… in his book “Catch the Falling Flag: A Republican’s Challenge to His Party,” Mr. Whalen detailed his disappointments with Nixon, including his pledge in March 1968 to end the Vietnam War, presumably swiftly, if President Lyndon B. Johnson didn’t end it by the end of the year. “This promise, implying a plan to fulfill it, splashed across the front pages and brought the reporters and TV crews rushing back to the Republican side of the New Hampshire campaign, eager for details,” he wrote. “There weren’t any. Nothing lay behind the ‘pledge’ except Nixon’s instinct for an extra effort of salesmanship when the customers started drifting away.” |