"Bob" Haldeman, a former advertising executive, became President Richard M. Nixon's White House Chief of Staff in 1969, and was soon considered to be the second most powerful man in the United States. Haldeman had a stern reputation as Nixon's gatekeeper and once called himself "the president's son-of-a-bitch."
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He was both good friends and a close accomplice of fellow White House staffer and presidential adviser on domestic affairs, John Ehrlichman[?] (1925-1999). Together, the duo known as "the Germans" were two of Nixon's most loyal and trusted aides during his presidency.
He was a key figure in the Watergate scandal that forced him to resign on April 30, 1973. Haldeman was subsequently convicted of conspiracy and obstruction of justice on February 21, 1975 and served 18 months in prison.
The controversial gap in Nixon's Oval Office recordings included a conversation between the president and Haldeman.
In 1978, he published "The Ends of Power[?]," in which he took responsibility for fostering the atmosphere in which Watergate flourished.
H. R. Haldeman died of abdominal cancer on November 12, 1993 at his home in Santa Barbara, California. His burial site has never been revealed.