Our Nixon

Where to begin?

Um, we've waited a long time to chat with Bob Haldeman.

And now we have the opportunity, and, uh, the

question is where to start.

Here you were, you worked four years in Washington as Nixon's

number two man--

Nixon's SOB, as you called yourself.

Dick Nixon never went to Key Biscayne without you.

He never went anywhere without you.

Pretty close to right.

-What you're accusing yourself of is a cloudy crystal ball.

That's hardly the mea culpa that the American public

thinks it's entitled to.

That's the issue.

-Well, maybe the American public's wrong.

I know in my own heart, and I know in my own head, precisely

what I did.

I know precisely why I did it.

OK.

-And I know that I made some mistakes.

I deeply regret those mistakes.

As Richard Nixon's right-hand

man, he was the one most often recorded on the tapes, and

they destroyed him.

-I had the rare privilege for four years of serving on the

White House staff under one of America's greatest presidents.

Former White House

chief-of-staff HR Haldeman found guilty today on five

counts in the Watergate cover-up trial.

-Do you regret what happened, and what you did?

Oh, sure.

The country lost motion.

Uh, a lot of the good things we were working on in the way

of domestic reforms, uh, were lost in the mess.

Uh, you can't help but regret, uh, an aftermath of that kind.

A lot of good people had their lives spoiled in the process.

John Ehrlichman has finished his

statements.

He was then returned to the holding room.

Rather a strange phrase, Nelson, the holding room.

Give's you an ide-- idea that they're holding a chemical or

a bacterium or something.

Former White House domestic

affairs adviser, John Ehrlichman, four counts--

guilty.

-Uh, the references to like an era of criminality, or like

people there were trying to rape the

country of its democracy.

I mean, I just don't see it that way.

-Chapin was linked in several reports to the Watergate case,

alleged sabotage of the Democratic

presidential campaign.

Chapin today was found guilty

of lying to the Watergate grand jury.

-I don't think you can take that little piece of history,

which may have been the darkest days of Richard

Nixon's career, and construct from that a mosaic that tells

you all about that man.

[MUSIC - TRACY ULLMAN, "THEY DON'T KNOW"]

You, Richard Milhous Nixon, do

solemnly swear--

-I, Richard Milhous Nixon, do solemnly swear--

--that you'll faithfully

execute the office--

-that I will faithfully

execute the office--

-of President

of the United States--

-of President

of the United States--

-and will, to the

best of your ability--

-and will, to

the best of my ability--

-preserve

protect, and defend--

-preserve,

protect, and defend--

-the Constitution

of the United States.

-the Constitution of the

United States.

So help you, God.

So help me, God.

-The new president was in his office here at the White House

at 7:30 this morning, before anyone else on his staff, and

after only about four hours sleep.

He's felt for sometime that he could do this job pretty well,

and he was eager to get at it.

-President-elect Nixon today named another long time aide,

HR Haldeman, to be a White House assistant.

-Haldeman, a Los Angeles advertising executive, served

as chief-of-staff for the Nixon campaign.

Haldeman is the closest thing

to an alter ego the president has, noted for his

conservative views, his crewcut, and his nonstop home

movie taking.

It was just an extremely exciting

time for all of us.

It was terribly hard work, and very, very

long difficult hours.

But it was exciting because you were building something.

There was no great ideological thrust or, uh, noble ambition

involved in this, and no thought at all of, of, uh,

becoming permanently involved in either politics or

government.

It was, it was a thing where I felt it would be an

interesting side experience, where I could make a

contribution, and that something would be a learning

experience, and an interesting experience for me.

So that's, that's why I did it.

-The White House staff, as it evolves, I think you'll find

will be smaller than it's been in the past.

I know you'll find it'll be probably the youngest one in

history-- certainly one of the youngest.

Also named as a special assistant

was another ad man, 27-year-old Dwight Chapin, who

served as Mr. Nixon's personal aide.

You got to keep in mind I was 27

years old at that point.

And we'd just gone through this campaign, and I was just

waiting to see what unfolded.

The day that I went in and interviewed for the job, and I

met this young 34-year-old crewcut guy by

the name of Bob Haldeman.

And Bob Haldeman changed my life.

I've never laughed as much as when I worked in the Nixon

White House.

The, the sense of humor was the leveling factor.

Things which'd--

messes we would find ourselves in, or whatever it might be.

-I think a lot of the younger staff people here find that he

can far excel, uh, them in terms of energy and stamina.

I took a camera on all my

trips-- a super 8--

and I have quite a collection of film.

-John Ehrlichman, a 43-year-old Seattle lawyer,

who directed Nixon's campaign tour, will have a broad

advisory role in the Nixon administration.

-I think this first year will be seen as

basically a time of reform.

-Ehrlichman is the president's chief aide for domestic

affairs, understudy of Haldeman, whom he has known

since college.

I was not a passionate Nixon

person, uh, going in.

Probably if, if some college friend had invited me to go

and dance for John Kennedy, I might have gone.

There were very few illusions about Richard Nixon, I think,

among the senior staff-- particularly

as we got into things.

Uh, a good deal of kind of wry humor about his, uh,

mannerisms, and his foibles, and his prejudices.

Nevertheless, you're, you work for the President of the

United States.

He's the only president around.

Uh, you all elected him.

Uh, we all work for him, and it's up to us to make it work.

It was a very

unnatural kind of life.

And, um, you had the feeling you were in the middle of a

great big, brilliantly lighted, badly

run television show.

I was taking a home movie of this throughout.

I advanced the

first trip to Europe.

Uh, eight countries, and, and, uh, I found myself hobnobbing

with the King of Belgium, and the Pope, and all these folks,

and, and it got to be very heady, very fast.

Hello.

Hello.

How are you?

Their critics call them the

Germans, and describe their office as the Berlin Wall.

I'm speaking of President Nixon's chief White House

advisers, Henry Kissinger, John Ehrlichman, and HR--

for Harry Robbins--

Haldeman.

Everyone these days knows who Henry Kissinger is.

John Ehrlichman is the president's assistant for

domestic affairs.

But HR Haldeman's job is not an easy, tidy one to describe.

And of the three men, he has, been by his own choice, the

least visible to the public.

He's the only one of the three never to have given a

television interview, until now.

His friends talk of his brilliance, his efficiency,

his total dedication to the president, and his lack of

personal egotism or jealousy.

His critics call him cold, arrogant, hostile to the

press, inaccessible.

This interview was filmed a week ago in Mr. Haldeman's

office at the White House.

You have no calendar of your own.

You, you really follow the president's day.

You're available, as I understand it, from 7:00 in

the morning on, and on, and on.

What does this do to your personal life?

-Well, it, uh, poses some problems in it sometimes.

But, uh, I have, fortunately, uh, a very understanding wife,