The Haldeman Diaries:
Inside the Nixon White House
By H.R. Haldeman
G.P. Putnam & Sons, 698 pages, $27.50
One of the most unusual chronicles of a presidency, H.R. Haldeman’s book is condensed from 2,500 pages of diaries meticulously kept from Jan. 18, 1969, two days before Richard Nixon’s inauguration, to April 30, 1973, when Haldeman resigned as chief of staff.
In workmanlike, straight-ahead fashion, Haldeman recounts the day’s events-and in the process unwittingly paints an extraordinary portrait of his boss and raises some intriguing questions about his presidency.
Vice President Spiro Agnew emerges as an even more mysterious choice for vice president than he did when Nixon picked the Maryland governor. Haldeman writes: “He (Agnew) has no sensitivity or judgment about his relationship with P (Haldeman shorthand for the president).”
Nixon repeatedly attempted to arrange to have John Connally nominated as vice president in 1972, and the former Texas governor became the president’s most trusted adviser.
As president, Jimmy Carter developed a reputation as a man overly concerned with the minute details of a project. Nixon fretted about almost everything. He worried that trips to Key Biscayne and San Clemente would appear to be vacations and not just a change in work venues. He stewed over whether the White House barber had been given instructions by his California barber.
In anger, Nixon often gave Haldeman instructions to take some swift retaliatory action against someone who had crossed him. Haldeman learned to ignore some of these orders, figuring it was the president’s way of blowing off steam.
In the millions of words written about Nixon, “funny” and “humor” are terms rarely mentioned. Yet Nixon did have a dry wit that emerged on rare occasions, and presenting that not-often-seen side of the president is one of the personal touches that makes Haldeman’s work valuable.
Behind those flashes of humor, though, Nixon was perhaps the greatest workaholic ever to occupy the White House.
While Haldeman had a front-row seat to some momentous times, some of his duties were decidely mundane. One early task: Get a bathing cap for the president for swims in the White House pool. The president was concerned that chlorine in the water would damage his hair.
