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For other uses, see Deep Throat (disambiguation).

Deep Throat was for many years the closely guarded pseudonym given to Deputy Director of the FBI William Mark Felt, Sr., the secret source who provided information to the Washington Post about the involvement of U.S. President Richard Nixon's administration in what came to be known as the Watergate scandal. A pseudonym is a fictitious alternative to a person's legal name (see Alias) The Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (or Associate Director) is a senior United States Government position in the Federal Bureau of Investigation William Mark Felt Sr (born August 17, 1913) is a former agent of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, who retired in 1973 The protection of sources, sometimes also referred to as the confidentiality of sources or in the U The Washington Post is the largest and most circulated Newspaper in Washington D The President of the United States is the Head of state and Head of government of the United States and is the highest political official in United States by The Watergate scandals were a series of Political scandals during the presidency of Richard Nixon that resulted in the Indictment of several of Nixon's

Deep Throat (Mark Felt) was an important source for The Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who wrote a series of articles on the scandal, which played a decisive role in exposing the misdeeds of the Nixon administration. Robert "Bob" Upshur Woodward (born March 26, 1943) is an assistant managing editor of The Washington Post. Carl Bernstein (pronounced BERN-steen ˈbɜrnstiːn (born February 14, 1944) is an American journalist who as a reporter for The The scandal would eventually lead to the resignation of President Nixon as well as prison terms for White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman, G. Gordon Liddy, Egil Krogh, chief counsel Charles Colson, and presidential adviser John Ehrlichman. The White House Chief of Staff is the highest-ranking member of the Executive Office of the President of the United States and a senior aide to the President Harry Robbins Haldeman (publicly known as H R Haldeman, and informally as Bob Haldeman) ( October 27, 1926 &ndash November 12, George Gordon Battle Liddy (born November 30, 1930) was the chief operative for the White House Plumbers unit that existed during several years of Egil “Bud” Krogh Jr (born in Chicago, Illinois, United States is a lawyer who came to prominence as a Nixon Administration official who went Kingdoms in Conflict (1988 but I don't know where--> Charles (Chuck Wendell Colson (born October 16 Haldeman and Ehrlichman discuss policy 1973png|thumb|200px|right|"The Berlin Wall" of Ehrlichman and Haldeman on April 27, 1973 three days before they would be asked to resign

Howard Simons, the managing editor of the Washington Post at the time, dubbed the secret informant "Deep Throat" as an allusion to the notorious pornographic movie of the same name. Howard Simons ( June 3, 1929 - June 13, 1989) was the managing editor of the Washington Post at the time of the Watergate scandal Deep Throat is an American Pornographic film released in the summer of 1972, written and directed by Gerard Damiano (listed in the The name was also a play on the journalism term "deep background," referring to information provided by a secret source that, by agreement, will not be reported directly. In Journalism, a source is a person publication or other record or document that gives information "Deep Throat" came to public attention when Woodward and Bernstein wrote All the President's Men, a book also made into an Academy Award-winning movie. All the President's Men is a 1974 Non-fiction book by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, two of the journalists investigating the first Watergate "The Oscar" redirects here for the film see The Oscar (film. All the President's Men is a 1976 film based on the 1974 non-fiction book by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the two journalists investigating In the movie, Deep Throat was portrayed by Hal Holbrook. Harold Rowe "Hal" Holbrook Jr (born February 17, 1925) is an American Actor.

For more than 30 years, the identity of Deep Throat was one of the biggest mysteries of American politics and journalism, the source of much public curiosity and speculation. Politics of the United States takes place in the framework of a presidential, Federal republic where the President of the United States (the Head of Journalism is the profession of writing or communicating formally employed by publications and broadcasters for the benefit of a particular Community of people Woodward and Bernstein insisted they would not reveal his identity until he died or consented to have his identity revealed. On May 31, 2005, after W. Mark Felt revealed himself in a Vanity Fair magazine article, Woodward, Bernstein, and former Post executive editor Ben Bradlee confirmed that Felt was the source they called "Deep Throat. Events 1279 BC - Rameses II (The Great (19th dynasty becomes pharaoh of Ancient Egypt. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. William Mark Felt Sr (born August 17, 1913) is a former agent of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, who retired in 1973 Vanity Fair is an American magazine of Culture, Fashion, and Politics published by Condé Nast Publications. Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee (born August 26, 1921) is the vice president of The Washington Post. "

