The Secret Man: The Story of Watergate's Deep Throat

by Bob Woodward

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.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Biography, Journalism, American History, Audiobook

249 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Robert "Bob" Upshur Woodward is an assistant managing editor of The Washington Post. While an investigative reporter for that newspaper, Woodward, working with fellow reporter Carl Bernstein, helped uncover the Watergate scandal that led to U.S. President Richard Nixon's resignation. Woodward has written 12 best-selling non-fiction books and has twice contributed reporting to efforts that collectively earned the Post and its National Reporting staff a Pulitzer Prize.

Reviews

[Koven Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's so frustrating--Woodward is such a fantastic researcher and such a poor writer. There's a focus that's sorely lacking in most of his books that's present on every page of The Final Days and All the President's Men, both co-authored with Carl Bernstein. Bernstein is featured in a tacked-on coda to the book, which dispatches its narrative with more crisp efficiency than anything Woodward can summon in the previous pages. Hrm.

[Razvan Banciu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not among my favorites:
- MR. Woodward needs so many pages to tell us something he could resume in no more than five thousand words
- I have found no more than a few pieces of valuable information: only names, remorses and non-valuable little facts
- the style is dull, so the book is a very difficult one, even for patient readers
- the title itself is more than half a page...

[Lukasz Pruski · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Why were you Deep Throat? What was your motive? Who are you? Who were you?"

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's All the President's Men - to me one of the rare books that really deserve to be bestsellers - portrayed the painstaking journalistic and political process that eventually exposed the so-called Watergate affair and led to President Nixon's resignation from office in August of 1974. As a first-class non-fiction suspense it was one of the most fascinating reads of my life. Mr. Woodward's The Secret Man is in contrast a rather quiet work with much narrower scope. Although the author once again recounts the events that exploded into the Watergate Affair, he focuses more on the Deep Throat persona. The author insists (and Mr. Bernstein confirms it in a sort of an afterword, titled A Reporter's Assessment) that the book had been written before the identity of Deep Throat was publicly revealed.

The story begins - in a strong novelistic beginning - with the first meeting between the author and Deep Throat, that is Mr. Felt, in the late 1969 or early 1970, a meeting that happened in the West Wing of the White House, where both men were summoned on separate and unrelated business. Since they had to wait for quite a long time they engaged in a conversation and from these accidental beginnings an acquaintanceship had grown that lasted for many years to benefit both men. Coincidence shapes people's lives, the reader is told and led to think that - without that accidental meeting - the Watergate affair might have never been fully exposed and the political history might have been quite different. Although indeed most of what happens in people's lives is driven by chance the meeting is such a clever device powering the story in literary sense that a cynical skeptic that I am might doubt whether it happened in exactly that way.

In fact, there is great storytelling stuff in this book. Some of it - particularly the stunning phone conversation between the author and senile Mr. Felt on January 4, 2000 - is so good from a literary point of view that it is almost hard to believe: "too good to be true," one would almost like to say. Yet it might be true and it is a perhaps more scary to realize how people die years before their bodies quit. But I digress.

Two aspects of the book seem to be the most important. First, the author's quest to understand Mr. Felt's motives of acting as Deep Throat. Mr. Woodward points to Felt's strong feeling of allegiance to the FBI code of honor, oath of office, and his respect to the ethos of J. Edgar Hoover as potential reasons for Deep Throat's actions. But he also mentions, however slightly, Mr. Felt's personal daemons, and alerts to the possibility that it was vengeance for being twice spurned as the potential FBI director that motivated Deep Throat. I appreciate that the author does not strongly point in either direction as to the motive.

And second: in persecuting political opponents the Nixon's White House was clearly violating the law. Mr. Felt's divulging of mechanisms of these violations was most likely illegal too. Was his violation of some laws excused by the violations of law that he was trying to expose? A worthwhile read.

Three and a half stars.

[Jason Koivu · Rating 4 out of 5]

In The Secret Man: The Story of Watergate's Deep Throat, Bob Woodward lays down the Watergate history and then spends the rest of the book detailing his struggle with revealing the identity of Deep Throat, the source that helped him and Carl Bernstein understand and unveil the scandal. If you're unfamiliar with the subject, this would make a nice companion read to A G-Man's Life: The FBI, Being "Deep Throat," and the Struggle for Honor in Washington. Both books share much of the same information, but A G-Man's Life goes deeper into Deep Throat's personal background. Both are about as informative as you'll get on the motives of Woodward and Deep Throat in this high-stakes secretive chess game.

