University of Virginia Library

No Government Experience

"He came into Washington
with a group- Mitchell,
Klendienst, Erlichman – who
had no experience with
national government, or with
Washington. After 1962 Nixon
lost most of the people who
had surrounded him in politics.
Those who had any degree of
sophistication about national
politics dropped away. He had
some very serious losses in the
1960 campaign for President
and the 1962 campaign for
California governor."

"He ended up with second
level people who had no
experience with national
politics – who were very
doctrinaire, very ideological,
very conservative. They hated
the national government as
being the hotbed of radical
liberal democracy. They
genuinely distrusted the
government when they came
into office."