Contents

Role in Watergate

Watergate
(timeline)
Events

Pentagon Papers
Watergate burglaries
Watergate tapes
Saturday Night Massacre
United States v. Nixon
New York Times Co. v. United States
People

Ben Bagdikian
Carl Bernstein
Archibald Cox
John Dean
Deep Throat
Daniel Ellsberg
W. Mark Felt
E. Howard Hunt
Egil Krogh
G. Gordon Liddy
Angelo Lano
John N. Mitchell
Richard Nixon
John Sirica
Watergate Seven
Bob Woodward
Groups

CREEP
White House Plumbers
Senate Watergate Committee

List of people
connected with Watergate
Main article: Watergate scandal


On 17 June 1972 at 2:31 AM, five men were arrested by police on the sixth floor of the Watergate Hotel building in Washington, D.C., inside the offices of the Democratic National Committee. The Watergate scandals were a series of Political scandals during the presidency of Richard Nixon that resulted in the Indictment of several of Nixon's Timeline of the Watergate scandal &mdashRegarding attempts by the sitting U The Pentagon Papers is the popular name for a 14000-page top-secret United States government report about the history of the Government's internal planning and policy The Watergate burglaries, which took place on May 28 and June 17, 1972, have been cited in testimony media accounts and popular works on Watergate as The Watergate tapes, also known as the Nixon tapes are a collection of recordings of conversations between U The "Saturday Night Massacre" was the term given by political commentators to U This is about the 1974 case on the powers of President Richard Nixon New York Times Co v United States, 403 US 713 ( 1971) was a United States Supreme Court Per curiam decision Ben Haig Bagdikian (born 1920 Maraş, Ottoman Empire; now in Turkey) is an American Educator and Journalist Carl Bernstein (pronounced BERN-steen ˈbɜrnstiːn (born February 14, 1944) is an American journalist who as a reporter for The Archibald Cox Jr, ( May 17, 1912 &ndash May 29, 2004) was an American Lawyer who served as U John Wesley Dean III (born October 14, 1938) was White House Counsel to U Daniel Ellsberg (born April 7 1931 is a former American military Analyst employed by the RAND Corporation who precipitated a national political controversy William Mark Felt Sr (born August 17, 1913) is a former agent of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, who retired in 1973 Everette Howard Hunt Jr ( October 9 1918 – January 23 2007) was an American Author and spy. Egil “Bud” Krogh Jr (born in Chicago, Illinois, United States is a lawyer who came to prominence as a Nixon Administration official who went George Gordon Battle Liddy (born November 30, 1930) was the chief operative for the White House Plumbers unit that existed during several years of Angelo J Lano was an American field agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Washington DC, notable for his work heading the investigation of John Newton Mitchell (September 1913 &ndash November 9, 1988) was the first United States Attorney General ever to be convicted of illegal activities and John Joseph Sirica ( March 19 1904 – August 14 1992) was the Chief Judge for the United States District Court for the District of The Watergate Seven were advisors and aides to United States President Richard M Robert "Bob" Upshur Woodward (born March 26, 1943) is an assistant managing editor of The Washington Post. The Committee to Re-elect the President, often abbreviated to CRP or CREEP (an acronym used derisively by critics of the Nixon administration was a Nixon The White House Plumbers or simply the Plumbers is the popular name given to the covert White House Special Investigations Unit established July 24 The Senate Watergate Committee was a special committee convened by the United States Senate to investigate the Watergate burglaries and the ensuing Watergate The Watergate scandals were a series of Political scandals during the presidency of Richard Nixon that resulted in the Indictment of several of Nixon's Events 1462 - Vlad III the Impaler attempts to assassinate Mehmed II ( The Night Attack) forcing him to retreat Year 1972 ( MCMLXXII) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Watergate complex is an office-apartment-hotel complex built in 1967 in northwest Washington D Washington DC ( formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D The Democratic National Committee (DNC is the principal organization governing the United States Democratic Party on a day to day basis Police had arrived on the scene after being alerted by Frank Wills, a security guard, who noticed that a door leading into the hotel had been taped open. Frank Wills ( February 4, 1948 &ndash September 27, 2000) was the Security guard who uncovered the break-in that led to the Watergate

The situation was unusual in that the five burglars had $2,300 in hundred-dollar bills with serial numbers in sequence, some lock-picks and door-jimmies, a walkie-talkie, a radio scanner capable of listening to police frequencies, two cameras, 40 rolls of unused film, tear-gas guns, and sophisticated devices capable of recording all conversations that might be held in the offices. The United States one hundred-dollar bill ($100 is a denomination of United States currency.

