Newly declassified segments from the diary of President Richard Nixon's chief-of-staff provide a detailed, subtle portrait of the disgraced president as H.R. Haldeman recounts both moments of high-stakes diplomacy and unscripted daily life that would never make a White House memo or official document.

More than 40 years after Haldeman made his last audio diary recording, the Richard Nixon Presidential Library & Museum in Yorba Linda on Thursday released 285 segments from entries spanning from 1970 to 1973. At the time, Nixon was engaged in delicate diplomacy that would lead to treaties to limit nuclear armaments and a reopening of China to the world.