[Jay Rain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating - 8.2

A nice 'n' clean synopsis of the Watergate scandal w the ability to identify Deep Throat & Woodward's interactions w Felt; Felt's motivations seem a hybrid of moral code & personal revenge (Gray)

The ending is a bit slow as it details Woodward's artificial dilemna towards Felt & general curiousity toward his motivations; Inspires to read more about Hoover/FBI & to see 'All the Presidents Men'

[William Bahr · Rating 5 out of 5]

The reason? Still secret!

This is a very interesting book, apparently written within ten days in response to the announcement that Mark Felt, his daughter, and lawyer were going to reveal that Mark Felt was “Deep Throat.”

The book overviews Woodward’s relationship with Mark Felt: how he came to meet him, through the Watergate years, through the 2005 revelation that Mark Felt was “Deep Throat,” and beyond.

The book concentrates on why (emphasis WHY) Felt “felt” compelled to share confidential Watergate information with Woodward, although it never confirms exactly why, despite Woodward’s later attempt to extract that information from Felt at a time when Felt was suffering a form of dementia. (NB: The Wikipedia article on Felt includes a Felt biographer’s assessment of Felt’s rationale. A movie “Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House” contributes hints, visuals, and background not found in Woodward’s book, especially activity by John Dean (before his resignation) and J. Edgar Hoover (who seemingly blackmailed presidents and others so they wouldn’t interfere with the FBI’s mission to independently pursue justice).)

The book explores the multiple loyalties Felt had: to the nation, to the FBI, to his friends, and to his own self and sense of honor; and how he dealt with and tried to protect them in response to the threat posed by the White House, all the time walking a mine field as he thread the needle to save his honor in his own mind. It’s interesting how, on admittedly dramatically different levels, both Nixon’s and Felt’s justification for lying (supposedly “the last recourse”) to protect oneself (Felt’s denying that he was “Deep Throat”) was justified, rationalized, and conflated with national security.

Left largely uncommented on in the book is the motivation for money as relates to publishing the identify of “Deep Throat,” both by the Felt family and by the Washington Post. Curiously, Woodward used the initials “MF” to indicate in his records information relating to “Mark Felt,” but perhaps too easily explained-away as “My Friend.” Seems like there could have been a better way to deny the informer was Mark Felt.

Woodward had originally assured Felt he would protect his identify as a source for Watergate break-in information, a pledge of confidentiality which Woodward did not want to violate, if not for Felt, then to maintain his own credibility with all his past and future sources. Woodward also felt constrained by concepts best articulated by his lawyer friend: would, given Felt’s frailty and failing memory, Felt’s release of his “Deep Throat” identify be voluntary, absolute, and competent. Eventually, however, Woodward was forced into confirming that Felt was “Deep Throat” after Felt and his family revealed it in a “Vanity Fair” article. Given all this information, and despite Woodward’s extensive search, the reader is more or less finally left to choose his own reason(s) for why Mark Felt became “Deep Throat.”

All in all, this is a very interesting book investigating the character of Mark Felt. Highly recommended by a fellow author!

[David Cook · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve read a lot about Watergate. I was 14 at the time of the break-in. I still remember watching the hearings with my parents. Years later in 1982, while working in DC, my wife and I were alone on a cold winter day at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier when a limo pulled up. Senator Howard Baker emerged and proceeded to take pictures. I waited a few minutes until he was done and approached him. I told him of my memories of the hearings and his questioning witnesses and thanked him. I then asked if I could take his picture with my wife and infant son. He was very gracious. I wrote in my journal that night that I wished I could have talked in more detail and asked the question “Who was Deep Throat?” Like many over the years I wondered, speculated and read all the theories.

This book has been in my “To Read” list for a long time. I have always liked the works of Bob Woodward. Now more than a decade since the unmasking of Mark Felt as the real Deep Throat, it seems this book was rushed into print. It’s ok not great. For the kids out there Felt was the former FBI second-in-command and was Watergate's enigmatic informant. The book does remind us that the scandal's lasting impact was less on politics and more on journalism. Woodward recounts his cultivation of Felt as mentor and source during his days as a young reporter, the secret meetings in a parking garage where Felt leaked conclusions from the FBI's Watergate investigation. Felt paid a price for his career in the Bureau. His wife committed suicide from the stress she felt throughout his career and Felt blamed the Bureau.

