Most of what I know about Watergate, I learned from reading Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s “All the President’s Men,” and watching the movie of the same name. Periodically I followed the guessing game about the true identify of “Deep Throat.”
In 2005, Deep Throat was revealed to be a former deputy director of the FBI, W. Mark Felt, who helped uncover chain of events and coverups that led to then President Richard Nixon’s resignation on Aug. 9, 1974, and to prison sentences for several of Nixon’s high ranking aides.
Felt had a good sense of humor. When recounting his job at the Federal Trade Commission, he he was assigned a case to investigate whether a toilet paper brand called “Red Cross” was misleading consumers into thinking it was endorsed by the American Red Cross.
Felt wrote in his memoir:
- My research, which required days of travel and hundreds of interviews, produced two definite conclusions:
- 1. Most people did use toilet tissue.
- 2. Most people did not appreciate being asked about it.
- That was when I started looking for other employment.
He applied for a job with the FBI in November 1941. His first day at the Bureau was January 26, 1942.
Thirty years year, he was in the cat bird’s seat to help uncover the web of spies, secret surveillance, and coverups by confirming under deep cover information Woodward and Bernstein had gotten elsewhere.
Today Mark Felt died of congestive heart failure. He was 95 years old.
Felt’s family called him an “American hero,” suggesting he leaked information for moral or patriotic reasons.
“I thought I was doing the right thing,” he said.
“The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in time of great moral crises maintain their neutrality.” – Dante Aleghieri
“We have met the enemy and he is us.” – Walt Kelly | Pogo
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