American government official, the Chief of Staff to President Richard Nixon. An advertising man when he met Richard Nixon in the ’50s, Haldeman became one of the earliest and most trusted of Nixon’s campaign aides. After the 1968 election, he became Nixon’s gatekeeper to the Oval office as his Chief of Staff 1969-73. An important player in the four years and three months that he spent in the White House, Haldeman wrote a daily diary entry of his experiences working under President Nixon.
Haldeman was an advertising executive with J. Walter Thompson in Los Angeles from 1949-1969. He met Richard Nixon in the 1950s. He began to serve on Nixon’s campaigns in 1956 and was Nixon’s campaign manager in the Presidential elections of 1968. Haldeman tried to shield Nixon from quarrels between national security advisor, Henry Kissinger and Secretary of State William Rogers and buffer Nixon’s obsession with the public relations side of the White House
The Watergate break-in and burglary of the Democratic Party HQ at Washington’s Watergate complex on 17 June 1972 were the beginning to the end of Haldeman’s public service career along with that of his boss. As the Watergate scandal heated up the Nixon White House, Haldeman resigned in 1973 under the pressure of the investigation. In 1975, he was convicted of obstruction of justice and lying to the FBI and a Federal Grand Jury. He was sentenced to two-to-eight years in prison.
On 21 December 1978, Haldeman was released from the Lompoc prison after he served only 18 months. He wrote his own version of the Watergate events in his book, “The Ends of Power” published in 1978. After leaving prison, he began a new career in the commercial real estate market.
After being ill for a month, he died of an abdominal tumor on 12 November 1993 in Santa Barbara, California. His second book, “The Haldeman Diaries” from his White House daily entries was published post-humorously with the help of his widow, Jo Haldeman, in 1994.
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