Summary of Chris Whipple's The Gatekeepers

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 Richard Nixon was elected president in 1968, and he knew that the presidency was a splendid misery; however, he needed help. He hired Sherman Adams, a former New Hampshire governor, as his first chief of staff.
#2 Nixon was determined to control his own fate, and he wanted to exact revenge on his enemies. He summoned an important visitor: J. Edgar Hoover, the long-serving FBI director. Hoover told Nixon that Johnson had ordered the FBI to wiretap Nixon during the campaign.
#3 H. R. Bob Haldeman and Richard M. Nixon were an odd couple, bound by politics and expedience, yet worlds apart socially. Haldeman was a Los Angeles royalty figure, while Nixon belonged to another, rarefied world.
#4 The president’s time is his most valuable asset. Nixon’s staff system, which was designed by Haldeman, was a model and template of White House governance that every subsequent administration would follow.

Sujets

• Politique
• Autobiography
• Politics
• Biography
• Lettres et linguistique
• Political

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 18 juillet 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798822544390
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Chris Whipple's The Gatekeepers
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5 Insights from Chapter 6 Insights from Chapter 7 Insights from Chapter 8 Insights from Chapter 9 Insights from Chapter 10
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Richard Nixon was elected president in 1968, and he knew that the presidency was a splendid misery; however, he needed help. He hired Sherman Adams, a former New Hampshire governor, as his first chief of staff.

#2

Nixon was determined to control his own fate, and he wanted to exact revenge on his enemies. He summoned an important visitor: J. Edgar Hoover, the long-serving FBI director. Hoover told Nixon that Johnson had ordered the FBI to wiretap Nixon during the campaign.

#3

H. R. Bob Haldeman and Richard M. Nixon were an odd couple, bound by politics and expedience, yet worlds apart socially. Haldeman was a Los Angeles royalty figure, while Nixon belonged to another, rarefied world.

#4

The president’s time is his most valuable asset. Nixon’s staff system, which was designed by Haldeman, was a model and template of White House governance that every subsequent administration would follow.

#5

Nixon’s chief of staff, Haldeman, was a loner who was extremely devoted to his work. He was the first person Nixon saw in the morning and the last person he saw at night.

#6

Haldeman was always on the lookout for threats. He was known for his caution, and he never doodled. His memos to the staff were equally unforgiving. When he took aim at Jeb Magruder, a young assistant, for failing to carry out an assignment, he wrote, Jeb Magruder is a son of a bitch.

#7

Nixon and Haldeman had a zero defect policy in the White House. If something was not up to standards, they made sure it was fixed. Nixon shared this obsession with White House management with his staff.

#8

The media began to portray Haldeman as the leader of a Praetorian Guard that isolated the president, building a wall between Nixon and his cabinet. But in reality, it was Nixon who demanded isolation.

#9

Nixon’s cabinet was also extremely misjudging of him. Haldeman was better at reading other outsized personalities and egos, and he was always willing to listen to Kissinger’s rants about his enemies.

#10

Nixon had a difficult time letting things go, and would often take things personally. He was convinced that classified documents had been spirited out of the State Department and locked up at the Brookings Institution, a liberal think tank. He demanded action.

#11

Nixon wanted Brookings to break into the Defense Department and take out the documents. He wanted someone to do it, and he wanted it done quickly. He did not want to discuss the matter there and then.

#12

Nixon had real opposition, and yet he was able to achieve bipartisan success in domestic and foreign affairs. He was ideologically closer to his Democratic opposition than many thought.

#13

In 1971, the New York Times began publishing the Pentagon Papers, a secret history of the U. S. in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967, drawn from classified documents. This enraged Nixon, who wanted to get Ellsberg.

#14

The tapes continued to turn, and Nixon demanded information on his enemies. He set up an under-the-radar intelligence unit within the White House itself, known as the Plumbers.

#15

The origin of the break-in at the Democratic National Committee on June 17, 1972, remains a mystery. There is still no evidence that Haldeman or Nixon specifically approved the plot. But one thing is clear: with winks and nods, the White House gave the green light to an intelligence apparatus that had become a criminal enterprise.

#16

The scandal began in June 1972, when five men were arrested while trying to plant electronic surveillance devices at the Democratic National Committee headquarters. Haldeman and Ehrlichman decided to cover it up, and released a press release that exonerated the reelection committee.

#17

In April of 1973, Haldeman and Ehrlichman were brought to Camp David, where Nixon was waiting for them. The president said in a hushed voice, You know, Bob…last night before I went to bed, I knelt down and prayed that I wouldn’t wake up in the morning. I just couldn’t face going on.

#18

Nixon announced the resignations of Haldeman and Ehrlichman, and claimed that they had been two of the finest public servants he had known. He then asked Haldeman to listen to the secret White House tapes and give him an assessment. Haldeman reported back that the conversation was harmless.

#19

The tapes proved that Nixon was involved in the cover-up, and he was eventually forced to resign. H. R. Haldeman, Nixon’s ever-dutiful chief, seemed to be proof that too much power invested in the White House chief leads to calamity. But that’s not the way Haldeman’s successors saw him.

#20

Haldeman was at the center of the scandal, as he was the one in the room who should have been able to stop it. He was dutiful, but Rumsfeld was less so.