NIXON'S HALDEMAN POWER IS PROXIMITY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP73B00296R000400010029-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 7, 2001
• Sequence Number: 29
• Publication Date: August 24, 1971
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

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Approved For Release 2002fb1~f:I&A-RDP73B00296R000400010029-6
NIXON'S
ALDEMAN:
BY CHRISTOPHER S. WREN
Haldeman does not accept the
His title-Assistant to the President
of the United States-is outra-
geously deadpan. It hints at so
much, reveals so very little. That is
appropriate enough for Harry Rob-
bins Haldeman, an adamantine Cal-
ifornian who serves President
Richard M. Nixon as the White
House chief of staff. After 15 years
with Nixon, Haldeman is still
viewed through a glass darkly,
though his presence pervades the
hallways of power. Whoever- and
whatever enters the President's
Oval Office, whoever and whatev-
er emerges must pass through Bob
Haldeman. His colleague, John Ehr-
lichman, likens him to the Lord
Chamberlain of yore, and another
White House staffer privately calls
him "by far the second most im-
portant man in governs-Pproved
latter accolade: "All the power in
the White House is in one man. I
don't think there are seconds or
thirds or fourths." He is not trying
to mislead. Haldeman sees himself
as just a faithful toiler in the Ad-
ministration vineyards, though he
concedes: "There's an adage
about power relating to proximity,
and the people most in touch with
the President are going to have
more influence...."
Such men are a handful: John D.
Ehrlichman, Assistant to the Presi-
dent for Domestic Affairs; Henry A.
Kissinger, Assistant to the Presi-
dent for National Security Affairs;
George P. Shultz, Director of the
Office of Management and Budget;
John N. Mitchell, Attorney General;
and H. R. Haldeman, who keeps the
wheels of the Presidency turning.
"People say Haldeman doesn't
have a policy role," says an asso-
ciate. "However, there's no major
decision out of the President's of-
fice that he hasn't participated in."
Nixon and Haldeman have been
compared to twin prongs on a tun-
ing fork. In fact, Haldeman is cali-
brated so precisely on the Presi-
dent's frequency that he can scout
solutions to problems not yet pon-
dered, like a sort of intellectual ad-
vance man. "I track well with him,".
explains Haldeman in the White
House argot.
Not surprisingly, Haldeman calls
himself "a Nixon Republican. I
don't have much trouble with Nix-
on's positions. Of. course, as you
become integrally involved in form-
ing them, you become pretty much
Bob Haldeman, at 44, is lean, un-
faddishly crew-cut and tanned (a
result of his thirst for sunshine).
When he breaks into a hungry grin,
he can charm, but more often he
appears formidably preoccupied.
He dresses in neat Ivy League
suits with white button-down-collar
shirts at a time when fashion color
riots outside on Pennsylvania Ave-
nue. His regimental striped ties are
throttled with a gold Nixon-signa-
ture tie clasp. A small enamel
American flag lives in his lapel.
Haldeman resembles less the
savvy pol than some diligent com-
bat commander returned from the
Asian wars to a civilian world that
has drifted on in his absence.
Then, consider the mind. It is just
plain remarkable. He can concen-
trate in assorted directions at once.
When he reads, he gobbles words
at up to 2,500 a minute. Some years
ago, Haldeman heard about Men-
sa, a society that purports to re-
strict its ranks to the smartest two
percent of the human race. He was
curious enough to take the tests,
passed of course, and then having
learned he was brilliant, let his
membership lapse.
That Henry Kissinger, the be-
spectacled Harvard professor, has
been seized upon by the press as
this Administration's "swinger"
gives some measure of how,
straight the White House crowd is.
Even among them, Haldeman
stands like Caesar's wife, above
suspicion. His wife Jo may be a
stronger Christian Scientist than
he, but Haldeman has no tolerance
for dissipation. He tried to smoke a
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 Approved For Release 2002/01/02 : CIA-RDP73B00296R000400010029-6
really drink or party, and hoards But politics kept wooing him
his sparse free time with his family away. "When I was at " says
in the Republican suburban re- Haldernan, "I was fascinated by the
doubt of Kenwood, Md. For kicks, Communist-front organizati,ons,
he shoots home movies and plays what they were trying to do." His
a guitar; he digs the Beatles and grandfather had been militantly
Johnny Cash over the glib Wash- anti-Conrunist, and Haldeman
ington social gossip. "He hates rooted for the Mundt-Nixon bill
small talk," says Hugh Sutherland, pushing through Congress. Anti-
a Los Angeles ad 'man who hasCommunism brought hire to Rich-
been Haldeman's chum since boy-', and M. Nixon. "I volunteered for
hood. "I can envision Bob standing the 'S2 campaign, but I was unable
in the middle of a cocktail partyand to work out any role at that tittle.
