Haldeman Takes Slant on History, Swipe at Press : Watergate: Speaking at Nixon library in Yorba Linda, the former White House chief of staff tells youths not to take the printed word at face value.

Former White House chief of staff--and convicted Watergate felon--H.R. (Bob) Haldeman had a message Wednesday for inquiring high school students who peppered him with questions about working for President Richard M. Nixon.

“For Pete’s sake,” he implored 100 Southern California student newspaper editors, who were not yet born during the 1972 Watergate burglary, “don’t believe what you read in history books (just) because of the fact that those words are printed.”

Almost 17 years after he was convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and perjury in the Watergate scandal--and 13 years since he got out of prison--Haldeman was the featured speaker at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace.

Cordial but emphatic, Haldeman urged the students to “verify what you read, finding out what the facts are,” before drawing conclusions about historical events. In a 30-minute monologue prompted by a question about Watergate, Haldeman gave his own twist on the scandal that mesmerized the nation in the early 1970s and led to Nixon’s resignation.

Haldeman, dressed in blue-checked shirt and chinos, told the students that he was “improperly convicted” and never had a chance during his 1975 trial, “given the mood of the country at the time.”

The onetime ad executive also declared that John Sirica, who presided over his trial, was a “so-called judge”; that exposes of the Watergate cover-up by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were “grossly inaccurate” and motivated by “self-glorification,” and that White House counsel John Dean, who exposed Nixon’s role in the cover-up to Congress, may have been behind the break-in.

Most histories record that Woodward’s and Bernstein’s stories helped prompt official investigations that tied the burglary at Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate office complex--and the crime’s subsequent cover-up--to the Nixon reelection committee and the White House. The House Judiciary Committee recommended Nixon’s impeachment for his role in the cover-up, but he resigned in 1974 before the full House could vote on whether to impeach him, which would have set up a trial in the Senate.

Historians have criticized the library’s treatment of Watergate as being slanted in favor of Nixon. The library exhibits include, for example, only brief excerpts from the hours of tapes on which Nixon and Haldeman discussed how to deal with the Watergate scandal.

Haldeman drew healthy applause from the students, many of whom said they knew little about the Nixon Administration besides what they had seen in the film “All the President’s Men,” based on a Woodward and Bernstein book. But several students said that rather than clarifying a troubling chapter in recent U.S. history, their trip to the library left them more confused and bewildered.

“He told us to completely disregard our history books,” said Pasadena High School senior Stacy Tolchin, 17. “I believe the books more than him.”

During the 90-minute session, other students asked Haldeman whether the exhibits were more accurate than their textbooks.

“The Nixon library presents the opportunity to gain a vast amount of additional information,” Haldeman replied. After the assembly, he amplified his point to reporters, saying that all presidential libraries show history from the perspective of those presidents. For real one-sidedness, he added, “drop by the Kennedy Library.”

The presentation, held to commemorate Nixon’s groundbreaking February, 1972, trip to China, was strongly criticized afterward by Tolchin’s faculty adviser, Pasadena High English teacher Jonathan Schorr. Schorr--whose father, Daniel Schorr, the National Public Radio commentator, is an old Watergate hand--compared Haldeman’s impact to that of the film “JFK.” The movie has been criticized by many people--including Haldeman during the assembly Wednesday--for distorting history.

“He’s doing a ‘JFK’ on our kids,” Schorr said. “He’s sharp, witty and in some ways convincing--just like the movie.”

A student asked Haldeman whether he had advice for President Bush on how to overcome his lackluster performance in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary. Haldeman said Bush should hit the campaign trail hard, focus on economic issues and curtail the impulse to send surrogate campaigners such as “Dan Quayle and all the other people.”

After the session, Haldeman was presented with one of the most popular items in the library’s gift shop: a T-shirt depicting the 1970 White House meeting between Nixon and Elvis Presley. How did the king of rock ‘n’ roll win entry into the Oval Office that Haldeman so fiercely protected? library director John Taylor asked.

“Because at the time (Presley) was very concerned about the drug problem among youths,” Haldeman replied. When the young audience erupted into laughter, Haldeman quickly added: “And it turns out that he had good reason to be.”