At least one of the men was a former Central Intelligence Agency employee. near as long as it used to be several months ago It has been actively summarized and split into sub-articles and there is a dynamic talk page discussion of all This person, Jim McCord, Jr., was at the time of his arrest a security man for President Nixon’s Committee to Re-elect the President (also known by its acronym, "CREEP", among Nixon's political opponents). The Committee to Re-elect the President, often abbreviated to CRP or CREEP (an acronym used derisively by critics of the Nixon administration was a Nixon Acronyms, initialisms, and alphabetisms are Abbreviations that are formed using the initial components in a phrase or name Notebooks were found on two of the men containing the telephone number of E. Howard Hunt, whose name in the notebooks was accompanied by the inscriptions “W House” and “W. Everette Howard Hunt Jr ( October 9 1918 – January 23 2007) was an American Author and spy. H. ”

The scandal immediately attracted some media scrutiny. A protracted period of clue-searching and trail-following then ensued, with reporters and eventually the United States Senate and the judicial system probing to see how far up the Executive branch of government the Watergate scandal, as it had come to be known, extended. The United States Senate is the Upper house of the bicameral United States Congress, the Lower house being the House of Representatives In Political science and Constitutional law, the executive is the branch of government responsible for the day-to-day management of the State.

A pair of young Washington Post reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, wrote the coverage of the story over a period of two years. The scandal eventually was shown to involve a variety of legal violations, and it implicated many members of the Nixon White House. With increasing pressure from the courts and the Senate, President Nixon eventually became the first and only U. S. President to resign in disgrace, narrowly avoiding impeachment by the House of Representatives. Impeachment is the first of two stages in a specific process for a legislative body to forcibly remove a Government official The United States House of Representatives is one of the two chambers of the United States Congress; the other is the Senate.

Woodward and Bernstein's stories contained information that was remarkably similar to the information uncovered by FBI investigators. This was a journalistic advantage not enjoyed by any other journalists at the time. In their later book, All the President's Men, Woodward and Bernstein claimed this information came from a single anonymous informant dubbed "Deep Throat". It was later revealed, and confirmed by Woodward and Bernstein, that Deep Throat was FBI Deputy Director W. Mark Felt. William Mark Felt Sr (born August 17, 1913) is a former agent of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, who retired in 1973 Woodward had befriended Felt years earlier, and had consulted with him on stories before the Watergate scandal. Woodward, Bernstein, and others credit the information provided by Deep Throat with being instrumental in ensuring the success of the investigation into the Watergate Scandal.

Secrecy was the key

Woodward, in All the President's Men, first mentions Deep Throat on page 71. All the President's Men is a 1974 Non-fiction book by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, two of the journalists investigating the first Watergate He describes him as "a source in the Executive Branch who had access to information at CRP as well as at the White House. " The book also calls him "an incurable gossip", "in a unique position to observe the Executive Branch," and a man "whose fight had been worn out in too many battles. "

Woodward claimed that he would signal "Deep Throat" that he desired a meeting by moving a flowerpot with a red flag on the balcony of his apartment. When Deep Throat wanted a meeting he would make special marks on page twenty of Woodward's copy of The New York Times; he would circle the page number and draw clock hands to indicate the hour. They often met "on the bottom level of an underground garage just over the Key Bridge in Rosslyn," at 2:00 a. Not to be confused with the bridge of the same name in Baltimore Maryland. m. The garage is located at 1401 Wilson Boulevard.

