Dear Bryce:
Although I have known from our previous arrangements that it was due, I still am immensely sorry to receive your letter of resignation. I accept it reluctantly, with a very special sense of loss, and also with heartfelt good wishes to you and Betty for happy and rewarding years ahead. All the good that may befall you will have been richly deserved.
You have served our country selflessly, ably, and with a profound sense of devotion for more than three decades, and have been an active helper to at least four Presidents. Yours has been an exceptionally distinguished service in which you and your family should take great and lasting pride.
I commend especially your service during these past two years, in this Administration. Your keen insights, your leavening wit, your immense capacity for work, your rigorous conscience, all have been assets of great value to the White House and to me personally. You will forever have my warm friendship and my profound respect, both of which have grown steadily over the seventeen years in which we have worked so closely together.
Pat and I will miss having you here on a daily basis, but we both look forward to seeing you and Betty frequently. I appreciate your offer to be of continuing help in the future, and you can be sure that I will turn to you often for the wise advice and perceptive counsel that I have learned to value so highly.
With deep gratitude for all your many contributions, and with warm personal regards,
Sincerely,
RICHARD NIXON
[Honorable Bryce N. Harlow, The White House]
Note: Mr. Harlow's letter of resignation, dated December 7, 1970, and released along with the President's letter, follows:
Dear Mr. President:
Three times we have scheduled my departure from the White House, and now the last extension has expired. As planned, I will return to private employment on December 10.
I am immensely grateful to you for the opportunities for service you have afforded me and for the recognition you have given my efforts. It is extremely difficult to leave now, not so much because of challenges still to be met, for these are forever in the White House as I know from 10 years here--but difficult mainly because I so deeply regret moving from your side after having worked with you in so many ways for so many years in and out of government. I have valued these associations tremendously and will miss them sorely.
Back in private life, still in Washington, I stand ready at all times to be as helpful as you will allow me to be, for I believe totally in what you are striving to do for our country, I remain eager to assist in that cause, and I find inspiration in the intensity of your personal integrity and commitment.
You and Mrs. Nixon have our devoted support and our prayers for your success and fulfillment in making possible a better life for all our countrymen.
Sincerely,
BRYCE N. HARLOW Counsellor to the President
[The President, The White House, Washington, D.C.]
Richard Nixon, Letter to Bryce N. Harlow Accepting His Resignation as Counsellor to the President. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/240677