On election day, Nixon was elected president with 43.4 percent of the vote to Humphrey's 42.7 percent, a margin of just seven-tenths of 1 percent. Clandestine maneuvering may have helped him win that narrow victory-"Nixon probably would not be president if it were not for {President} Thieu," his speechwriter William Safire once admitted-but Nixon's fear that the maneuvering might someday be exposed would eventually help bring about his undoing.
( Geoffrey C. Ward )
[ The Vietnam War: An Intimate ]
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