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And one Sunday night, in February, I think, Kendall called me, and he said: “I'm sitting here with the President, and I just told him about your concern about being turned down.” He said: “Let him tell you himself; I'll put him on.” So Nixon came on--very friendly--and said he [knew] nothing about it--that he didn't think he'd turned me down. So that eased my mind a little bit.

I knew then it happened at the [Charles] Colson level or at the--the guy from California; I can't remember his name now--chief-of-staff level. That one of them must have said: “We'll get even with Stanton, because I had had a lot of problems with the White House, and they never thought anything we did gave them a break. It's the old story. Johnson felt the same way and so did Kennedy. And I'm sure Clinton feels the same way today.

But at any rate, Nixon made it clear that as far as he was concerned, I could have it. I said: “Well, you know, somebody must have turned me down.”

He said: “I'll find out.” He said: “I didn't even know I appointed the chairman of the Red Cross.” [Q. laughs] Very friendly conversation. He got hold of [H.R.] Haldeman--called him upstairs in the White House, where Don and the President were having dinner, and told him about what had just happened. Haldeman said: “Well, you don't appoint the chairman of the Red Cross.” According to Kendall, Nixon said: “Well, I must, or Stanton wouldn't have had this idea. Why don't you find out?”

The story further went that Haldeman came back to the meeting with the code or the book of presidential responsibilities, and he said: “Mr. President, you do appoint the chairman of the