Many were dubious of these cloak and dagger methods. Adrian Havill investigated these claims for his 1993 biography of Woodward and Bernstein and found them to be factually impossible. A biography (from the Greek words bíos (βίος meaning "life" and gráphein (γράφειν meaning "to write" is an account He noted that Woodward's apartment 617 at 1718 P Street, Northwest, in Washington faced an interior courtyard and was not visible from the street. Havill said anyone regularly checking the balcony, as "Deep Throat" was said to have done daily, would have been spotted. Havill also said that copies of The Times were not delivered to individual apartments but delivered in an un-addressed stack at the building's reception desk. There would have been no way to know which copy was intended for Woodward. Woodward, however, has since claimed that in the early 1970s the interior courtyard was an alleyway and had not yet been bricked off, and that his balcony was visible from street level to passing pedestrians. It was also visible, Woodward conjectured, to anyone from the FBI in surveillance of nearby embassies. Also revealed was the fact that Woodward's copy of the New York Times had his apartment number indicated on it. Former neighbour Herman Knippenberg stated that Woodward would sometimes come to his door looking for his marked copy of the Times, claiming "I like to have it in mint condition and I like to have my own copy. " [1]

Further, while Woodward in his book stressed these precautions, he also admits to calling "Deep Throat" on the telephone at his home.

Motives

In public statements following the disclosure of his identity, Felt's family called him an "American hero," stating that he leaked information about the Watergate scandal to the Washington Post for moral and patriotic reasons. This view has been echoed by many commentators and historians who feel that Felt's contributions were vital in exposing the illegal actions and cover-ups of the Nixon White House. (A similar view agrees, but criticizes Felt for his lack of courage — not coming forward himself. )

In his book, The Secret Man, Woodward describes Felt as a loyalist and admirer of J. Edgar Hoover. WikipediaManual of Style (biographies#Postnominal initials After Hoover's death, Felt became angry and disgusted when L. Patrick Gray, a Nixon loyalist with no prior law enforcement experience, was appointed Director of the F. Louis Patrick Gray III (July 18 1916 – July 6 2005 was acting Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI from May 2 1972 to April 27 1973 B. I. over Felt, a 30-year veteran of the Bureau. As the Deputy Director of the F. B. I. , Felt ran the day-to-day operations of the Bureau, while Gray, as Director, received credit for the Bureau's work.

According to Woodward, Felt was angry with Gray's bureaucratic incompetence and his continuing acquiescence to demands from the White House. (In 1973, it was revealed that Gray had carelessly destroyed documents from E. Howard Hunt's White House safe which had been given to him by White House Counsel John Dean. Everette Howard Hunt Jr ( October 9 1918 – January 23 2007) was an American Author and spy. John Wesley Dean III (born October 14, 1938) was White House Counsel to U ) Felt was also disgusted with the Nixon administration's attempts to control the F. B. I. , and to suppress the Bureau's investigation of Watergate. Woodward speculates that Felt believed he was protecting the F. B. I. By leaking information to the press, Woodward believes, Felt hoped to build public and political pressure to force the Nixon administration to answer for its actions in the Watergate break-in and cover-up.

Some conservatives who worked for Nixon such as Patrick Buchanan and G. Gordon Liddy castigated Felt and asserted their belief that Nixon was unfairly hounded from office. Patrick Joseph "Pat" Buchanan (born November 2 1938 is an American Political commentator, Author, syndicated Columnist George Gordon Battle Liddy (born November 30, 1930) was the chief operative for the White House Plumbers unit that existed during several years of [1]

Hints to his identity

According to Woodward in his book, The Secret Man, released in July 2005, "Deep Throat"'s identity was known only to seven people: "Deep Throat" himself, Bob Woodward, Woodward's wife Elsa Walsh, Carl Bernstein, their editor Benjamin C. Bradlee, his successor Leonard Downie Jr., and by Assistant US Attorney General Stanley Pottinger. Robert "Bob" Upshur Woodward (born March 26, 1943) is an assistant managing editor of The Washington Post. Carl Bernstein (pronounced BERN-steen ˈbɜrnstiːn (born February 14, 1944) is an American journalist who as a reporter for The Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee (born August 26, 1921) is the vice president of The Washington Post. Leonard "Len" Downie Jr (born May 1, 1942) the longserving Executive editor of The Washington Post. Many of the divisions and offices of the United States Department of Justice are headed by an Assistant Attorney General. Woodward said in repeated interviews that the identity of Felt would be kept confidential until Deep Throat died or agreed to let his real name be made public. Plans, however, fell apart, and Woodward revealed in The Secret Man that during a 1976 grand jury appearance over break-ins that Felt ordered, a grand juror asked Felt, "Were you Deep Throat?" Felt "seemed to go white" and answered no. Pottinger, present at the questioning, requested the stenographer stop typing and then whispered to Felt:

"You are under oath so you have to answer truthfully. On the other hand, I consider the question to be outside the bounds of our official investigation, so if you prefer, I'll withdraw the question. What would you like me to do?" Felt had the question withdrawn. At a lunch meeting with Woodward, Pottinger recounted his uncloaking to an astonished Woodward.