The book drags a bit and could have used some good editing as Woodward wrestles with the ethics of revealing his source. Felt suffering from dementia floats in and out of lucidity sometimes blurting out his secret while at other times denying. Woodward portrays Felt as a conflicted man with situational principles (he was convicted of authorizing the FBI's own Watergate-style illegal break-ins against the Weathermen Underground). Woodward speculates about motives ranging from his resentment of White House pressure on the FBI for a cover-up, to being passed over for FBI chief.

Unfortunately, by the time of their meeting Felt doesn't remember much about Watergate, so his reasons remain a mystery; Woodward's disappointment at the drying up of his source is obvious. What is clear is that Deep Throat laid the template for Woodward's career; his later reporting on the Supreme Court, the CIA, the Fed, etc. and his ability to get sources to reveal their secrets.

Quote:

“He never really voice pure, raw outrage to me about Watergate or what it represented. The crimes and abuses were background music. Nixon was trying to subvert not only the law but the Bureau. So Watergate became Felt's instrument to reassert the Bureau's independence and thus its supremacy. In the end, the Bureau was damaged, seriously but not permanently, while Nixon lost much more, maybe everything - the presidency, power, and whatever moral authority he might have had. He was disgraced. But surviving and enduring his hidden life, in contrast and in his own way, Mark Felt won.”

[Stephen Terrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Secret Man is the book that anyone who lived through Watergate waited for more than 30 years. It is the story of Mark Felt, former number two man at the F.B.I. and better known to the nation by the moniker Deep Throat.

With Felt nearing the end of his life, his family finally revealed the secret of that Felt was Deep Throat, the legendary confidential source used by Woodward and Bernstein in breaking the Watergate conspiracy and bringing down a President and All the President's Men.

Until Felt's family revealed the secret in 2005, Woodward has shared the identity only with his co-Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein, a sprinkling of editors at the Washington Post, and later with his wife. Even Felt's own family did not know that Felt was Deep Throat until late in his life, prompted in part by several long visits from Woodward, and the obvious importance that Woodward has played someplace in Felt's life. But once the secret was revealed, Woodward was free to publish the book he had already written about Deep Throat and kept locked away in his safe for the appropriate time. The Secret Man is that book.

Like all of Woodward's writing, this book is well-organized and crisply written. It fills in many of the details that people previously could only guess at. And yes, the stories about the late-night garage meetings portrayed in the movie version of All the President's Men were highly accurate, including Hal Holbrook's uncanny resemblance to Felt.

Woodward is candid about his own failings, too. He admits that his ambitions caused him to use Felt perhaps in ways that impacted Felt's later life. In the immediate aftermath of Watergate, Felt cut himself off from Woodward. Despite being friends prior to Watergate, the two did not speak for two decades -- not until Woodward reached out and found that Felt was suffering the ravages of age, and that his memory, while not gone, had to a large degree faded. Except on "good days," he did not remember he had helped Woodward, but he did remember that Woodward was a friend.

Ultimately, however, the questions Woodward still had remain unanswered: Why did Felt do it? Why did he become Deep Throat? Why did he simply point Woodward in directions to follow rather than actually disclosing information to him? Felt died in 2008, and his memory before that -- and the answers to those questions died with him.

For anyone with an interest in politics, journalism, history or Watergate, this is an absolute MUST read.

[Cathryn Conroy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Watergate break-in on June 17, 1972 occurred eight days after I graduated from high school. That summer and the next two summers when I was home from college, our house was obsessed with the news developments. Well, mostly it was my father. If Dad was home, he was watching the news. I started paying attention. With each new and often confusing development, what happened became more horrifying—and terrifying.

This short and fascinating book is authored by Bob Woodward, who was half of The Washington Post team, along with Carl Bernstein, that is credited with bringing down a president. This is the tell-all book so many waited for. Although it was published in 2005 on the heels of a Vanity Fair magazine article in which Deep Throat—Mark Felt, the No. 2 man inside the FBI—revealed himself, it is still a riveting book for today's reader. While the identity of Deep Throat is important, the how, why, what, when, and where that drove the story is even more interesting.

Without Deep Throat, the inside government source who spilled the beans to Woodward in the underground parking garage in Rosslyn, Virginia during clandestine 2 a.m. meetings, Woodward may have remained on the lowly Washington Post police beat that he held in 1972 a lot longer instead of becoming an all-star reporter.