being completely bored'I f;ic!--d away and came back in
Though his Dutch, German and 1951, I was enormously impressed
Swiss ancestry has been kneaded by Nixon, the tremendous overall
into a cliche, Haldeman more ac ability of the man, the way he deals
curately reflects the conservative with pcopla,, his intellectual ability,
side of Beverly Hills, Calif., where his articulation. To a degree, you
he grew up. He was an ROTC com
pany commander in prep school, can judge a man by his enemies as
well as his friends."
enrolled at the University of Red- On leave from J. Walter Thonrp
lands, switched to USC and wound son, I laldeman signed aboard as
up at UCLA.
Haldeman took a job in advertis- an advance man for three months
ing, moving to Sari Francisco, New each in the 1956 and 1958 cam
York and back to Los Angeles with paigns. He devoted an entire year
the J. Walter Thompson agency. to Nixon's 1960 presidential cam-
Other Thompson alumni have mi-' paign. Back in California after that
grated from L.A. to the White defeat, Haldeman helped research
House: press secretary Ronald Nixon's book, Six Crises. He urged
Ziegler, appointments secretary Nixon not to run for governor of
- ~. California in 1962; then, overruled
F
by Republican leaders, he faithful-
'As long as I've ly managed the campaign. "I think
it was fortunate for the country and
known Nixon, I've for him that he didn't win," [!aide-
man says now. "If he had, he would
felt he should be have been propelled into running
[for President] in 1964, and the
President.- I felt chances of winning that election
weren't very good."
that despite the Others wrote Nixon off. Halde-
man didn't. "As long as I've known
events of the '60'S Nixon, I've felt he should be Presi-
1
asked him, 'If you had it to do over
again, what would you do?' f-le
said, 'I'd like to be the executive
secretary of a major corporation.'
He's got that in spades.
Organization is Haldeman's par-
ticular talent, though as an archi-
tect rather than a technician. I le
had designed the current infra-
structure on the campaign trail be-
fore the election was secured.
"Why you have a White House
staff," he says, "is to make it pos-
sible for the President to deal with
the things he should be doing. His
charge to us was to recognize that
some things could be handled bet-
ter by other people than by him.
"... The President has been in
public life for a long time. We have
a pretty good codification of what
his principles are. It's not difficult
in most cases to know what his
judgment would be. There are hun-
dreds of thousands of decisions to
be made by the White House. Most
of them are routine. Only a small
fraction would require his direct
attention."
On paper, the staff is the biggest
in White House history.. Haldeman
insists it is smaller than those of
prior Administrations, who padded
the ranks with employees bor-
rowed from other departments.
"We decided to bite the bullet and
submit an honest budget," Halde-
rnan typically puts it. "I felt it was
something we had to do." He calls
the current budget-about $8.5 mil-
lion-- a "ridiculous" bargain.
dent. I didn't have any supernatu-
, ral premonitions. I felt that despite
h e was not through"
r y the events of the '60's, he was not
through." After the 1968 Oregon
Dwight` Chapin, and Haldernan's primary, Haldeman joined Nixon
own aides, Lawrence Higby and once more, toting a yellow legal MOT imed
Bruce Kehrli. "It's easy to knock ' pad choked with notes,, as chief of
an ad man," says Dwight Chapin, the campaign staff.
