“The Haldeman Diaries: Inside the Nixon White House”, by H.R. Haldeman, introduction and afterword by Stephen E. Ambrose

718 pages, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, ISBN-13: 978-0399139628

The historian Theodore Draper once wrote that “[i]f an historian had had a fantasy of knowing all that one man nearest to Nixon had known, he would have chosen Haldeman”, a fantasy that came true, for when H.R. Haldeman died, he left behind a chronicle of the four years he was Chief of Staff for President Nixon. This fascinating book, The Haldeman Diaries: Inside the Nixon White House, sheds light on virtually every aspect of the Nixon presidency. Many of the entries are priceless as his diaries offer a fascinating portrait of the major events of this era, including the Cambodia bombings, the Kent State shootings, the fall of Spiro Agnew, the Watergate scandal and new insights on Richard Nixon himself.

We are treated to a litany of enlightening quotes from the Nixonian inner circle, such as: “[Nixon] must be totally ruthless inside the Oval Office, but firm and human outside” from John Connally, who served as Nixon’s Secretary of the Treasury, advice that, on the evidence of these diaries, Nixon seemed often to invert; or “[r]ight after he hung up the P[hone] [Nixon] heaved a deep sigh, looked out the window, and said it would be goddamn easy to run this office if you didn’t have to deal with people” from Nixon himself after placing the disagreeable call to then-Secretary of State William Rogers, the man who had been cut out of Kissinger's “back channel” negotiations with Soviet diplomat Anatoly Fyodorovich Dobrynin.

But perhaps the most touching quote comes from the preface, in which Haldeman’s widow, Joanne, recounts how her husband recorded his impressions of each day’s work before going to bed, a thought made even more poignant by the fact that such diaries could not possibly be prudently kept today by any public servant. This situation, dramatically confirmed by every political scandal in the Republic since Watergate, is not only a gross invasion of the privacy of public figures – who are no longer allowed the asylum of a confidential journal – but, as is amply demonstrated by this book, is a terrible loss to future historians.