Who was Deep Throat? While quite a few speculated it was Mark Felt, no one knew for sure until that Vanity Fair article that was published on May 31, 2005 and the subsequent confirmation from Woodward and Bernstein, who kept the secret for 33 years.

In this book, Woodward details not only Deep Throat's identity, but also how it all worked—how they met each other in the first place, how they contacted each other, where the meetings took place, what was said, and the eventual falling out they had.

Some of the book's highlights:
• Find out the first time Bob Woodward and Mark Felt met in 1969 or 1970 (Woodward can't quite remember the date), how this serendipitous meeting occurred, and the surprising location. Had this chance introduction that led to an accidental friendship never occurred, there would not have been a Deep Throat.

• Learn why Mark Felt was deeply torn and even uncertain about being such a source to The Washington Post, both wanting to do it and not wanting to do it.

• Discover the extraordinary lengths Mark Felt took to protect his identity, lying to everyone he knew—even his family and closest friends.

• Find out how an apartment balcony flowerpot with a flag and a daily copy of The New York Times were critical components of the secret meetings between Mark Felt and Bob Woodward.

• Learn what Mark Felt would tell Bob Woodward and what he would not tell him—and why.

• Early on, the Nixon White House surprisingly correctly identified Mark Felt as Deep Throat but decided they couldn't out him for fear of what he would do next. The man simply knew too much and had access to absolutely everything inside the FBI.

This book is more than an unveiling of the source's identity as it reaches deeper to explore why a career professional at the pinnacle of success would risk so much. It's a piece of history that reads like a spy novel!

Bonus: "A Reporter's Assessment," which is the afterword by Carl Bernstein is fascinating reading. Don't skip it.

[Grada (BoekenTrol) · Rating 3 out of 5]

The events described in this book started around the time I was born.
In my youth I didn't know much about it, apart from the superficial facts about Watergate & Deep Throat. But it was a subject that intrigued me.

I like it, that the person who allowed Watergate to be unravelled and his story got a seperate book.
I liked reading it, it was interesting and she'd light on both Felt's point of view as well as the journalistic one. Sometimes aligning, sometimes clashing, but in the end leading to uncovering secrets and illegal activities.

[David Szatkowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great addition to the history around Watergate. Understanding this period of history helps explain why the free press is central to our freedom and liberty. Any actions to disparage the press (simply because you dislike a journalist's point of view) should be viewed with concern. Also, worthy of consideration - how do you respond to what Mark Felt did? How you respond, whether in favor or not, is also a worth question to ponder.

[Keaton]

well AS a personal-essay-memoirist by training, I think some of you are just not getting the type of book we're really in. I mean, I'm not saying its indelibly great, but I think a misapplication of genre is to blame for a fair amount of the negative reviews. there's a difference between a memoir and a biography—this is absolutely the former. and in that sense, it's not that bad. I have to respect a complicated emotional response & relationship. not everything is easy to follow—let alone people

[Em W · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super fascinating! Incredibly well written- couldn’t put it down for two days!

[Carol Ames · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting book and explains a lot! Good read.

[Abbie Cawser · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book got me back into reading again, and also writing. I also didn’t think there was anything left for me to learn about this topic, but turns out I was wrong.

[Ryan Welsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

haha deep throat

[Quinn Lavender · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thought-provoking look at the most famous informant in U.S. political history. I'm not sure how Woodward stretches out the seemingly straightforward details of "Deep Throat," but the book kept me interested all the way through.

(Spoiler)

Certainly the ethical dilemma raised at the end of the book (that Mark Felt ended up with dementia at the end of his life) was intriguing. This leads me to the only part of the book I did not like: Woodward's seemingly-total ignorance that he was interviewing a man who did not remember any details of his earlier life. Get a clue, Bob! It's clear by the man's answers that he has no idea what you're talking about, and asking him 80 more questions isn't going to "jog his memory."

[Steven Meade · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must read for any and I mean every American. I reread this about once a year.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s not often that I’ll finish a book in two sittings. Since my work requires close attention to copy, or at least, attention to copy, I’m usually in no state to focus at the end of the day, so my reading time tends to be restricted to half an hour on the bike at the gym, first thing in the morning.

