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Judiciary Cemoottee charred owns . hpecjiestu. he did not refer to Judiciary 44 g10niatue. home. announced that Secretary See ger will remain ill his Cabinet. charge. that In doe cover-up .51 Watergate toter. preterit. said saddest Inc used guyerlinOnt agenciesand the such(Mensal Sas the issid Mr Steno'svery sacrifire for only Agency addruas, aid in his President's the dot elemw Aid irmed s statement dec ' ported. 7 tilt no agreement or understandin tb Wye esicket or his repreouttativ cried • rehetina in any way to the t,thaniciee his sorski mid that his office uded by sh agreurent ur undeista y may (a‘1 5 like was informed deciines, Jenvorski leg le in any say In President ,.ant I UM who hate to -loto together the sitergad." Ault had (bought it won h ;;C:. Is 'bee of the Watergate e tarns MO day% however.a strong it has enough broom ems I no longer have ue Congress to Justify amtinning that said Camas "unanimously oiled" litm to 51 1 the charger against hint, hi said um, that he would not fuse the nip the duties of hu office In oilfield needs a fult•time Presolent Nixon said. TheOM reeignati be hero that 1 at the tirovnina dent Funk SI.,. ice will is III c, . the uutpateiA that may he led to this peace bad M the Wh he sant. My trate j. vs Is re ellltI011/" Our. 1,0 Right. MI , pra d IAA Nene in all t 11,1 Ile sea announcement AlexandriaMat be 4 pledged to impose "11 • -.re and said. add ml tut all is a safer doped I Mg is what SI Idr. I.stn I tri: my 1141* 'What I the eudeme, rove leave turbult in lived through beresel Him--And of Theodore ervil lm whose fate is 1416 'al and who. If Ite Ally " Oil tut rd great 0040110 atIon h. hy It tory Si WI Mil. 111: fe said hit Mount W1116 rit.tdftil courier of a I !or a twiddle Cd gi.4, tiee and the People'the LI . mg, • And w peace in Mat sr had hem , the pdministratin ma gnat am 3y Evan Thomas nuclear arms race toga longer I d uncle - 1011 la and finally destroy clear star will n exudate o countries. heIII c rather dun y,ws Mi I with 11—IftiI I I!WWI I' .I . toned 2.02d fite tag Ho leavesho • tried on minting te • hut yet be Vice Proud Went cg morning. the P the day spent mush of king no ng hideaway r ma. to lastromute bus h left lb pin.. NM. Nixon a ire Oft walk to the Et U.S. flit Odin& the gates wan the Ste; walked early u hte ii for a seen At the SOB, hr. Ninon to, klik with the leaders of Conger Scott I president pro tem to the mayority leader If N. M. C

, • ad rissistant director W.

UNDERSTANDING DEEP THROAT: Why a

source took on a president then, and how Nixon's fall shapes us even now.

li4=i-

*lad a i BY EVAN THOMAS THREE DECADES ON, MANY, IF NOT MOST, Americans know about Watergate from the movie "All the President's Men." Boiled down to its melodra- matic essentials, the film is a timeless quest story. it shows two young seekers—newspaper reporters handsome enough to be Robert Redford, cool enough to be Dustin Hoffinan, guided by a wizard in a cave (Deep Throat in a garage)—toppling the Evil Empire ('s White House). The filmmaker, Felt at the late Alan Pakula, deftly used lighting to enhance the FBI; Nixon bows out the feel of a Manichaean struggle. The newsroom where the reporters work is always bright, open, a place of truth. Almost everything else is dark, shadowy—nests of liars and prevaricators. How long ago, and how romantic, the story seems. Reporters are not exactly heroes these days. Anonymous sources like Deep Throat are in disrepute, and many large news organizations, including NEWSWEEK, are under fire for their mistakes. What happened to the days when re- porters were searching for truth, instead of gabbling on talk shows? "All the President's Men" was a great morality tale, and true enough

