The Preacher and Vietnam: When Billy Graham Urged Nixon to Kill One Million People

There’s a piquant contrast in the press coverage across the decades of Billy Graham’s various private dealings with Richard Nixon, as displayed on the tapes gradually released from the National Archive or disclosed from Nixon’s papers. We’ll come shortly to the flap over Graham and Nixon’s closet palaverings about the Jews, but first let’s visit another interaction between the evangelist and his commander-in-chief. Back in April, 1989, a Graham memo to Nixon was made public. It took the form of a letter from Graham, dated April 15, 1969...