In the years prior to Felt's disclosure, there was much speculation about the identity of Deep Throat. Woodward would only confirm that Deep Throat was a specific man (and not a woman) in Nixon's administration — not a composite of several secret informants — and who smoked heavily and liked drinking scotch. Scotch whisky is Whisky made in Scotland. In Britain the term whisky is usually taken to mean Scotch unless otherwise specified

Woodward gave specific denials to six other possibilities, at the request of those people:

Reasons for Remaining Reticent

In The Secret Man, Woodward speculates on Felt's reasons for keeping silent about his identity as Deep Throat for so many years. Alexander Meigs Haig Jr (born December 2 1924 is a retired four-star General in the United States Army who served as the U Deep Throat is the Pseudonym given to the secret source who provided information to the Washington Post about the involvement of U John Patrick Sears is an attorney and a Republican political strategist Lily Diane Sawyer (born December 19, 1945) is a Television Reporter for ABC and co-anchor of its morning news show Cord Meyer Jr ( November 10, 1920 – March 13, 2001) was an American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA official near as long as it used to be several months ago It has been actively summarized and split into sub-articles and there is a dynamic talk page discussion of all William Egan Colby ( January 4, 1920 – April 27, 1996) spent a career in Intelligence for the United States culminating in holding near as long as it used to be several months ago It has been actively summarized and split into sub-articles and there is a dynamic talk page discussion of all Following the Watergate scandal, Felt was seriously investigated by the F. B. I. for possible illegal activities that he had committed as an agent during the Hoover years. In 1980, Felt was convicted of the felony of violating the civil rights of people thought to be associated with members of the Weather Underground by ordering FBI agents to search their homes as part of an attempt to prevent bombings. Weatherman, known colloquially as the Weathermen and later the Weather Underground Organization, was an American Radical left organization He was ordered to pay a $7,000 fine but was pardoned by President Ronald Reagan during his appeal.

During the time he was being investigated, Woodward says, Felt needed to preserve his law enforcement ties. He would have placed these ties in serious jeopardy if he had revealed his role as Deep Throat. After Felt's 1980 conviction, Woodward reports, he called Felt and asked if it would help Felt's appeal of the conviction if Woodward were to promulgate Felt's secret. Felt demurred at his suggestion, under the pretense that if he were revealed as Deep Throat, it would have a pernicious effect on his appeal.

In his 1979 book, The FBI Pyramid, Felt denied being Deep Throat. The FBI Pyramid From the Inside is a 1979 non-fiction book by W He wrote in the book that he had only met with Woodward on one occasion, and that he had refused to cooperate with the young reporter. Felt wrote "I never leaked information to Woodward and Bernstein or to anyone else!"

In the book, Felt also cited the fact that Woodward had described Deep Throat as a heavy smoker. Felt claimed he had given up smoking in 1943. Also in the book, Felt said he thought that Deep Throat was a composite character.

In The Secret Man, Woodward recalls his meeting with Felt, which took place in Felt's office at the F. B. I. The meeting was arranged by a Washington Post reporter who did not know that Felt was Woodward's secret source. The Washington Post is the largest and most circulated Newspaper in Washington D Woodward recalls that the meeting was an awkward situation, because Felt's assistant was present. Woodward only tried to confirm some nebulous facts that he had uncovered about the Watergate investigation. Felt remained fairly reticent throughout the meeting. Afterwards, Woodward recalls, he and Felt never mentioned the office meeting again.

Also, in The Secret Man, Woodward recalls that Felt always smoked during their clandestine meetings in the underground parking garage. In regards to Felt's claim that he "gave up smoking in 1943," Woodward speculates that the pressures on Felt had caused him to revert to heavy smoking habits during their underground meetings.

In his book, Woodward wonders if Felt was trying to be "technically true" by stating that he had never leaked information to "Woodward and Bernstein. " During the Watergate investigation, Felt had only leaked information to Woodward. He had never even met Carl Bernstein.

