haldeman his chief of staff and john ehrlichman, his chief domestic adviser, have resigned. legal counsel john dean has been fired. reportedly, dean is implicated in efforts to cover up the watergate scandal, and he may implicate ehrlichman and haldeman. >> good evening. i want to talk to you tonight from my heart on a subject of deep concern to every american. today, in one of the most difficult decisions of my presidency, i accepted the resignations of two of my closest associates in the white house, bob haldeman, john ehrlichman. >> he thought, by throwing out his inner circle, he would be left alone. he was throwing these people under the bus so the bus wouldn't hit him. >> justice will be pursued fairly, fully, and impartially no matter who's involved. >> richard nixon wants to control everything. but he's extraordinarily delusional. i mean, he really doesn't seem to understand that he's digging himself deeper and deeper into the crime when he's trying to dig himself out. >> we must maintain the integrity of the white house, and that integrity must be real, not transpar

having this figure is going to work for me in new york but that process happens after he sent haldeman bush to find a white house office. right as watergate is breaking up and beginning to -- the story is beginning at this point. so there's another element and he calls back and says you know what, i thought about this and you are right we will send you to the un. he had the shortest white house staff courier about anyone. it was 40 minutes by my count. that account. that helped him. but there was another wrinkle which is mixing his head and another thing, don't live on the 32nd floor apartment of the older history where the un ambassador left. go to greenwich, establish residency and then vote and run against a tobacco and a friend in connecticut for the senate. mixing thought bush couldn't make it here but he turned him into a connecticut republican, he might be able to beat him and what is so wonderful about him that speaks to his devotion to texas and the fact that he raised his family here and build his business here is at that point, he thoroughly thought of himself as a texan, an

up came haldeman's account of that moment. haldeman said nixon blew up into a tirade about how speechwriters don't understand the nuances of foreign policy. we need to bring international sophistication. haldeman said, typical nixon tantrum. the language of been changed in some way. that's why the president was so nice when i went to camp david. the tension at those moments can be terrific. nixon called brezhnev's bluff. is reelected and then some other stuff happened that wasn't so happy. i was never asked to work on anything related to watergate. writers were given a little discretion on what they worked on. with a diversified staff pat buchanan never wrote about foreign policy. but he wrote a lot of tough political speeches. ray price wrote about grand themes. bill safire was a senior writer. i was a junior writer. i didn't get involved in that kind of speech but i experience the atmosphere out of which such speeches came. with nexen the more important the speech the more important the more likely it was for him to write it

campaign trail, you have that great quote in the haldeman memoirs, to me, i could never wrap my head when reading both of these books that they would exist simultaneously. can you comment on the cognitive dissonance of -- >> do you want to start? >> it is contradictory. >> in this book review, i was program, ithe c-span was watching, about another i don't know how you feel, bill, but reading all of these documents and writing this book, this book, and other books andt this period, kissinger nixon appear very naive, and not very realistic about what the soviets, how they would react to this. and so there is this dissonance, obviously. think it goes to nixon's personality, to some extent, and we didn't fully examine that, but it is the idea of the bully, the threat maker, believing that his or her threat is so great and so irrational and crazy and mad that the other side will give in. of is aest i can think bad neighbor, and i have a couple of those or i have had. [laughter] >> you know, and you are kind of, you don't want to get into -- you let something slide before you get into a bi

haldeman said he was the strangest that i ever met. i've oscars about that. what was alike in being nixon? in researching him i found he wanted to be a better person. he makes a fair point, though we all want to be better? what matters is what he actually did, that's true. i was interested in the conflict that nixon told her i thought it was worth writing about. i think we need to try to understand nixon to the fullness. >> host: did you ever meet nixon tried to reclaim that once in 1988 when i was at "newsweek," an editor at "newsweek." he came by one of his rehabilitation tours. there were 30 or 40 of us there and that's what document became insomnia and he said your grandfather was a great man. what? typical nixon. had done his homework. saw my name, did some research and found out my grandfather, norman thomas, socialist, and flattered me. nixon was very shy but is a good politician or he did his homework so that he could flatter you by knowing something about you. >> host: by senior grandfather was a great man, what was he saying? >> guest: he was just t

bent haldeman rights butterfield a memo saying because there is one woman, etna rosenberg had two pictures, this is a double infestation. he said what about this woman who has two picture is, what about her? who is she? with gene come from? get on the case because he, the president, asked about it once a week. butterfield conducts any investigation and convinces the head of the staff officer it is only proper to get nixon picked curious and butterfield writes a memo directly to the president, two page memo and the subject is standardization. like there is some disinfectant and he describes his efforts and how he got all the kennedy pictures out and he checked etna rosenberg with the cia, fbi, house un-american activities committee, and she worked there longer than anyone, lived with her sister in silver spring and butterfield when john a litmus a knifing she is a loyal american. >> host: imagine if you had not checked out -- ready now for questions. [inaudible question] >> host: to me? to you. >> thank you for doing all this work. documents into the archives. >> host: where will the docume

patrician figure who will work for me in new york, but all that thought process happens after he sent haldemanand bush out to find bush white house office right is watergate is breaking up, beginning, the story is beginning at that point. and there was another element, so he calls them back and says, i thought about this. i think your right. the shortest white house staff career of anyone. it was about 40 minutes by my count, but that helped him. there was another wrinkle. here is another thing, don't live on the 42nd -- bush could not make it down here, but if he turned him into a connecticut republican he might be able to beat river cough. and what is so wonderful about it and speak so much about his devotion to texas and the fact that he raised his family and build his business here is, at that point he thoroughly thought of himself as a texan, and he never been done that. you know better than i, in the present of the united states suggests a pathway to the senate you tends to listen, you tends to think about that. there is very little evidence that he really took it seriously. >> you made

he was for about 40 minutes in 1971 and aid to bob haldeman. that for chili was undone quickly.ly made a pitch to nixon. bush wanted to be the u.n. ambassador. nixon wanted to come into the white house. but brilliantly, bush knew what would appeal to nixon's ego and emotional mindset and the casing me to nixon was you know, no one is up in new york making a case for you. no one is defending an immediate diplomatic and financial service of new york and i can do that. and it was a brilliant thing to say. for here is the polish son of a senator from connecticut saying to the sound of a grocer from yorba linda i want to carry water for you. want to make your case. nixon sat alone in the oval office for a few minutes and decided that bush had been right. that they want him up in new york. there's this second motive which a piece of news in the book for the real dorks out there, like me. nixon wanted him to forgo living in ambassadorial apartment on the 42nd floor of the waldorf astoria was neighborhood was mrs. douglas macarthur. also the home of herbert hoover for many years to come