In Washington, D.C., where little stays secret for long,
the identity of Deep Throat -- the mysterious source who
helped Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein break open the
Watergate scandal in 1972 -- remained hidden for 33 years.
Now, Woodward tells the story of his long, complex
relationship with W. Mark Felt, the enigmatic former No. 2
man in the Federal Bureau of Investigation who helped end
the presidency of Richard Nixon.
The Secret Man
chronicles the story in intimate detail, from Woodward's
first, chance encounter with Felt in the Nixon White House,
to their covert, middle-of-the-night meetings in an
underground parking garage, to the aftermath of Watergate
and decades beyond, until Felt finally stepped forward at
age 91 to unmask himself as Deep Throat.
The Secret
Man reveals the struggles of a patriotic career FBI man,
an admirer of J. Edgar Hoover, the Bureau's legendary
director. After Hoover's death, Mark Felt found himself in
the cross fire of one of Washington's historic contests, as
Nixon and his men tried to dominate the Bureau and cover up
the crimes of the administration. This book illuminates the
ongoing clash between temporary political power and the
permanent bureaucracy of government. Woodward explores
Felt's conflicts and motives as he became Deep Throat, not
only secretly confirming Woodward and Bernstein's findings
from dozens of other sources, but giving a sense of the
staggering sweep of Nixon's criminal abuses.
In this
volume, part memoir, part morality tale, part political and
journalistic history, Woodward provides context and detail
about The Washington Post's expose of Watergate. He examines
his later, tense relationship with Felt, when the FBI man
stood charged with authorizing FBI burglaries. (Not knowing
Felt's secret role in the demise of his own presidency,
Nixon testified at Felt's trial, and Ronald Reagan later
pardoned him.) Woodward lays bare his own personal struggles
as he tries to define his relationship, his obligations, and
his gratitude to this extraordinary confidential
source.
The Secret Man is an intense, 33-year
journey, providing a one-of-a-kind study of trust,
deception, pressures, alliances, doubts and a lifetime of
secrets. Woodward has spent more than three decades asking
himself why Mark Felt became Deep Throat. Now the world can
see what happened and why, bringing to a close one of the
last chapters of Watergate.
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