Leak, Why Mark Felt Became Deep Throat

To the press alone, checkered as it is with abuses, the world is indebted for all the triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression.—James Madison

Leak, by Max Holland is a fascinating narrative.  As one who lived through this Constitutional crisis, I was familiar with all the events and personalities.  I also had read many other books about Watergate, but that was twenty to thirty years ago.  Leak fills in the holes and makes sense of many of the incongruities in the Watergate scandal.  The perspective of time and the unveiling of Deep Throat allowed Holland to add significantly to the history of Watergate. Future works by historians will include many references to Leak, Why Mark Felt Became Deep Throat.

Holland’s premise is that Mark Felt did not intend to bring down Richard Nixon. In fact, he was maneuvering to politically destroy Patrick Gray (Acting Director) so Nixon would appoint him Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).  He does an excellent job of proving his case.  Felt used Woodward, Bernstein and other journalists as pawns in his scheme—a scheme that got away from him and ended up destroying his own career.  Holland puts an end to the reputation of Deep Throat as a selfless patriot leaking as a matter of conscience. He not only leaked for the petty goal of his own advancement, Holland shows that much of what he leaked was false or misleading—not because he didn’t know it was wrong, but because it served his purpose.

Contemporaneous reporting, the Watergate hearings, and All the Presidents Men (book and film) created a myth that two youthful Washington Post reporters brought down the president of the United States. Holland writes, “As with all myths, what really powered it was not the veneer of truth, but the fact that people wanted to believe it was true.”

Another vessel for Felt leaks was Sandy Smith, of Time magazine. In 1986, he said, “There’s a myth that the press did all this, uncovered all the crimes. … It’s bunk.  The press didn’t do it.  People forget that the government was investigating all the time.  In my material there was less than two percent that was truly original investigation. … The government investigators found the stuff and gave us something to expose.”

Coincidentally, I recently read Curt Gentry’s J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets, which ends close to the time Leak begins.  Hoover ran the FBI as a fiefdom and his death left a vacuum of power at the FBI. Gentry’s book shows that the FBI directorship was a big prize, making Felt’s scheming plausible.  The two books work well in tandem, with the first lending credibility to what might otherwise be viewed as head scratching deviousness for an uncertain purpose.

The identity of Deep Throat had been called “modern journalism’s greatest unsolved mystery.” Holland writes about the popular D.C. parlor game of guessing the identity of Deep Throat, but it was really a national pastime. Watergate was one of the seminal events for the baby boomer generation.  Many people of my age will devour the book, but will Leak appeal to younger readers who do not have Watergate imprinted in their memory?  I have some doubts. The details in Leak are great for a Watergate buff, but may seem arcane to someone without firsthand experience. Contributing to the problem, Holland sometimes glosses over people and events as if the reader should know the particulars.  An example would be the resignation of Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and Dean, which warrant little more than a single sentence.  The book begins with a Cast of Characters, but a timeline would help the uninitiated understand the events described in Leak.

For three decades, Deep Throat had an image of being one of the good guys.  After Felt finally admitted he was the leaker, it took the sheen off the shadowy character in the parking garage in All the President’s Men. Holland has now completely pulled the curtain back for all to see that the wizard was all too human.

James D. Best is the author of the Steve Dancy Tales and Tempest at Dawn, a novel about the 1787 Constitutional Convention. Look for his new book, Principled Action, Lessons from the Origins of the American Republic.