One of the best-kept secrets of journalism and government is finally out, in time to give a longtime FBI executive a jolt of celebrity and gratitude in his 91st year.
The confidential source known as “Deep Throat” was instrumental in The Washington Post’s coverage of the Watergate scandal, which ended with the resignation of President Richard Nixon.
Yesterday, Throat was unmasked – well, he unmasked himself – as W. Mark Felt, the No. 2 man at the FBI in the 1960s and early ’70s. His identity has been shielded for more than 30 years, though from the outset Felt was one of the obvious candidates as the source who provided guidance to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein when the Post started to unravel the political espionage of the Nixon administration.
Felt, convicted in the 1970s for authorizing illegal break-ins of domestic radicals, long denied his link to the Watergate stories that began with the June 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters. The FBI investigation of the break-in was hindered by the Nixon White House.
Woodward and Bernstein confirmed a Vanity Fair story Tuesday that revealed Felt’s role as “Deep Threat.” The Post had agreed to keep his identity secret until his death, but Felt released the paper from the understanding at his family’s behest.
“W. Mark Felt was ‘Deep Throat’ and helped us immeasurably in our Watergate coverage,” the reporters said in a statement. “However, as the record shows, many other sources and officials assisted us and other reporters for the hundreds of stories that were written in The Washington Post about Watergate.”
Woodward and Bernstein came forward after Felt’s family issued a statement about the 91-year-old man, ailing in recent years from a stroke, calling him an American hero “who went well above and beyond the call of duty at much risk to himself to save his country from a horrible injustice.”
The role of the Deep Throat character didn’t emerge until Woodward and Bernstein wrote their book “All the President’s Men,” regarding the Watergate scandal. Felt may be the main voice of Deep Throat, but many believe the book charatcterization was a composite of sources who spoke to the reporters.
The Vanity Fair article describes Felt as living for more than 30 years in a prison of his own making, “a prison built upon his strong moral principles and his unwavering loyalty to country and cause.” Felt, it seems, has been torn about the righteousness of leaking information.
Pardoned by President Reagan for his wire-tapping crimes, Felt will receive enormous scrutiny now as a new generation learns of the Watergate drama. Felt did the right thing for his country in pushing the crimes of Watergate to a conclusion.