But I was recommended Bob Woodward’s The Secret Man a week ago—got it from the library, and finished it in two days. It’s a fascinating study, not just of the journalist’s craft, but also of the relationship between two people. Two things struck me. One, how much of a limb Woodward went out on in writing the Watergate stories. Everything was attributed, but Woodward and Bernstein had to track people down at their houses at night in their time “off”. It’s about commitment. Two, how guilty Woodward felt about using his source’s information, or quoting him, or writing anything that could possibly get his source into trouble. Even when Deep Throat, FBI number 2 Mark Felt, got indicted for burglarizing members of the Weather Underground, Woodward was devastated. Almost ashamed, to call the man up.

Here's a quote from the book:>>>

Sometime afterward, I reached Felt by phone. He sounded worn, tired. There was a hesitation in his voice, that of a man facing jail, probably the last place he thought he would wind up. The felony indictment meant that if convicted he could be punished with a prison sentence of up to 10 years of a $10,000 fine or both.

I said I was truly sorry that it had come to this.

He sounded, or acted, as if he did not recognize my name or voice, as if I were some stranger or caller voicing sympathy.

“Thank you,” he said with a dry edge to his voice.

I tried to break through, saying something like, “Bob Woodward, Bob Woodward, you know, from the Washington Post?”

I believe he groaned.

Repeating myself, I said I was sorry. I realized that I was only trouble in his life. I had wanted to see if there was some way to square his disgust with Nixon’s break-ins and his own actions. Hadn’t he taken the national security worry too far? I wanted to ask. But he was in no mood to talk or spar with me. I said goodbye.<<<

By the end of the book I realized that Felt had had a deep and vested interest in seeing Nixon impeached, and that his motives for sharing the Watergate information may have been less than pure. Nonetheless, I respected his daring and courage as more than simply self-serving, but in some way human. He was clearly wrestling with whether or not to talk, and only Woodward’s persistence may have made the difference. There’s just so much there, there.

I could almost read it all over again.

[Bryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the only one of Bob Woodward's Watergate trilogy I'd read before this year, and after reading All The President's Men and The Final Days I'd say it is the least essential of them. It's short, though. If Deep Throat's identity was ever something you obsessed about, or if the theme of strong bonds between dissimilar people forged amid shared stressful experiences resonates with you, it's worth your time.

Woodward hadn't been in touch with Mark Felt very much until the early 2000s. By then, Felt was old and had been diagnosed with dementia. He bore no grudge or anger toward Woodward (which the author, for reasons he explains, thought was a real possibility) but also can't answer any of the questions readers might really be curious about. Woodward does a nice job giving context to Felt's career with the FBI and putting his actions as Deep Throat in context, but very little of it is from Felt himself. So while the book explains a lot, there's also a lot of stuff Woodward acknowledges we'll never know (not the least of which is how did Felt observe Woodward's apartment for their signal and how did he manage to insert messages into Woodward's New York Times on certain mornings?).

For all it excludes about Watergate, though, the book is surprisingly poignant about aging. Watergate obviously make Woodward rich and famous, but it did neither of those things for Felt. Indeed, Woodward expresses some guilt for the different trajectories of their lives after Watergate (Felt was subsequently indicted and convicted for crimes he committed in the FBI's pursuit of the Weather Underground.) The last 60 pages or so have Woodward getting back in touch with Felt, and finding (to his very emotional surprise) that while Felt doesn't recall exactly what their relationship was, he does recall Woodward affectionately.

A few other Watergate and Washington Post figures (including John Dean, John Ehrlichman, Carl Bernstein, and Ben Bradlee) make cameos, too.

[annemm · Rating 3 out of 5]

I still haven't sought out that famous car garage in Rosslyn where Woodward met Deep Throat at 3am. Woodward is quite revealing, and self-revealing, in this hastily written book, rushed to publication soon after the elderly Mark Felt revealed himself to be the famous source of Watergate.

Woodward could have used the opportunity to further capitalize on the mythic status of his mysterious source. Throughout his long career he admits other sources have spilled their secrets easily b/c they know he has guarded the identity of the most famous source so well. Yet W. sometimes seems to use the book instead as a confessional, releasing pent-up guilt over possibly mishandling Felt, and a tangle of emotions about the tarnished relationship with his mentor.

Although it is not a focused discussion, the book works through the difficult issues related to journalistic sources as Woodward and Bernstein contemplate their obligation to Felt as dementia settles into his mind. It could be a journalism text for that reason alone.