When Haldeman forsook adver-
"but a good advertising man is a
good marketing man, and he tiling forthe White Fiouse, he took
knows what's going on." a "substantial" salary cut to his
That was true of Haldeman, who current $42,500 and threw away
rose fast, to an account supervisor perquisites like stock options. That
for insecticides, waxes and shav Haldeman would want to be assist
ing creams, then to manager of the ant to anyone, oven the President,
L.A. office, the youngest man ever surprised some colleagues, but
in that spot. He ran a taut outfit, Hugh Sutherland, who succeeded
Flakier van as office manager, re-
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"A really good presidenttial SW unfortunates VV 1o Uy o card-run later.Thelimousineco ects i
is one that has no coloration of Haldeman on a dash to the ear of Chapin on the way downtown.
its own," suggests John Ehrlich- the President invariably find them- They scan the daily news summary
man, ''but simply reflects the selves slammed Into the sidelines. and begin paperwork.
needs of the President in office." "lie's a nice guy, until you get in Nixon has already arrived in his
Haldeman has no exact precedent his way," one learned. Oval Office when Haldeman as-
for his own job. The closest may be Consequently, Haldeman has sembles the senior staff in the
that set by Sherman Adams during become the lightning rod for recur- Roosevelt Room at 8:15. Haldeman
the Eisenhower years, but Flalde- rent charges of overprotective- otherwise avoids formal meetings.
onsi-
res
r
i
'
"
man is not the sort who adapts to ness. "He's the isolation of the
a cozy prior style, if only because President," insists a former staff-
his authority transcends more ad- or. "He's what they're complaining
ministration. As Haldeman sees it: about. Haldeman doesn't see it
"Everything cones to a point that way. "I think my function is not
where it goes to the President and one of isolating him but [oil mak-
conies to a point where it comes ing it possible for him to get the
out from the President, and that's maximum exposure on the things
basically where I fit." that are productive. You've got to
Haldeman functions ,as a taxing work out a way of using his time
but fair straw boss. "Bob's ap- where it will do the most good. I
proach is to find good people and don't see my job as keeping peo-
then give them a heI uva lot of re- plc out but getting them in.
sponsibility, but then hold thorn Accessibility does not necess ar-
strictly accountable for the re- ily cure isolation, says I laldeman.
suits," says Fred Malek, who re- "The test of isolation is not how
cruits White I- louse talent. "While much exposure he gets but the
you have this responsibility and all quality of exposure. I think I have
the trappings that go with it, you a way of providing him with a rand
damn well better produce." The staff considers President r th i n k
Nixon a thoroughly kind person to r
work for, in small measure be unfortunately
cause Haldeman wields the disci
pline, lie does not tolerate prima i xo n may
donnas or suffer time-wasters: "I
get impatient with trivia and I get have a greater
impatient with people who don't .
figure out their own solutions and 'number of
get them done." Despite Halde-
man's penchant for bluntness, the the press interested
younger staffers approm'ch hirn by
first name and seem to dote on in his un-success."
him. "I don't want someone waltz-
ing me around the ball park before
he tells me what tie wants me to
do," says Fred Malek. "Yo.u can't
expect a rnan in Bob's position to
sit down and wonder how he can
correct something without hurting
feelings-. He'll just lay it out, wheth-
er you're right or wrong."
Aware that the President wants
time for uninterrupted concentra-
tion, Haldeman zealously protects
the sanctity of the Oval Office. A
staffer recalls Ialdoman's asser-
.tion: "Even John Mitchell comes
through me." When Henry Kissin-
ger joined the pre-Inaugural staff
back at the Ilotel Pierre in New
York; he popped in to consult with
Nixon through the day on each now
concern. Haldeman
out t8ok Kissin er r Release 2002/01/02 : CIA-RDP73B00296R000400010029-6
i~
aside and laid out thF; lpirs~
p
y
ma
s pr
One of Bob
bilities is being available to the
President," says Larry Higby. "A
man who's in meetings can't be
available." That over, Haldeman,
his familiar yellow pad tucked in
side a brown-leather folder, walks
in to see the President. "His inside
pocket here," Haldeman gestures,
"is full of papers that he's written
notes on. He'll pull those out and
go through that. He'll have things
for me to take care of-questions
on the schedule for that day, that
kind of thing. He'll have read the
news summary and there are
things he' frequently wants to dis-
cuss. It lasts a half hour to an
hour." (Sometimes the session
runs an hour and a half.) John Ehr-
lichmen and Henry Kissinger fol-
low to discuss domestic and for-
eign matters respectively-. Halde-
man may sit in. "He's sort of the
conscience of us all in terms of the
timeliness of the work," says Ehr-
lichman. "We try to take as many
surprises as possible out of the
President's day."