mom LEFT: POLARIS. DAVID HUME ASSARAY-GSTII IMAGES 22 NEWSWEEK JUNE 13. 2005 0 o I i

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Watergate was at heart a power struggle. Truth and justic e pla about reporters and man at the FBI—shed new light on the true but only a part. It was largely a behind-the- advis editors it portrayed. But it was only nature of the scandal and its lasting effects. scenes contest for control. At times high- Impe a movie. It does not tell the whole story, Felt's motives were the subject of instant and minded, at other times brutal and raw, the turnc or even the real story, of the Watergate intense debate (Felt himself suffers from forces vying for control shifted the center of force scandal, and it gives a misleading picture dementia), but they were almost certainly gravity in the nation's capital in profound Pent of the real stakes involved. mixed, in ways that are important to under- and lasting ways. Only now, 35 years later, is peop The larger truth about Watergate —the es- standing the story. the pendulum beginning to swing back. to fin sential "hackstory," ifyou will—became clear- The real story, like real life, is murkier, The loss in Vietnam and the crime of the er last week, when the actual Deep Throat more mundane, more ambiguous than the Watergate gave a bad name to "national comiurttet stepped out of the shadows and, with movie version. But it is also more telling and security" and "executive privilege," noble a nudge or two from his fan-tily, revealed him- relevant to today's headlines. It is not primar- phrases Nixon frequently invoked to justify anhyd ni self: W. Mark Felt, 91, a flail old man, smiling ily a story about the press or the search for his illegal acts. The scandals had the ef- and blinking for the flashbulbs. His identity truth. Rather. Watergate was at heart a pow- fect of undermining executive authority — chin( and rank at the time of Watergate—No. 2 er struggle. Truth and justice played a part, of dismantling what the historian and JFK irg d

24 NEWSWEEK JUNE 13, 2005 macrons( FROM LEFT: PARE GODFAC-1 MADE wORAN. WARMED 9S • PAIDEDFEST, GERALD 4ERDER1- Kay Graham, Bernstein, Woodward, Simons and Bradlee discuss The Washington Post's Watergate coverage (left): Redford and Hoffman portray reporters in a newsroom cast as a beacon of truth (above); Woodward and Bernstein (below) reunite in Washington after Deep Throat's identity was revealed

rtice played a part. But it was really a contest or control.

adviser Arthur Schlesinger Jr. called "the authority for any peccadillo, no matter how push back, and with some success. lb much Imperial Presidency" Power was, in effect, minor or distant. of the electorate, the lines have been drawn. e turned over from its traditional and most The impact on government was, for bet- Increasingly the proms and Congress—or If forceful executors—the White House, the ter and for worse, predictable. True, there anyone who questions authority—are cast as 1 Pentagon, the intelligence agencies—to the were no more J. Edgar Hoovers running se- the bad guys, as unpatriotic or irresponsible. people and organizations that are supposed cret sinister empires. On the other hand, Bush wants to restore the executive power to function as a check on power: the courts, bureaucrats became timorous, or, in the that Nixon squandered. His critics think he if the press, congressional watchdog com- lingo of government, "risk averse." They has already overreached. His supporters Li mittees. The 1970s saw a rise of a new were afraid that if they took any chances, cheer him for trying to save the county and e counterestablishment—populated largely they'd have to hire a lawyer or read about for rolling hack the antiauthoritarian excess- by reporters and lawyers—all conjoined themselves in an article by . es that were the legacies of the 1960s, of Viet- and interlocked in one giant scandal ma- But pendulums do swing, especially nam and Watergate. chine that, at times, seemed bent on bring- when they get a hard shove. Ever since 9/II, How did we get from there to here—and ing down anyone in an official position of President George W. Bush has been trying to maybe hack again? The story begins with

