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Herbert G. Klein, Aide in the Nixon White House, Dies at 91

Herbert G. Klein, a campaign and White House aide to President Richard M. Nixon who remained loyal to him despite personal and professional slights, died Thursday in San Diego. He was 91.

His death, at Scripps Memorial Hospital, was confirmed by a family spokeswoman, Karin Winner, the editor of The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Mr. Klein, who lived in the La Jolla district of San Diego, was also a long-serving editor for Copley Newspapers in that city both before and after his White House years.

As a Navy veteran in his first reporting job, Mr. Klein covered Nixon’s announcement of his first run for Congress, in 1946, and either covered or worked on all his subsequent campaigns. He was press secretary for Nixon in three campaigns: the unsuccessful presidential run in 1960, the failed race for California governor in 1962 and finally the successful bid for the presidency in 1968.

Following Nixon to the White House, Mr. Klein was pushed aside and into a new position as communications director, a post that had no real authority. The job of press secretary went instead to Ronald L. Ziegler, a protégé of H. R. Haldeman, the White House chief of staff.
Read entire article at NYT