Not being personally aware of anything meaningful happening in the early days of the Libertarian Party (no internet in the '70s, remember?), I'd like you to expand on your premise if you would.
I was not implying that "many" Republicans jumped ship and joined the LP after Nixon lit the fuse. Only that it was mainly disaffected Republicans who started the Libertarian Party. What happened later is another story, one which properly belongs on another thread.
The sort that think it's just too cool to run candidates like a cop turned hooker, a Druid, a guy with blue skin, Howard Stern...
The anarchocapitalist sorts who would agree with Rothbard that the fall of Saigon was the death of a state.