At the end, W. still is grappling with the "why." What was Deep
Throat's motivation for guiding them in the Watergate investigation? It was not pure patriotism, or integrity offended by corruption. Felt was a complex man, and a Bureau Man to the core. He did not shrink from using Nixon's methods when he needed to--illegal wiretapping, searches, etc. (they were the Bureau's methods too). It was the administration's power move over the Bureau that W. speculates was a major impetus for taking covert action exposing the vast activities Nixon undertook to monitor and punish his enemies.

[Nathan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bob Woodward kept the secret for years, never revealing who "Deep Throat" (no, not that one) really was. Then the man revealed himself as Mark Felt, former F.B.I. assistant director, and Woodward was finally free to tell the whole story. Rather than write a comprehensive book about Felt, or investigate Felt the way he'd investigated Nixon, or even write a coherent story about the event, Woodward rushed out The Secret Man. It is obvious that he was trying to cash in on the temporary media flurry that followed Felt's sudden and surprising revelation. The public, today, has a short memory span, even shorter than in 1974, back when Bob Woodward used to be a real investigative reporter. The Secret Man skims the surface of the "Deep Throat" mystery, a mystery that surprisingly only got more complex with Felt's admission. The Secret Man does little or nothing to peel the covers back from Felt's face. One wonders why Woodward did not question Felt's motives more, or why Woodward seems to think the story of modern American history's most famous whistle blower deserved so few pages and precious little analysis. Extremely, extremely disappointing for Watergate junkies and former Woodward fans alike.

NC

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good read on one of the final chapters in the Watergate saga. Woodward chronicles in very personal detail his tortured friendship with 'Deep Throat' - Mark Felt - and his 32 year commitment in honoring his anonymity.

However, Woodward and history never discovered what motivated Felt, the number two man at the FBI, from leaking to The Washington Post. That final secret Felt took to his grave. But Felt's contribution to history was immeasurable.

[Nick Winlund · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm going to talk about Nixon compared to trump. This book that Bob Woodward wrote seems relevant today:

Will Trump resign? That is the question.

[The following paragraph is from Carl Bernstein's assessment at the end of 'The Secret Man']

During the fall of 1972, Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward & Carl Bernstein had established that there was a secret cash slush fund maintained by the Nixon re-election committee (CREEP). It had financed the Watergate break-in operation and other campaign espionage and sabotage. The key to discovering the possible involvement by higher-ups was this fund. The CREEP treasurer, Hugh Sloan, and the bookkeeper, Judy Hoback, had told the Washington Post reporters that John N. Mitchell was one of the five who controlled the fund. Assistant FBI director W. Mark Felt, a.k.a. "Deep Throat" had confirmed this with Woodward. Mitchell, Nixon's former law partner, former campaign manager and former Atty Gen of the United States, was the ultimate higher-up.

... Later, audio tapes Nixon made that recorded him confirming he personally asked the CIA to get in the way of the FBI investigating the Watergate burglars surfaced in court proceedings with Judge Sirica. This led to Nixon's resignation in early August of 1974.

Regarding our current President of the United States, many of trump's noted violations have been National security-related. Some of these matters are redacted in court proceedings. His former personal lawyer Michael Cohen is going to jail over breaking campaign finance laws for his role in the hush money payments, as well as tax and bank crimes. There are the Emoluments violations which never seem to be strictly followed through or enforced after the fact by federal courts. There's the possibility of trump and his subordinates racketeering and/or money laundering using Russian mob money. Trump hasn't released his tax returns however there's nothing in the tax laws that requires him to do this as President. There's also the potential embezzlement of inaugural funds by trump's family and lackeys but this is just general malfeasance. (Although Trump spent more than twice as much as Obama did during his inaugural. There was less than half the crowd size in attendance at Trump's inaugural compared to Obama's!)

National security matters typically do not get unmasked or unredacted. What is secret (FISA, for example) should probably stay secret. I don't see trump resigning or getting impeached within two years. Impeachment is a political and not a legal tool. It is kind of a Catch-22 or paradoxical situation with trump. We don't have any No. 2 positions in the FBI secretly talking with reporters this time around, I suppose? There is no "Deep Throat" to tip the scales of justice a little in our favor. Trump didn't get caught with a secret fund paying people to commit crimes like burglary and espionage.

