Watergate’s ’Deep Throat’ dead at 95
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AP
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Aralık 20, 2008 00:00
SAN FRANCISCO - W. Mark Felt, the shadowy ’Deep Throat’ source who helped the reporters crack the Watergate Scandal that brought down Richard Nixon, has died. Felt resisted revealing himself for 30 years as he was afraid to taint his reputation.
W. Mark Felt, the former FBI second-in-command who revealed himself as "Deep Throat" 30 years after he tipped off reporters to the Watergate scandal that toppled a president, has died. He was 95.
Felt died Thursday in Santa Rosa, California, after suffering from congestive heart failure for several months, said family friend John D. O'Connor, who wrote the 2005 Vanity Fair article uncovering Felt's secret.
The shadowy central figure in one of the most gripping political dramas of the 20th century, Felt insisted his alter ego be kept secret when he leaked damaging information about Republican President Richard Nixon and his aides to Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.
The scandal was sparked by the June 1972 break-in at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in Washington's Watergate complex. That incident and related scandals and coverups were eventually traced back to the administration of Nixon, a Republican up for re-election in November 1972. Nixon beat Democrat George McGovern handily, but he resigned two years later in disgrace. While some - including Nixon and his aides - speculated that Felt was the source that connected the White House to the Watergate break-in, Felt steadfastly denied the accusations until finally coming forward in May 2005.
"I'm the guy they used to call Deep Throat," Felt told O'Connor for the Vanity Fair article, creating a whirlwind of media attention. Weakened by a stroke, the man who had kept his secret for decades wasn't doing much talking - he merely waved to the media from the front door of his daughter's Santa Rosa home.
Hero or traitor?
Critics called him a traitor for betraying the commander in chief. Supporters hailed him as a hero for blowing the whistle on a corrupt administration trying to cover up attempts to sabotage opponents. Felt grappled with his place in history, he argued with his children over whether to reveal his identity or to take his secret to the grave, O'Connor said. He agonized about what revealing his identity would do to his reputation.
"People will debate for a long time whether I did the right thing by helping Woodward," Felt wrote in his 2006 memoir, "A G-Man's Life: The FBI, ’Deep Throat’ and the Struggle for Honor in Washington." "The bottom line is that we did get the whole truth out, and isn't that what the FBI is supposed to do?"
Ultimately, his daughter, Joan, persuaded him to go public; after all, Woodward was sure to profit by revealing the secret after Felt died. "We could make at least enough money to pay some bills, like the debt I've run up for the kids' education," she told her father.
The revelation capped a Washington mystery that spanned more than three decades and seven presidents. It was the subject of the best-selling book and hit movie "All the President's Men," which inspired a generation of college students to pursue journalism.
Felt wrote that he was upset by the slow pace of the FBI investigation into the Watergate break-in and believed the press could pressure the administration to cooperate.
"From the start, it was clear that senior administration officials were up to their necks in this mess, and that they would stop at nothing to sabotage our investigation," Felt wrote in his memoir.
Felt died Thursday in Santa Rosa, California, after suffering from congestive heart failure for several months, said family friend John D. O'Connor, who wrote the 2005 Vanity Fair article uncovering Felt's secret.
The shadowy central figure in one of the most gripping political dramas of the 20th century, Felt insisted his alter ego be kept secret when he leaked damaging information about Republican President Richard Nixon and his aides to Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.
The scandal was sparked by the June 1972 break-in at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in Washington's Watergate complex. That incident and related scandals and coverups were eventually traced back to the administration of Nixon, a Republican up for re-election in November 1972. Nixon beat Democrat George McGovern handily, but he resigned two years later in disgrace. While some - including Nixon and his aides - speculated that Felt was the source that connected the White House to the Watergate break-in, Felt steadfastly denied the accusations until finally coming forward in May 2005.
"I'm the guy they used to call Deep Throat," Felt told O'Connor for the Vanity Fair article, creating a whirlwind of media attention. Weakened by a stroke, the man who had kept his secret for decades wasn't doing much talking - he merely waved to the media from the front door of his daughter's Santa Rosa home.
Hero or traitor?
Critics called him a traitor for betraying the commander in chief. Supporters hailed him as a hero for blowing the whistle on a corrupt administration trying to cover up attempts to sabotage opponents. Felt grappled with his place in history, he argued with his children over whether to reveal his identity or to take his secret to the grave, O'Connor said. He agonized about what revealing his identity would do to his reputation.
"People will debate for a long time whether I did the right thing by helping Woodward," Felt wrote in his 2006 memoir, "A G-Man's Life: The FBI, ’Deep Throat’ and the Struggle for Honor in Washington." "The bottom line is that we did get the whole truth out, and isn't that what the FBI is supposed to do?"
Ultimately, his daughter, Joan, persuaded him to go public; after all, Woodward was sure to profit by revealing the secret after Felt died. "We could make at least enough money to pay some bills, like the debt I've run up for the kids' education," she told her father.
The revelation capped a Washington mystery that spanned more than three decades and seven presidents. It was the subject of the best-selling book and hit movie "All the President's Men," which inspired a generation of college students to pursue journalism.
Felt wrote that he was upset by the slow pace of the FBI investigation into the Watergate break-in and believed the press could pressure the administration to cooperate.
"From the start, it was clear that senior administration officials were up to their necks in this mess, and that they would stop at nothing to sabotage our investigation," Felt wrote in his memoir.