HALDEMAN, H(arry) R(obbins) ("Bob")

(b. 27 October 1926 in Los Angeles, California; d. 12 November 1993 in Santa Barbara, California), advertising executive, advance man during Richard M. Nixon's 1956 and 1960 campaigns, manager of Nixon's 1962 gubernatorial bid and his victorious 1968 and 1972 presidential campaigns, and White House chief of staff (1969–1973).

Haldeman was the son of Henry Francis and Katherine (Robbins) Haldeman. He was raised in Southern California, where his father was a successful plumbing, heating, and air conditioning purveyor and supporter of the Republican Party. An Eagle Scout, Haldeman displayed his discipline, devotion to duty, and organizational skills at a young age; at fourteen he created and ran a summer camp for neighborhood children at his family's Toluca Lake, California, home. He spent time at the University of Red-lands, at the University of Southern California, and in the U.S. Naval Reserve during World War II before attending the University of California, Los Angeles, with the future White House domestic affairs aide John Ehrlichman. Haldeman earned a B.S. degree in business administration in 1948 and began a nearly twenty-year career as an advertising executive with the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency in 1949. Haldeman married Jo Horton on 19 February 1949. They had four children.

Haldeman became an admirer of Richard Nixon in 1947 during the Alger Hiss hearings of the House Un-American Activities Committee. (Hiss, a U.S. State Department official, was accused and later convicted of passing secret documents to an agent for an international Communist spy ring.) Haldeman was one of Nixon's advance men in his 1956 vice presidential reelection campaign and became Nixon's chief of advance in his 1960 presidential bid againstJohn F. Kennedy. Although he advised Nixon not to run for governor of California in 1962, Haldeman became his campaign manager. His advertising and management background was the perfect foundation for promoting his candidate. Previous campaign managers had allowed Nixon to become overwhelmed with tactical details and accessibility to the press. Although Nixon lost the race, Haldeman maximized Nixon's poise and improved his image by limiting his campaign appearances and exposure to the media. It was during Nixon's 1968 presidential campaign that Haldeman became known as "the man closest to the candidate's elbow," a role that he would continue to expand and develop in his new position as chief of staff.

Following Nixon's victory in the 1968 election, Haldeman began to build a White House staff to meet Nixon's requirements. After studying the varied staff structures of previous presidents, he created a new staff structure that was influenced by past administrations but tailored to Nixon's desire for order and efficiency. Haldeman became the head of the largest White House staff since the time of Franklin D. Roosevelt. His immediate staff was made up primarily of inexperienced but dedicated young men from his former advertising firm, including his own assistant, Lawrence Higby; the press spokesman Ron Ziegler; and Nixon's appointments secretary, Dwight Chapin.

Haldeman was responsible for maintaining Nixon's paramount requirement of privacy, and he became known as the gatekeeper of the Oval Office. This became one of the most demanding aspects of his job, and one that attracted much criticism and resentment from Washington veterans and the press. Nixon also demanded, as Haldeman put it, large "chunks of time" alone to ponder big questions. Nixon wanted to be kept prepared at all times and briefed on important people, situations, and proposals in advance, and Haldeman provided Nixon with dossiers on each day's scheduled visitors. He supervised the scheduling of Nixon's appointments; managed memos, telephone calls, and Nixon's moods; made recommendations and presented contrary views; attended private meetings; and served as Nixon's sounding board for political matters and public relations issues, including civil rights and the conflict in Vietnam.

Above all else, Haldeman was the one person whom Nixon knew he could reach in order to get something done. He devoted himself to his responsibilities, operating at Nixon's beck and call, traveling with him on all trips, and answering his telephone calls and requests at any hour of the day or night. He was the only member of the White House staff without his own schedule; his was completely determined by Nixon's. Although their relationship was entirely professional, Haldeman's intelligence, objectivity, and loyalty made him indispensable.

It was a combination of these things—his access, his control, his loyalty—that made it difficult to imagine that he could have escaped a role in, or at least intimate knowledge of, the Watergate scandal. During the presidential campaign of 1972 a team of burglars was caught inside the Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate hotel and office complex. Their connections were traced to the White House. Haldeman, along with Domestic Council Chief John Ehrlichman, was forced to resign on 30 April 1973. In March 1974 Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Attorney General John Mitchell, and four other former administration officials and members of Nixon's reelection committee were indicted on charges of conspiracy in covering up the Watergate break-in. Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and Mitchell were each convicted of obstruction of justice, conspiracy, and perjury. Facing almost certain impeachment, Nixon himself resigned in August of 1974.

Haldeman served eighteen months in the federal minimum-security facility at Lompoc, California. Following his release on 20 December 1978, Haldeman became vice president of the David H. Murdoch real estate development company and managed his own investments in several restaurants and hotels. As he had during his political career, Haldeman continued to serve his community and the Church of Christ, Scientist. Most of all, he was devoted to his family up until his death of abdominal cancer at his Santa Barbara home.

A study of Haldeman's contributions to the Nixon campaigns and administration, particularly those made during the 1960s, reveals that there was much more to his tenure than Watergate. Haldeman restructured the modern White House. He was also an active participant in the opening of China, the attainment of détente with the Soviet Union, and the end of American involvement in Vietnam. Despite the criticism he endured as chief of staff, it is clear that Haldeman's focus was on his president's success, not his own. Haldeman reflected in 1978 that he gained satisfaction "not from any personal power or glory but from my secure knowledge of the vital part I played in the day-today development and exercise of the Presidential powers by Richard Nixon." In his memoir, Haldeman referred to his political journey as the "mountain-top experience" of his life.

Haldeman's memoir, The Ends of Power (1978), focuses primarily on the Watergate affair, but it also details his role in the Nixon White House. The Haldeman Diaries: Inside the Nixon White House (1994) is a condensed volume of the daily entries he made as chief of staff and is an invaluable resource. Stephen E. Ambrose, Nixon: The Triumph of a Politician 1962–1972 (1987), is a comprehensive study of Nixon's first presidential term; this work benefited from Haldeman's own critique. An obituary is in the New York Times (13 Nov. 1993).

Tracy L. Eddy