It'll be interesting to see how the whole colluding or committing conspiracy with Russia thing plays out, I suppose ... This is to say nothing of what Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller's report will do to the public's psyche.

[Greg Fournier · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first time reading anything by Bob Woodward. I wasn't completely unfamiliar with the story of Watergate and Woodward's and Bernstein's reporting on it because I watched All the President's Men about a year ago, so I recognized some of the stuff in the book. I was somewhat surprised at the ease of reading: Much of the Watergate stuff is confusing, yet this book read pretty easily. Sometimes, though, I thought this was to the detriment of the book. Woodward had been reporting and writing for over 30 years when this book was published, but the prose was at times juvenile--or, at the very least, somewhat amateurish. Overall, the writing was less than I expected from a superb and experienced journalist, but considering Woodward writes multiple books per presidential administration, that's only to be expected.

The best part of the book was reading about the psychological aspects of the reporting and the source protection. Woodward is known for keeping very tight-lipped about his confidential sources, and Deep Throat was how he originally got that reputation. But that clearly came at a tremendous cost. Woodward didn't tell anyone that Mark Felt was Deep Throat other than Bernstein, Ben Bradlee (the Washington Post editor at the time of Watergate), and his wife until just before he published the book . He also admits that he used Felt more than he felt comfortable with, and that he soured the relationship with Felt after Watergate was over because of Felt's various legal troubles and Woodward's persistence. The sobering reality of the situation becomes very clear toward the end of the book, when Woodward details the final years of his relationship with Felt. Felt, who at that point was in his mid 80s, was losing his memory, and Woodward had to decide whether to out his source after 30 years despite his not being able to consent to it. This was not exactly something that a journalist is typically equipped to deal with. Yet Woodward clearly handles it with grace and compassion.

The only other thing I'll say about this book is that it opened up a whole new conspiracy theory that I never knew existed. Felt's dementia made it easy to think that Felt wasn't the real Deep Throat, that Woodward wrote the book to protect the real Deep Throat, and that some day we'll find out who actually was Deep Throat. Obviously, none of this is likely true; one can only hope.

[Marti Martinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Woodward is not a wordsmith but a wordsurgeon. Exactly what needed to be written: not too much removed, not too much left in. Two fiction writers, whose initials were GV and NM, would have turned this into a 1000 page tome. Content and length, the book is perfect. Woodward reveals much about himself. I especially liked the part about puking up 90 cent martinis in the back seat of his friend's car with the guy's wife all ticked off. His military service was a surprise to me, not because I think he "hates America", I just never knew about it.

Dean, Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Sirica, Mitchell. All these names were familiar to me as I did grow up in the 70s. I never recall hearing Felt's name until it was released in 2005.

Geographically, the book made me wax sentimental. Holy crap, I lived in Dupont Circle JUST like he did. OK, it was 20+ years later, but his mentions of P Street, Webster House condos, the embassies.....that will always be my spiritual neighborhood. (I really would have freaked if he mentioned P Street Beach at night. If you know, you know.)

Woodward is a far bigger man than I am. He disclosed that Bob Dole (Republican hack Senator) later apologized to him for accusing the post of "mud slinging" and taking the "political low road" in the Watergate. Screw Bob Dole.

How can we forget Quaker Nixon's anti-everythingness? Woodward reminds us that, on the tapes, Tricky Dicky asked about Felt:

"Is he a Catholic?"

"No, sir. He's Jewish." [Haldeman's reply.]

"Christ, put a Jew in there?"

Too bad I couldn't be on the tapes: Screw Nixon and screw Haldeman.

And, let's not forget Nixon's anti-free press stance. When discussing TV licenses owned by WaPo:

"We're going to screw them another way. They don't really realize how rough I can play.
But when I start I will kill them. There's no question about it."

Nixon, dead. Wapo, still in business. And so is Woodward. Screw dead Nixon, again.

The question the book asks is, If Felt a traitor or a patriot? He was an uber-patriot just like Ellsberg. (But that's another book.)

Woodward needs to write a detective or spy novel in the vein of a George Simenon. Quick, someone tell his editors.

