Go Ahead. See If I Care

W. MARK FELT REVEALS HIMSELF TO BE WOODWARD AND BERNSTEIN'S DEEP THROAT

New York, N.Y. -- After decades of hiding the truth, even from his family, W. Mark Felt, number two at the F.B.I. in the early 70s, reveals himself to be the source who leaked secrets about Nixon's Watergate cover-up, telling lawyer John D. O'Connor, the author of Vanity Fair's exclusive, "I'm the guy they used to call Deep Throat."

O'Connor reports that Felt, aged 91, is a retiree living in Santa Rosa, California, with his daughter, Joan. After witnessing the decline of Felt's health and mental acuity, and after receiving his and Joan's permission to reveal this information, O'Connor decided to write this article for Vanity Fair. The Felt family cooperated fully, providing old photographs for the story and agreeing to sit for portraits.

Felt's family did not learn of this aspect of his past until 2002, when Felt's close friend and frequent social companion Yvette La Garde told Joan that Felt had confided to her he had indeed been Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward's source. Joan confronted her father, who initially denied it, but after she explained La Garde's disclosure Felt responded, "Since that's the case, well, yes I am." Then and there, she pleaded with him to announce his role immediately so that he could have some closure, and accolades, while he was still alive. Felt reluctantly agreed, then changed his mind. He seemed determined to take his secret with him to the grave.

Joan tried to elicit further response from her father about his role as Deep Throat while they were watching a Watergate TV special. When his name came up as the possible informant, she says, she deliberately questioned her father in the third person: "Do you think Deep Throat wanted to get rid of Nixon?" Joan says that Felt replied, "No, I wasn't trying to bring him down." He claimed, instead, that he was "only doing his duty."

Felt was initially adamant about remaining silent on the subject, thinking disclosures about his past somehow dishonorable. "I don't think [being Deep Throat] was anything to be proud of," Felt indicated to his son, Mark junior, at one point. "You [should] not leak information to anyone."

Felt told his daughter, Joan, that he worried "what the judge would think," fearing, perhaps, that a court might look down on his actions.

"He was amenable at first," his grandson Nick tells O'Connor. "Then he was wavering. He was concerned about bringing dishonor to our family. We thought it was totally cool. It was more about honor than about any kind of shame [to] Grandpa.... To this day, he feels he did the right thing."

O'Connor reports that after learning their father's secret, Joan and Mark junior urged him to go public, explaining that they wanted his legacy to be heroic and permanent, not anonymous, and adding that perhaps he could profit from his revelations. Felt argued with them, saying he didn't want the story out there. Joan recalls saying: "Bob Woodward's gonna get all the glory for this, but we could make at least enough money to pay some bills, like the debt I've run up for the kids' education. Let's do it for the family." With that, both children remember, Felt finally agreed. "He wasn't particularly interested," Mark says, "but he said, 'That's a good reason.'" The Felt children were motivated by the desire to have their father's legacy permanent and heroic, not anonymous.

At that time, Felt agreed to cooperate, but only with the assistance of Woodward, now assistant managing editor at The Washington Post. Acceding to Felt's wishes, Joan and O'Connor spoke to Woodward by phone on a half-dozen occasions over a period of months about whether to make a joint revelation, possibly in the form of a book or an article. O'Connor says that Woodward would sometimes begin these conversations with a caveat, saying, "Just because I'm talking to you, I'm not admitting that he is who you think he is."

According to O'Connor, Woodward's chief concerns were: Was this something that Joan and O'Connor were pushing on Felt, or did he actually want to reveal himself? And, was Felt actually in a clear mental state? To make his own assessment, Woodward told Joan and O'Connor, he wanted to come out and sit down with her father, whom he had not seen since August 1999, around the 25th anniversary of Nixon's resignation. At that time, Woodward had appeared at the house unannounced, telling Joan he was a friend of her father's. Felt had been dodging reporters all week but seemed totally comfortable with Woodward, and even went to lunch with him.

In recent years, Woodward spoke by telephone to Joan, Mark junior, and twice to Felt himself "without anyone else listening," says Joan. "Dad's memory gradually has deteriorated since the original lunch, [but] Dad remembered Bob whenever he called.... I said, 'Bob, it's unusual for Dad to remember someone as clearly as you.'" She says that Woodward responded, "He has good reason to remember me."

According to Joan, Woodward later scheduled two visits to see her father, but had to cancel both times, then never rescheduled. "That was disappointing," she says. "Maybe [he was] just hoping that I would forget about it." Joan and Woodward still correspond by e-mail, she says, and Joan thinks very highly of him. "He's so reassuring and top-notch," she says.

During one phone conversation, O'Connor reports Joan said to Woodward: "'Bob, just between you and me, off the record, I want you to confirm: was Deep Throat my dad?' He wouldn't do that. I said, 'If he's not, you can at least tell me that. We could put this to rest.' And he said, 'I can't do that.'"

Mark junior tells O'Connor: "Making the decision [to go to the press] would have been difficult, painful, and excruciating, and outside the bounds of his life's work. He would not have done it if he didn't feel it was the only way to get around the corruption in the White House and Justice Department. He was tortured inside, but never would show it. He was not this Hal Holbrook [who played Deep Throat in All the President's Men] character. He was not an edgy person. [Even though] it would be the most difficult decision of his life, he wouldn't have pined over it."

O'Connor reports that Yvette La Garde shared Felt's secret with her eldest son, Mickey, a retired army lieutenant colonel based at NATO military headquarters (requiring a top-secret security clearance). Mickey La Garde tells O'Connor that he has remained mum about the revelation ever since: "My mom's condo unit was in Watergate and I'd see Mark," he tells O'Connor. "In one of those visits, in 1987 or '88, she confided to [my wife] Dee and I that Mark had, in fact, been the Deep Throat that brought down the Nixon administration. I don't think Mom's ever told anyone else."

The July issue of Vanity Fair hits newsstands in New York on June 8 and nationally June 14.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 31, 2005 at 10:18 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.