Deep Throat revealed

Although confirmation of Deep Throat's identity remained elusive for over 30 years, there were a few suspicions that Felt was indeed the reporters' elusive source long before the public acknowledgement in 2005.

In February 2005, Nixon's former White House Counsel, news columnist John Dean, reported that Woodward had recently informed Bradlee that "Deep Throat" was ailing and close to death, and that Bradlee had written Deep Throat's obituary. February 2005: ← - January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August The White House Counsel is a staff appointee of the President of the United States. John Wesley Dean III (born October 14, 1938) was White House Counsel to U Both Woodward and the then-current editor of The Washington Post, Leonard Downie, denied these claims. Leonard "Len" Downie Jr (born May 1, 1942) the longserving Executive editor of The Washington Post. Felt was something of a suspect, especially after the mysterious meeting that occurred between Woodward and Felt in the summer of 1999. But others had received more attention over the years, such as Pat Buchanan, Henry Kissinger, then-Chief Justice William Rehnquist, General Haig, and, before it was revealed that "Deep Throat" was definitely not female, Diane Sawyer. Patrick Joseph "Pat" Buchanan (born November 2 1938 is an American Political commentator, Author, syndicated Columnist Henry Alfred Kissinger (born Heinz Alfred Kissinger on May 27, 1923) is a German -born American bureaucrat diplomat and 1973 William Hubbs Rehnquist (October 1 1924 – September 3 2005 was an American lawyer, jurist, and a political figure who served as an Associate Justice Lily Diane Sawyer (born December 19, 1945) is a Television Reporter for ABC and co-anchor of its morning news show

On May 31, 2005, Vanity Fair magazine reported that William Mark Felt, then aged 91, claimed to be the man once known as "Deep Throat. Events 1279 BC - Rameses II (The Great (19th dynasty becomes pharaoh of Ancient Egypt. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. " Later that day, Woodward, Bernstein, and Bradlee released a statement through The Washington Post confirming that the story was true, finally bringing to rest the most enduring mystery in modern American politics.

On June 2, 2005, the Washington Post ran a lengthy front-page article by Woodward in which he detailed his friendship with Felt in the years before Watergate. Events 455 - The Vandals enter Rome, and plunder the city for two weeks Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Woodward wrote that he first met Felt by chance in 1970, when Woodward was a Navy lieutenant in his mid-twenties who was dispatched to deliver a package to the White House's West Wing. Felt arrived soon after, for a separate appointment, and sat next to Woodward in the waiting room. Woodward struck up a conversation, eventually learning of Felt's position in the upper echelon of the FBI. Woodward, who was about to get out of the Navy at the time and was unsure about his future direction in life, became determined to use Felt as a mentor and career advisor, and so he got Felt's phone number and kept in touch with him. MENTOR / The National Mentoring Partnership is an advocate and resource for Mentoring in the United States.

After deciding to try a career as a reporter, Woodward eventually joined the Washington Post in August, 1971. Year 1971 ( MCMLXXI) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the 1971 Gregorian calendar. Felt, who Woodward writes had long had a dim view of the Nixon Administration, began passing pieces of information to Woodward, although he insisted that Woodward keep the FBI and Justice Department out of anything he wrote based on the information. The first time Woodward used information from Felt in a Washington Post story was in mid-May of 1972, a month before the Watergate burglary, when Woodward was investigating the man who had attempted to assassinate Presidential candidate George C. Wallace of Alabama. George Corley Wallace Jr (August 25 1919 September 13 1998 was a Democratic Governor of Alabama for four terms (1963-1967 1971-1979 and 1983-1987 and ran for Nixon had put Felt in charge of investigating the would-be assassin as well. A month later, just days after the Watergate break-in, Woodward would call Felt at his office, marking the first time Woodward spoke with Felt about Watergate.

Commenting on Felt's motivations for serving as his "Deep Throat" source, Woodward wrote, "Felt believed he was protecting the bureau by finding a way, clandestine as it was, to push some of the information from the FBI interviews and files out to the public, to help build public and political pressure to make Nixon and his people answerable. He had nothing but contempt for the Nixon White House and their efforts to manipulate the Bureau for political reasons. "

In 1980, Felt himself was convicted of ordering illegal break-ins at the homes of Weathermen suspects, and their families. Weatherman, known colloquially as the Weathermen and later the Weather Underground Organization, was an American Radical left organization Richard Nixon testified on his behalf. President Ronald Reagan pardoned Felt, and the conviction subsequently expunged from the record.

