On page 145 of The Ends of Power, H.R. Haldeman (with Joseph DiMona) states:
“Ironically enough, given my own involvement in the White House
taping system, I hate wiretapping because I hate prying into anyone’s
private life. I remember when J. Edgar Hoover called me at the White
House and said he was sending over the transcripts of the Martin Luther
King tapes. The FBI had bugged King’s hotel room when the Kennedys were
in power and caught King enjoying extramarital trysts. I don’t blame
the Kennedys completely for that wiretapping because I know how much
Hoover was personally obsessed with King. When I received the FBI
Director’s call, I said I didn’t want to see the transcripts. The man
was dead. But Hoover, no great fan of the Civil Rights movement at any
time, wanted the White House to see them to show that King wasn’t ‘such a
saint as they’re making him out to be today.’ Presumably, we would
inform Civil Rights leaders that their idol had feet of clay. Hoover
sent the material over. I took one glance at the top page and pushed it
back into the envelope. I found the content of that first page almost
as disgusting as Hoover’s attempted use of the transcripts.”
I have to admire someone who respects people’s privacy and does not
feel a need to catch up on the latest gossip. I’m not entirely like
this, for I enjoy reading biographies that get into how people were—-the
good, the bad, and the ugly. I do find that I don’t want to know what
people are saying about me, however, but that is primarily so that my
own feelings can be spared. But I think that letting people be is a
fine rule of life. At the same time, I also believe that people going
about their merry way and living their own lives, without concern about
what is going on in the lives of others, can be quite lonely (not that
tapping phones is a solution to this!).