Unless there is a meeting with
the National Security Council, the
Cabinet or Republican leaders, the
formal appointments begin at 10
a.m. These have been culled by
Dwight Chapin under Haldeman's
eye. "The decision who he's going
to see isn't something I make in a
vacuum," says Haldeman. "It's the
result of the decision of staff peo-
ple, his own instructions and ex-
ternal requests.... It's my job to
balance things out so he has time
to sec who he has to see and,
more important, has sufficient time
to do his own work."
Where Johnson pushed for con-
sensus, Nixon would rather listen
to the opposing briefs argued be-
fore him, then make a decision.
Haldeman may join in as devil's
advocate. He has cogently present-
of useful exposure that makes him
unisolated. If his door was always
open and anyone who wanted
could come in, then you'd call him
unisolated. But then' anyone-pres-
sure groups or a pressure group-
could completely dominate, and he
would be much more isolated... .
"It's important that the President
initiate, not simply react, and that
requires some self-discipline and
some planning."
The workdays of Bob Haldeman
and Richard Nixon interlock. A
black Chrysler from the White
House motor pool picks up Larry
Higby at 7:15 a.m. Haldeman slips
into the left rear seat 15 minutes
cir,t-:rue "
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"Someone here has to question
everything," says Dwight Chapin.
"Bob will sit in the President's of-
fice, and if he sees someone lob-
bying and can't answer them, he
will call for someone who can. It's
not unusual for him to come out
and say, Will you get Robert.Finch
or George Shultz in here?' "
When the appointments end at
12:30, Haldeman meets with Nixon
for up to another hour. The Presi-
dent eats his lunch, usually cot-
tage cheese and pineapple, alone
in an alcove of the Oval Office, or
in the Executive Office Building
next door. Haldeman adjourns
with Larry Higby to his own work-
ing lunch, also cottage cheese and
pineapple with a glass of milk, in
his new office. An oil portrait of
Nixon beside an American flag
hangs on the green wall. The clock
radio is tuned to an FM country-
music station. The old office was
next to the P'resident's; Haldeman
moved when traffic got too heavy.
While Nixon reads and signs
paperwork, Haldeman wades
through his own correspondence.
The presidential buzzer on his
green telephone often intrudes.
Haldeman sees Nixon again before
the longer appointments resume at
3:30. Later, Haldeman breaks for
a cup of Constant Comment tea.
"At the end of the day," says
Haldeman, "between six and sev-
en, I go in. There are more notes
on a yellow pad.
notes all over everything that goes
in." Haldeman turns these over for
transcription by the secretaries.
In the limousine homeward,
Haldeman checks tomorrow's
schedule with Chapin and Higby.
He was absent from his family so
much on the campaigns that "by
contrast; that I get home at all is
pretty much an improvement." Af-
ter dinner, he works into the eve-
ring. The President usually calls
him on a direct line from the Lin-
coln Sitting Room back at the
White House. If Haldeman goes
out, Nixon finds him. After Larry
Higby's daughter was born last
January, the Haldemans stopped
by the hospital. The White House
phoned, and for several minutes,
Higby listened to the President of
the United States and his top as-
Johns id Eisenhower both told
me we.. 'iat my greatest contribu-
tion would be to get him to take
time off," says Haldeman of his
.boss. "But I'm not overly con-
cerned. He doesn't need much time
off. He doesn't enjoy it." A change
of scene suffices. When Nixon flies
to San Clemente, Calif., or Key
BiscaynE!, Fla., Haldeman travels
too. The meetings at San Clemente
run for hours on such heavy sub-
jects, like the budget. At Key Bis-
cayne, Nixon has more time of his
own to write his speeches or read
historical biographies. His favorite
Presidents: Lincoln, Wilson and
Teddy Roosevelt. (I-ialdeman's fa-
vorite, after his boss, is FDR.)
"He doesn't watch television,"
says Haldeman of Nixon. "Oh,
sometimes he will watch sports. He
never watches the news shows
and he doesn't have a wire ticker
in his office. He feels it necessary
to have some perspective. He
thinks it's better to get a report on
it afterward.
"They're so wrong most of the
time. Today's analysis of today's
news can be very wrong, especial-
ly when they're under the pressure
of getting a show together night
after night. He realizes its value as
a means of communication. He
knows what was on last night. Fie-
gets a better feel from the sum-
mary than you wC11l if you watched
[TV]." The news summary--a distil-
lation of 50 newspapers, the wire
services and TV news--that Nixon
receives daily also includes a
selection of editorials and political
cartoons. Ialdeman terms the lat-
ter "brutality for the sake of bru-
tality. Her block wouldn't exist if he
didn't have nasty cartoons of Nix-
on, nor would Conrad."
