| Deep Throat and his Legacy |
Deep Throat and his Legacy
In the pre-dawn hours of June 17, 1972, a security guard called police officers to the
Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. He had discovered a taped-open door. Once inside,
the officers found and arrested five males in a highly unusual burglary.
The burglary was unusual not only because it was inside the offices of the Democratic
National Committee, but also because the men had uncommon burgling gear. In addition
to standard lock-picks, they held: $2300 in hundred-dollar bills; a walkie-talkie; a police
radio scanner; cameras with 40 rolls of film; and sophisticated covert recording devices.
Evidently, they intended to eavesdrop on the Democratic organizers.
Furthermore, the men seemed to have ties to the White House. At least one had been a
Central Intelligence Agency employee, and two carried notebooks with a telephone
number accompanied by the inscriptions "W. House" and "W.H."
The Watergate Hotel scandal immediately attracted media attention. Washington Post
reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein covered the story for two years. Their
investigative reporting contributed to implicating Nixon and his associates of crimes far
beyond burglarizing the DNC. It became evident that Nixon's staff had also: authorized
campaign fraud; ordered political espionage and sabotage; created improper tax audits;
conducted large-scale illegal wiretapping; and maintained secret funds (laundered in
Mexico!) to pay off the men involved in break-ins.
But how did these young reporters, just embarking on their careers, gain access to top-
secret Nixon-incriminating information? Woodward and Bernstein claimed that their
journalistic advantage came from a single anonymous informant, whom their editor
dubbed "Deep Throat". But they vowed to not reveal their informant's identity until he
consented or passed away.
Thus, for thirty years Americans pondered the mystery of Deep Throat. Hundreds of
theories were put forth, and several were widely considered credible. One leading
candidate was Nixon's White House Associate Counsel Fred Fielding, who had obvious
close connections to the uncovered information. He also seemed to be as high-level as
Deep Throat; each obtained information before the FBI was privy. Another candidate was
Diane Sawyer. She'd been hired by Nixon's press secretary, and one Nixon supporter
made an odd deathbed "confession" revealing Sawyer as the informant. George H. W.
Bush, Henry Kissinger, and Pat Buchanan also made the list. And although the journalists
claimed to have had a single source, some speculators suggested that Deep Throat was
really a composite of multiple informants.
At last, on May 31, 2005, Deep Throat publicly revealed his identity. Vanity Fair
magazine revealed online that former Deputy Director of the FBI William Mark Felt, Sr.,
91 years old, was the secret Watergate whistleblower. Later that day, Woodward and
Bernstein's former managing editor confirmed the claim.
A few days later, the Washington Post ran an article by Bob Woodward. Therein he
described his pre-Watergate relationship with W. Mark Felt. Apparently, the two first met
by chance in a White House waiting room, and Woodward kept Felt's business card.
Woodward consulted with Felt even before the Watergate scandal.
Felt was instrumental in the Watergate scandal being understood. His information leaks
exposed many misdeeds of Richard Nixon and members of his administration, ultimately
bringing the first US presidential resignation. Administration members receiving prison
terms included G. Gordon Liddy, who masterminded the first Watergate break-in; White
House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman; chief counsel Charles Colson; and advisers John
Ehrlichman and Egil Krogh.
Felt's leaking of information also changed the face of national politics. The Senate and
House had elections shortly after the Watergate scandal was publicized. Voters were now
thoroughly disillusioned with Nixon's party, and they elected Democrats in large
numbers. The Democrats gained five seats in the Senate and a significant forty-nine in
the House of Representatives.
As of 2007, Felt was residing in Santa Rosa, California.
PPPPP
(word count 629)
|
Causes of US Involvement in World War II Following World War I, the United States adopted an isolationist stance. Starting ...
read more
Chinese Immigrants and the Iron Road On a bright May day in 1869, railroad workers, businessmen, and government officials gathered ...
read more
Deep Throat and his Legacy In the pre-dawn hours of June 17, 1972, a security guard called police officers to ...
read more
Economic Causes of the American Revolution What brought about the American Revolution? Like most military conflicts, the Revolution was spurred ...
read more
Equality and the Seneca Falls Convention "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created ...
read more
France and the American Revolution In March of 2003, after France opposed a UN invasion of Iraq, two US Republicans ...
read more
General Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad Araminta Ross, later named Harriet Tubman, was born into slavery circa 1820. She ...
read more
George Washington's Federal Government When a modern US president travels, he or she expects the electorate to cover the cost. ...
read more
Gold Fever and the Growth of California One January day in 1848, a man named James Marshall was inspecting a ...
read more
Jackie Robinson and the Integration of US Baseball In 1945, when Jackie Robinson batted .387 for the Negro League Kansas ...
read more
Japanese Internment Camps in the United States Just off of US Highway 395, at the foot of the Sierra Nevada ...
read more
John O'Sullivan and America's Manifest Destiny When leaders wish to conquer foreign lands, they invariably put forth a list of ...
read more
John Scopes and the Teaching of Evolution In the mid-1920s, many young Americans flaunted long-established Victorian culture. Women were voting, ...
read more
Lowell Factory Girls of the 19th Century During the first half of the 1800s, girls and young women from throughout ...
read more
Navajo Windtalkers: America's Secret Weapon When the United States fought World War II, they ran the constant risk of information ...
read more
Prayer, Persecution, and Portsmouth: A Story of Colonist Anne Hutchinson Anne Hutchinson (1591-1643) is a key figure in the history ...
read more
Prohibition and its Repeal When clocks struck midnight on January 16, 1920, the United States officially went dry. The age ...
read more
The Botched Bay of Pigs Invasion In the wee morning hours of April 17, 1961, nearly fifteen hundred Cuban exiles ...
read more
The Frenzy of Salem Witch Trials Over the summer of 1692, members of the Massachusetts Bay Colony became caught up ...
read more
The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere "Listen children and you shall hear/The midnight ride of Paul Revere." So begins a ...
read more
The Rise and Fall of Jamestown In the early 1600s, an English preacher named Alexander Whitaker described a land where ...
read more
The Scandalous Typhoid Mary In 1907, Mary Mallon was working as a household cook when an inspector named George Soper ...
read more
The US Presidency and Tecumseh's Curse In 1840, General William Henry Harrison easily won the US presidency. He was celebrated ...
read more
What Caused the Great Depression? The Great Depression was a global phenomenon that significantly changed the course of history. In ...
read more
Who Was Samuel Adams? Today, the name Sam Adams is associated with the Boston Beer Company. How did a statesman's ...
read more
|
|
|
Disclaimer:
The Publisher has strived to be as accurate and complete as possible in
the creation of this website, notwithstanding the fact that he does not
warrant or represent at any time that the contents within are accurate
due to the rapidly changing nature of the Internet.
This site
is a common sense guide to Deep Throat and his Legacy. In practical advice websites,
like anything else in life, there are no guarantees of income made.
Readers are cautioned to reply on their own judgment about their
individual circumstances to act accordingly.
This site
is not intended for use as a source of legal, business, accounting or
financial advice. All readers are advised to seek services of competent
professionals in legal, business, accounting, and finance field.
Any
perceived slights of specific people or organizations are unintentional.
|