The story behind 'Deep Throat'

In 1981, Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen talked to Nora Ephron and became convinced Felt was “Deep Throat.” He mentioned it to Woodward, who was now an editor at the Post.

Woodward: I tried to discourage him. Richard is not easily discouraged and he says he's going to write it anyway. And I said, “Well, you wouldn't want to be wrong." And I lied to protect my source.

Cohen says he now understands that Bob Woodward had his reasons for lying. President Ronald Reagan had just pardoned Mark Felt.

"I thought Bob did the right thing in lying to me. It was a dramatic critical moment for Mark Felt," says Cohen. "I think if Reagan had known he was ‘Deep Throat,' Reagan would not have pardoned him."

After Felt's pardon was another twist: Richard Nixon sent champagne to the very man who helped bring him down. Felt then faded into obscurity.

Bob Woodward did not talk to Mark Felt for almost 20 years. The relationship that began with a chance meeting, then became a kind of father son relationship, then reached an excruciating intensity during Watergate... just withered.

In 1999 however, the “Who is ‘Deep Throat'?” game came back again, as it did very few years.  A Hartford newspaper reported that a son of Carl Bernstein and Nora Ephron years ago had told a friend at summer camp that Mark Felt was “Deep Throat.”

Woodward: I started thinking, “You've gotta get this story down. You need to see if there's some sort of kind of closure or reconciliation.” So in 2000, I went out to see him in Santa Rosa, California and just showed up on the doorstep.

It was reminiscent of the old days, in the 1970s, when Woodward would call on Felt at home, only now the roles were reversed: Woodward was the the famous journalist riding in a chauffeured car. Felt was the unknown, now an 86-year old man with a fading memory, living in his daughter Joan's converted garage in California.

Woodward was apprehensive as he knocked on their front door.

Woodward: Seeing him when he came up from the basement, he was so physically able at that point. He still had that mantle of gray hair, still that had deep voice of command. I had a feeling of happiness of kind of, you know, we'd been reunited.

Bob Woodward recorded a conversation with Mark Felt that day, probing to see what Felt remembered: 

Woodward:  Remember back in those years when we met and chatted, and any—

Felt: Well, I think I remember the area and a time, but I don't remember specifically anything.

Woodward soon found that Felt had no specific memories about the Watergate era. The powerful Hoover protege, the mysterious source in the garage, the embattled G-man — all those people he had known were gone.

Woodward: You remember the Nixon period, a little bit?

Felt:  Vaguely. But I, but I still don't have any specific recollections from it.

Woodward:  Do you remember when you met him? When you met Nixon?

Felt:  I can't remember.  I met him, but I can't remember when it was.

We'll never get to meet the “Deep Throat” Woodward knew 35 years ago. We can only get a sense of his personality from artifacts he left behind, like the photo on the jacket of Felt's memoir, or the way he signed off on those FBI memos.

AP file Former FBI official W. Mark Felt is shown in this April 27, 1973, file photo.

Brokaw: He had a great sense of style, Bob.

Woodward: Yeah. Right.

Brokaw: It's like something out of a ‘40s Hollywood dossier of some kind.

Woodward: Central casting.

Although by the time they were reunited, Felt seemed to have no memory of his historic role, Woodward believed that he was still obligated to protect Felt's secret.

Woodward: I thought, “Oh. How do we keep that cork in the bottle in a way that's in his interest?” 

Brokaw: Probably in your interest as well, because you were writing a book about it, right?

Woodward: Well, the book is the obligation to tell the story. If he was competent and wanted to write a book with me, I'd be all for that.

Felt's daughter said her father might be suffering dementia. Woodward wrote the book and locked it away.

Then, on May 31, 2005, almost 33 years after Watergate, Felt's family revealed the secret in Vanity Fair: Mark Felt was “Deep Throat.”

“Mark had expressed reservations in the past about revealing his identity and about whether his actions were appropriate for an FBI man,” said Nick Jones, Felt's grandson. “But as he recently told my mother, I guess people used to think 'Deep Throat' was a criminal, but now they think he's a hero. My grandfather is pleased that he is being honored for his role as 'Deep Throat' along with his friend Bob Woodward.”

Lou Dematteis / Reuters

Woodward: When I saw that picture of him in the doorstep with the walker and the pajama top, waving with that smile, it was almost as if three decades of problems had just been washed away.  And, I felt, you know, “Wow.”

Later that day, Woodward confirmed that Mark Felt was Deep Throat. The best kept secret in all of journalism was finally disclosed.

But questions remain: Did Bob Woodward enrich himself at Mark Felt's expense? Felt says he'd like something too. Woodward and the Post have discussed ways that Felt might be compensated, but there are so many obstacles.

Woodward: We can't start down that slippery slope in our business of paying sources. You know, what Mark Felt and I were able to do is have one of the most clandestine, intimate reporter-source relationships without crossing some line of money or ethics or obligations. 

In the end, Felt's family signed book and movie deals reported to total close to $1 million. (The Felt family was contacted, but refused to comment for this story.)

And then, there's the biggest question of all: What to make of Mark Felt?

Some who worked in the Nixon White House are still angry at Felt for leaking. 

“I think he's a snake,” says MSNBC commentator and former Nixon speechwriter Pat Buchanan. “He had broken his oath. He had dishonored his code to his fellow members of the FBI. And that's why he lied for 30 years about it.”

Woodward still protects the source he called, “my friend.”

Woodward: First of all, he'd done his job. He'd been right about Nixon. We had been right about Nixon.

Brokaw: His son says he was a hero. Do you think he was a hero?

Woodward: You know, I don't know what heroes are. I wouldn't put label “hero,” “no hero.”  I would say he's a man of immense courage and should there come a moment when all of us get tested. Should we display equivalent amount of courage, then we should feel pretty good about ourselves.

About 31 years ago this summer — 1974 — the White House had a funereal air about it. Richard Nixon was just hanging on as president and by mid-August he would be gone, brought down by his own paranoia and corruption of power.

Would that have happened without Woodward and Bernstein, the Washington Post, and especially "Deep Throat" — Mark W. Felt, the secret man who knew the secrets? That's another part of the endless Watergate guessing game.

We don't know, just as we don't know what motivated Mark Felt to get so uniquely involved in exposing the abuses in the White House — or what led  Richard Nixon to believe he could get away with it.

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