Career in The Nixon Administration
Nixon and Haldeman first met in the 1950s. Haldeman served as an advance man to Nixon during his 1956 campaign for vice president and then as Chief of Advance Men in Nixon's unsuccessful 1960 presidential campaign. Haldeman then served as campaign manager in Nixon's unsuccessful 1962 California gubernatorial campaign. He joined Nixon's successful 1968 presidential campaign underway as Chief of Staff and was credited with presenting a revitalized Nixon to the public, using the experience of his many years in advertising.
Nixon named Haldeman as his first White House Chief of Staff.
When Haldeman's appointment to the White House was announced, Robert Rutland, a close personal friend and eminent presidential scholar, urged him to start keeping a daily diary recording the major events of each day and Haldeman's thoughts on them. Haldeman took this suggestion and started keeping and maintaining a daily diary throughout his entire career in the Nixon White House (January 18, 1969, to April 30, 1973). The full text of the diaries, which were published as The Haldeman Diaries after Haldeman's death, is almost 750,000 words.
He and Ehrlichman were called "the Berlin Wall" by other White House staffers in a play on their German family names and shared penchant for keeping others away from Nixon and serving as his "gatekeepers." They became Nixon's most loyal and trusted aides during his presidency. Both were ruthless in protecting what they regarded as Nixon's best interests. Haldeman once said he was proud to be "Richard Nixon's son of a bitch", as he never shied away from firing staffers in person.
Read more about this topic: H. R. Haldeman
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