THE PRESIDENCY by HUGH SIDEY: So Long to Old Herb Klein

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He has peddled the old Nixon propaganda with a straight face and given some of the dullest speeches on record, but he has always been there to listen when people, small as well as big, needed somebody to talk to when the rest of the White House was buttoned up, which was most of the time.

Herb still has some political mileage in him. But he probably has seen the pinnacles. Last year some of us were standing in the magnificent Hall of St. George in the Kremlin on the final day of Nixon's Moscow summit. All Russia's elite were there, cosmonauts and marshals, diplomats and artists, the Politburo and the KGB agents.

They played The Star-Spangled Banner, and then Nixon and his Soviet hosts walked down the length of the huge hall. It was a splendid moment.

As the President passed, there in view across the room was Herb Klein. He looked like he had slept in his suit, or maybe hadn't slept at all in those frantic days. But his face had the same kindly look, and there was a smile and a lot of pride and warmth beneath the surface. The thought occurred to us then, and again last week, that here was one of the few men around Nixon who gave more than he took.