Summary of Chris Whipple's The Gatekeepers

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jul 8, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822544390

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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