Over the years, Haldeman's own
patience with the press has
stretched thin. He concedes that
any President is going to be re-
garded critically by reporters, but
he nonetheless sees a distinction:
"I think, unfortunately, Nixon may
have a greater number of the press
interested in his un-success, and I
think it's accentuated with this
President. He's got a more hostile
press corps among the working
press. The great bulk of the work-
ing press are Democrats, so
proach to things. . . . I think, on a
personal basis, a commentator or
reporter who finds out he's wrong
doesn't like to be proved wrong.
Nixon's been written off a number
of times and has refused to go
away. That leaves those who wrote
him off in an awkward situation."
Haldeman wonders if the mes-
sage is penetrating what he consid-
ers the hostile ether of the press:
"There's two supreme ironies in
the way this Administration is
viewed. We're supposed to be :a
public relations oriented Adminis-
tration, but we're doing more with
less public relations than others
have done. The Kennedy Adminis-
tration had a lot of great goals but
got very little through Congress.
Johnson got a lot through Con-
gress, but he didn't accomplish
what he wanted to do. We've got-
ten legislation through Congress
that will accomplish what we set
out to do.
"The other irony is the interpre-
tation that everything Nixon does
is for a political purpose. You
could argue that the things he's
done in so many major areas, rath-
er than being big PR or political
coups, have had negative political
effects-but they were done in
spite of this because they were
right.'' Haldeman details them,
from postal reform to the war
with its incursions into Cambodia
and Laos.
"Only the narrow decisions get
to the President," explains Halde-
man. "Almost by definition, a presi-
dential decision is a decision made
between two narrow alternatives.
It would be decided on a lower
level if it weren't. It's also made
with the outlook the President has.
But the chances of his being right
are greater than someone else be-
ing right. If he's a good President,
he'll be right more often. He has a
better perspective than most of
how narrow the decision is."
During the demonstrations last
spring, Haldeman invited a score
of students from Williams College
into the White House. For two and
a half hours, they argued in the
Roosevelt Room. No minds were
changed, but Haldeman hopes the
students found him sincere. "I had
a feeling I was ruining their day. I
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strate, but they kept wanting to
 Approved For Release 2002/01/02 CIA-RDP73B00296R00040001,0029-6
talk. These were basically a really
solid group of kids. Oh, a couple
of thorn were way out and said so.
One was quoting Che Guevara and
giving all the Red rhetoric. It's hard
to argue with an ideologue." (Iron-
ically, Hugh Sutherland recalls Hal-
deman reached that same conclu-
sion after confronting some John
Birchers at a meeting in West Los'
Angeles a few years ago.) Still,
Haldeman thought it important
enough to share a dialogue with
youth inside the White House. ''My
feeling is.that if we have a problem,
that's where it is. But," he is quick
to add, "I don't believe youth has
slipped away."
Haldernan never doubts that Nix-
on will run again in 1972. "We're
still wrapping up the nightmares,
but the dreams are going to take
time too. There's very much the
need for a second term to provide
time for what he's trying to do.
. We've got the genius and
drive to accomplish what we need
to domestically if we have a time
of peace to do it. His whole objec-
tive is [the] achieving of a genera-
tion of peace." Thus, Nixon's in-
tended visit to China. "The China
thing is an example where he's
worked behind the scenes," says
Haldeman, "laying the groundwork
and quietly moving on it over a pe-?
riod of years--with the results just
now beginning to show."
The time will come, if not in 1972,
then in 1976, when Haldeman will
be out of a job. Employment as a
presidential assistant doesn't offer
any tenure. Haldeman has no in-
terest in parlaying the experience
into a political career for himself,
nor does he want to write a book.
He will withdraw from Washington,
though not back to advertising.
Ambition has possessed Bob
Haldeman, but in a manner almost
surgically selfless. He drives him-
self to meet the destiny that he
senses awaits the man he follows:
"Just as I've always thought he
was going to be President, I think
he's become President at the right .
'time. Times are changing. The
great leaders are gone. The tower-
ing leaders are going. There aren't
any great leaders now, except
Richard Nixon." END
Approved For Release 2002/01/02 : CIA-RDP73B00296R000400010029-6
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