Composite character theory

Although speculation always tended to focus on identifying "Deep Throat" as an individual, it was periodically suggested that the famous source was actually a composite character combining information the reporters obtained from several sources. When various accounts tried to identify the source based on the information provided by Woodward and Bernstein, they generally also sought to repudiate alternative theories. The resulting evidence against each candidate suggested that either the reporters' tale was inconsistent, or that no single person fit the facts. Some analysts believed that the "Deep Throat" character was primarily a dramatic device used by the reporters to liven up their book's narrative. This comment was supported by both John Erlichman and Len Garment in a 1994 oral history of Nixon's Presidency. [2] Before his admission, on previous occasions Felt himself had said he thought the character was likely a composite. The composite theory is by no means dead. It should be noted in this regard that the only person who knows the full "truth" of Deep Throat's identity is Woodward, since it was Woodward who identified Deep Throat to Bernstein, Bradlee et al.

Also, the agent who originally marketed the draft for All the President's Men stated that the initial typescript of the book contained absolutely no reference to Deep Throat. All the President's Men is a 1974 Non-fiction book by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, two of the journalists investigating the first Watergate That led to speculation that Woodward and Bernstein played at condensing history in the same way Hollywood scriptwriters do: the writer sees that the real life hero doing the Great Deed had a dozen helpers, boils them down to a single person, and gives him a fictional name. A hero (from Greek grc ἥρως hērōs) in Greek mythology and Folklore, was originally a Demigod, the offspring of a mortal and

Other suspected candidates

Fred Fielding

Another leading candidate was White House Associate Counsel Fred F. Fielding. Fred Fisher Fielding (born March 21, 1939) is an American lawyer and a member of the George W In April 2003 Fielding was presented as a potential candidate as a result of a detailed review of source material by William Gaines and his journalism students, as part of a class at the University of Illinois journalism school. April 2003: January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September William C Gaines is an American journalist and professor of journalism This article is about the flagship campus For other uses and locations of University of Illinois, see University of Illinois (disambiguation The University of [4] [5] Fielding was the assistant to John Dean and as such had access to the files relating to the affair. Gaines felt that statements by Woodward ruled out "Deep Throat"'s being in the FBI and that "Deep Throat" often had information before the FBI did. H. R. Haldeman himself suspected Fielding as being "Deep Throat. "

Dean had been one of the most dedicated hunters of "Deep Throat. " Both he and Leonard Garment dismissed Fielding as a possibility, reporting that he had been cleared by Woodward in 1980 when Fielding was applying for an important position in the Ronald Reagan administration. Leonard Garment (born May 11 1924, Brooklyn, USA was acting Special Counsel to U However this assertion, which comes from Fielding, has not been corroborated.

One reason that many experts believed that "Deep Throat" was Fielding and not Felt was due to Woodward's apparent denial in an interview that "Deep Throat" worked in the intelligence community:

LUKAS: Do you resent the implication by some critics that your sources on Watergate — among them the fabled "Deep Throat" — may have been people in the intelligence community?
WOODWARD: I resent it because it's untrue. Quote from Playboy interview, 1979

In retrospect, it appears that Woodward was only excluding the foreign intelligence agencies with that statement, and not the FBI.

Other credible candidates

Any candidate that died before the Felt admission ceased to fit Woodward's criteria at that time, since Woodward had stated that he was free to reveal his identity when "Deep Throat" died.

Less credible candidates

Literature

The Secret Man by Bob Woodward
The Secret Man by Bob Woodward

In Popular Culture

References

  1. ^ Morgan, Dan (June 1, 2005). Contemporaries Have Mixed Views. Washington Post
  2. ^ Strober & Strober, Nixon: An Oral History of His Presidency. The Washington Post is the largest and most circulated Newspaper in Washington D Harper Collins; New York, 1994. ISBN 0-06-017027-1.
  3. ^ Woodward, Bob. (2005). The Secret Man. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-8715-0

External links

Dictionary

Deep Throat

-noun

  1. A secret informant possessing valuable information, especially one who stays secret long after the incident in question is concluded.
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