obtained "no useful inside information" from his trip to Paris, and "almost any experienced Hanoi watcher might have come to the same conclusion". While Kissinger may have "hinted that his advice was based on contacts with the Paris delegation," this sort of "self - promotion...is at worst a minor and not uncommon practice, quite different from getting and reporting real secrets ." </P>

Who won the election of 1968 and 1972