Word: haldemans
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...Writes Haldeman: "I believe it is almost certain that Nixon asked Colson to help him nail O'Brien. Colson naturally turned to Hunt. [E. Howard Hunt, a retired CIA agent used by Colson as an investigator.] And Hunt tried to do it by tapping O'Brien's telephone at the Watergate...
...Haldeman portrays himself as continually giving "active encouragement" to the "good" side of Nixon and treating the "bad" side with "benign neglect." As chief of staff, Haldeman says, he often ignored "petty, vindictive" orders from Nixon (such as one to give mass lie detector tests to employees of the State Department as a means of finding security leaks). Haldeman now regrets that he did not challenge Nixon more "frontally" to check his dark impulses. But he also notes wryly that other Nixon associates who had done so, including HEW Secretary Robert Finch and Communications Director Herbert Klein, quickly lost influence...
...contrast, Haldeman contends, the crafty Colson became a Nixon intimate by deliberately appealing to Nixon's vindictive instincts. And that volatile combination of the unchecked worst in both Nixon and Colson, Haldeman suggests, was the cause of Watergate...
According to Haldeman, the trail led this...
...Democrats were preparing to nominate George McGovern as their presidential candidate, Nixon led by some 19 points in public opinion polls and had no reason to worry about his reelection. But he was furious at O'Brien for pushing the ITT charges. An angry Nixon told Haldeman on Air Force One: "O'Brien's not going to get away with it, Bob. We're going to get proof of his relationship with Hughes-and just what he's doing for the money...