I started H.R. Haldeman’s The Ends of Power, which Haldeman co-wrote with Joseph DiMona. Haldeman was White House Chief of Staff to President Richard Nixon.
Why did I decide to read this book? Well, Haldeman has somewhat
fascinated me. I suppose that he has ever since I read Eli Chesen’s President Nixon’s Psychiatric Profile,
which noted Haldeman’s 1950′s style haircut, and also the fact that
Haldeman was a devout Christian Scientist. Moreover, I have long read
and heard that Haldeman was rather intimidating, and I often wonder what
is underneath people who put on a tough front.
So far, The Ends of Power gets into some of the intricacies
of Watergate. Reading this book is similar to my experience of reading
volume 2 of Nixon’s memoirs, which talked a lot about Watergate. This
is not because Haldeman necessarily agrees with Nixon’s account:
Haldeman agrees with Nixon in some areas, but disagrees with Nixon in
others (i.e., what was discussed on the 18 and 1/2 minutes erased from
the tape). Rather, the two are similar because of their ambiguity.
Both of them, on some level, agree that the break-in at the Democratic
Committee’s headquarters was a mistake, and Haldeman takes some
responsibility for it, even though he says that neither he nor Nixon
ordered it or even knew about it until after it occurred. (UPDATE: Later in the book, however, Haldeman says that Nixon wanted
information about DNC chair Lawrence O'Brien, and that this might have
been an impetus for the break-in.) And yet, both
Nixon and Haldeman say that they don’t have much of a problem with
bugging because Democrats did that, too. The initial reaction of Nixon
and Haldeman, according to their accounts, was that the break-in was
stupid, since what was at the DNC headquarters? But they stop short of
criticizing the mindset that was allegedly behind the break-in: the use
of bugging to gather information on one’s political opponents. I’m just
speaking based on my reading of Haldeman so far.