dwight chapin was his advance man. chapin later was the head advance man before he went into the white house. this man was extremely close to richard nixon. >> donald segretti -- >> they went to school together at usc. >> let's talk about donald segretti. >> he was a prankster who had done tricks on some republican candidates over the year -- tricks being crazy little things. nothing harmful. one day the buzzer goes off and i go into the president's office and he's sitting there with haldeman. they say, bob says it, did you know anyone who can do that type of stuff, we should have somebody like that. so i said, well, let me think about it. so i went out and i thought about it -- i thought of donald segretti. don had been a roommate at u.s.c. and was just leaving the judge advocate's position in the army. i thought, don -- he is very anonymous and would fit in and could do this kind of thing. >> what happened to segretti? >> he went to jail, too. i actually met segretti. he was that close to doing an interview -- i talke

i bring this up now because of the dwight chapin interview. did dwight know you were gay? >> i never denied it, but i would not bring it up. i do not know if he knew i was gay. i was shocked and delighted when i recorded this particular anecdote, but i do not think he knew i was gay. the interview is extremely important for the development of this oral history project, and we will get to that in a moment. >> this is almost two minutes -- for those who do not know, jack anderson was a columnist at one time. >> anybody who saw the movie "j. edgar," this story and the role that j. edgar hoover plays in the story is hilarious. >> head of the fbi at the time. >> who is going to take a personal interest in whether there is a homosexual ring, a gay ring, at the center of the nixon administration. he was the deputy assistant to the president, a good-looking california guy. >> here we are -- i can remember going home, you are scared to death. this is like a time bomb. this gets in the press and anderson gets going -- it is a disaster for all of us. and it is not true. the next day,

dwight chapin you introduced me was in the limousine who carried the boss away from the palace. dwight has told me what the boss said in that car about senator goldwater's speech. there is no need to whites to repeat those discouraging words. [laughter] almost all of the other big-name republicans abandon senator goldwater. the old man stood by him and traveled the nation working longer and harder for goldwater than did the senator himself. after the crushing defeat, the republican party party was reduced 2-1/2 of the democratic party strength. 140 house seats and 32 senate seats and only 17 governors. republican party was a house divided and a house in ruins. it was an open question whether it would survive. and now began the greatest comeback in american political history. when i arrived in new york to join the boss in january 1966, his staff consisted of three people. i occupy at one desk in the office held beside his own. the second occupant of this office was rosewood's in the third, a ms. ryan, more exactly patricia ryan nixon, the future first lady of the united states. [a