[Iain · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Deep Throat", the mysterious underground parking garage essential source that provided Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein crucial information in the Watergate scandal, which brought down President Richard Nixon in 1974 is revealed by the journalists in "The Secret Man: The Story of Watergate's Deep Throat" (2005). A secret for 30 years, W. Mark Felt, was the FBI Associate Director, the Bureau's second-highest-ranking post, from May 1972 until his retirement from the FBI in June 1973. During his time as Associate Director, Felt served as an anonymous informant, nicknamed "Deep Throat", to reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of The Washington Post. He provided them with critical information about the Watergate scandal, which ultimately led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974. The book is a rather intimate portrait of the young Bob Woodward as he gets his first job with the Post in 1971 and begins to cover the night beat full of sordid tales of crime, sex, and corruption putting him in place for that call, to check out a story about a break-in by five men at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. on June 17, 1972. What unfolded was a marathon of reporting in the Watergate Scandal.

An odd remembrance...
“The fact he has some kind of bond with you is quite extraordinary", she [Deep Throat's daughter] said. "He doesn't remember Ed Miller and other FBI guys. He remembers J. Edgar Hoover".
Well, I thought, Hoover and me.” Woodward interacting with the elderly Felt.

Woodward and Bernstein went on to fame and fortune as the gold standard of investigative political reporting, part of the golden age of journalism. Bernstein reflects, "Today's internet bloggers and television's talking heads don't have that [a partnership]. No safety net. No brakes. No one there to question, doubt or inspire. No editor."

Great political read!

[Kathy Elrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally I was interested in the background of Mark Felt's involvement in the FBI, which Woodward did gives some details about. As the story progressed, however, the narrative shifted because of the natural passage of time past Watergate, the investigations, and other related events to the larger picture of national security. That passage became a kind of neutralizing force, drawing the more human elements of the story out - Woodward's incessant emotional neediness toward Felt, Woodward's lack of seeing Felt when Felt was going through the other events related to the larger situation, and both Woodward and the reader not knowing Felt's actual feelings/affinity toward Woodward. It's a strange partnership that's not only a foundational story of journalistic ethics but also the many emotional dimensions of trust.

The extremely human side of the book comes with a point not mentioned often about Felt when the secret was out - his dementia. This is where Woodward sounds like any family member or close friend, regardless of his intentions or his previous absence. Despite the circumstances that brought the two together, Woodward's discussion with lawyers, Felt's grown children, Woodward's friends and coworkers, Woodward's wife about sharing the secret has less to do with consequences and more to do with the promise made to a man who is not the same as he had been. For those who have a family member (as I have) with this, it's hard not to relate, and I appreciate the way Woodward, the copy editors, and publishers handled what is both an incredible and incredibly familiar story.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

In which Bob Woodward returns to the story of his Watergate reporting told in 1974 in All the President's Men, which had enough interest initially in the aftermath of Watergate and the Nixon presidency to lead to a memorable film starting Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman. In that book and movie much is made about the secret source known as Deepthroat. For years afterwards people speculated on who it might have been. Now, when that interest is considerably cooled, the source is revealed to be Mark Felt. Mark who? Sort of anticlimactic, but here then is the rest of the story of that reporting now that Felt's identity is no longer a secret. This book came out in 2005, shortly before Felt died in 2008, at that time he was suffering from dementia and no longer clearly remembered his own role in those events. It is a book that will mostly interest those who remember those days first hand. For those who have always wondered about Deepthroat, this book brings a welcome, if anti-climactic, closure. The book does not really reveal very much about Felt or his motivations but if nothing else it shuts down speculation about all of the other possible sources and puts the period to a story long left unfinished.

[Jan van Trigt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is from 2005 and unveiled one of the great mysteries from the 70's. It was only possible to be published by Bob Woodward since Deep Throat was threatened by dementia. And before the illness gained the power over key components of his brain, at his 91st, his children convinced him that mankind needed to know who he was. And how he organised Deep Throat in the Watergate affair (1972-1974).

With hindsight it seems simple. W. Mark Felt was Deep Throat. Hero. Public Servant and agent of the FBI since 1942. When Hoover died, May 2, 1972, he was the number two of the FBI and a logic choice to succeed Hoover. However Nixon decided differently. Felt remained nr 2.
He considered the Whitehouse of Richard Nixon a national threat. From a far distance he knew Bob Woodward. He used his experience to stay undiscovered for 33 years. The chief editor of the Washington Post, who was informed about the true identity, gave him the name he became famous for. The name came directly from the title of the pornmovie from that year 1972 that was so much in the public attention.
This book describes how Mark and Bob acted in those days. Mark Felt: another proof that some people have the guts to step up against misbehaving authority.