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Nixon's great concern was that he would stumble into a major blunder that might erase his lead overnight. None of his mistakes proved fatal, but it was close. One was his vice-presidential choice, a selection he had allowed to be influenced by South Carolina's J. Strom Thurmond, an unregenerate racist. Aside from picking Spiro Agnew as his running mate, Nixon's other missteps included his refusal to debate Humphrey (allowing Humphrey to refer to him relentlessly as "Richard the Chicken-Hearted") and his letter to securities dealers promising less stringent federal regulation under a Republican Administration.
In the campaign's closing days, Nixon also began responding in kind to Humphrey's acerbic personal attacks. He thereby risked reviving memories of the old gutter fighter from the campaigns of 1950 and 1952. Last week he and Wife Pat cast absentee ballots (just in case they failed to return to Manhattan in time from his West Coast telethon), then set out to get in some last licks at the Democratic ticket. Eldest Daughter Tricia, 22, voting for the first time, gave her father an uneasy moment or two by asking him: "What happens if you want to cross over?"
It was Democratic crossovers that Nixon was after in a final swing through Texas at week's end. In El Paso, he accused Humphrey of "a personal attitude of indulgence and permissiveness toward the lawless," and Muskie of "giving aid and comfort to those who are tearing down respect for law across this country." If that sounded like the old Nixon, he also sought to sound like the old Dwight Eisenhower by trying out a variation of Ike's "I will go to Korea" pitch in 1952. Nixon volunteered to go to Saigon or Paris to help "get the negotiations off dead center," insisted that the suggestion was not a "grandstand stunt." At the same time he promised to adopt a foreign policy that "will avoid future Viet Nams."
Throughout the campaign, Nixon had actually said little about Viet Nam beyond repeated statements that he supported Johnson's basic policy. He knew all along that the President might proclaim a bombing pause close to Election Day, and when the announcement came he supported Johnson's action— with the proviso that the halt might not be allowed to endanger U.S. lives. Though some aides—most notably California Lieutenant Governor Robert Finch—branded Johnson's move a "political ploy," Nixon insisted: "President Johnson has been very candid with me throughout these discussions, and I do not make such a charge." On Election Eve, however, he declared during his Los Angeles telethon that he heard the North Vietnamese were already taking advantage of the pause to funnel thousands of tons of materiel into the South via the Ho Chi Minh trail. Humphrey promptly, and properly, disputed the charge as "bunk," noting that the U.S. was bombing the trail more heavily than ever. But the exchange did not hurt Nixon—at least not enough to deny him victory. Rough Edges