3' JUNE 13. 2005 NEWSWEEK 25 Politics

Richard Nixon, cunning, bright, able and, as time went on, ever more paranoid. The Watergate Revisited: Folio young Nixon was a southern California striv- Fell )ecame De er. Insecure about his degrees from Whittier Passed over for the FBI directorship and wary of Nixon's imperial ambitions, W. Mark College and Duke Law, he had tried to make clues drove "Woodstein" to dig where others didn't dare. A look back at the twists and turns of Vatergate- it in New York, but the fancy firms rejected WATERGATE EVENTS AND REVELATIONS FELT'S ROLE him, sending him back west. It was in poli- • tics, however, not in law, that Nixon found cameras are arrested his metier. Elected to Congress in 1946, he 1970 while breaking into arrived in Washington in 1947, the same year DNC HO at the Water- Navy courir as Jack Kennedy. Ambitious, shrewd and SPRING: gate Hotel. One, James gifted at exploiting voters' fears (from com- Bob Woodward delivers McCord, says he has munism to race), Nixon was a Republican in a package to the West worked for the CIA; two a Democratic town; the last GOP president, Wing, whore ho meets carry notes that link Herbert Hoover, had been defeated four elec- FBI Assistant Director an "E. Howard Hunt" tions before, and Truman was about to win a W. Mark Felt. Woodward to the White House. filth. Even as Nixon rapidly moved up to the asks for Felt's number; Senate and then to the vice presidency under Felt offers up his direct The Watergate break -in crew. with McCor Washington Post re- Eisenhower, Nixon never shook the feeling office line deputy cam that Washington was hostile territory. His a GOP security aide; ing garage in Rosslyn. tor Job Ma. heartbreakingly close loss to Kennedy former attorney general Va. They agree on a set and current Nixon of signals that will allow CRP staffer in 1960 (outpolled by just 118,574 votes Porter leers • campaign manager both to call meetings out of more than 68 million cast) only fed when nncessary. least $50,0 Nixon's resentments and conspiratorial John Mitchell denies any ties to the break - fold. world view. SEPT. 15: The grand in. Nixon is ahead in the jury hands down SEPT. 29: And so, as he moved into the White polls by 19 points. House in 1969, Nixon returned to a capi- indictments of Hunt, Post report tal, and a government, he believed hated JULY 5: Cenvinced that G. Gordon Liddy and the "John Mad him. lb the new president, the federal bu- the White House is bent five Watergate burglars. while servin [A.G.]. pers reaucracy was the enemy, the bastard nn obstructing the on- SEPT. 18: Breaking controlled a progeny of FDR's New Deal and LBJ's going FBI investigation. the rules. Woodward secret Rope Felt and two colleagues calls Felt and reads Great Society, stuffed full of pointy-headed fund that w meet with Gray to him a draft of a story Democrats. He wanted to get control of the used to gat iirotest. Felt soon tolls hinting that officials I government, to consolidate power in the informatioa Woodward that "the from the Committee for White House. He was extremely aggressive -041 the Denton White House regal the Re-election of about tracking down his enemies (by wire- the stakes ... as much tap if necessary) and purging the disloyal. the President 'CRP) OCT. 8: Me higher than anyone financed Watergate; Roslyn fro outside perceiveird a.m., a ha HERE WAS ONE AGENCY Felt says 'you can go that presidents had learned AUG. 1: Linking Nixon much stronger' about tolls Wood to handle very, very carefully, cash to Watergate for which officials con- staffers at While Hoes however, and that was the the first time, the Post trolled the secret fund. ops design reports that a $25.000 SEPT. 17: Over the Federal Bureau of Investiga- Nixon's app tion. For decades, its direc- 35 3- check donated to the phone, a frightened tor, J. Edgar Hoover, had re-election campaign Foil confirms thril Nixon wound tip in the maintained his independence through a crude T bank account of a device: blackmail. He kept secret files on the Watergate burglar. private lives of powerful senators and cabinet Woodward's notes, June 17, 1972 officers and presidents, and he made sure they AUGUST: Unable knew it When Attorney General Robert F. Limier, Woodward calls to reach his source Kennedy started grumbling about getting rid 2 Felt at his FEll office. on the phone. of Hoover during his brother's administration, 197 seeking into about Woodward visits Hoover let the ICennedys know that he had :611,r a.111 , Hunt; Felt says the ease Felt's home In F files on the president consorting with a Mafia Felt learns that FBI will "heat up"—then fax. Va. There. hangs up. Woodward tells the reporter II, moll and a call girl rumored to be an East Ger- Director J. Edgar Elia. Pro- soon learns that Hunt from now on they man spy. That was the end of the get-rid-of- Room has moted a year earlier to ante worked for the lard speak in persret Hoover talk among the Kennedy brothers. CIA and calls Felt hack. late at night, on Ow Nixon also wanted to get rid of Hoover, a top bureau spot, he's next in line—hut Nixon Felt now admits that bottom level of a pail who had been FBI director for more than appoints outsider Hunt 'Is a prime four decades when Nixon finally became suspect" in the Water- L. Patrick Gray inr,teati THE CAST: A Post president. Nixon never could bring himself gat' itive,.tiention to fire Hoover ("He's got files on everybody, JUNE 17: 2:30 a.m. researcher's person- goddamn it," Nixon reportedly said). The Five men equipped with JUNE 19: The Post nel diagram, 1974 aging director died in office in May 1972. bugging devices and reports that McCord is

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!lowing Felt's Trail Felt )ecame Deep Throat: the shadowy source whose confirmations and warn IN The original Nixon White ns of Vatergate—and the part that one man played in toppling a president. House tape recorder

OCT 10: The Post Haldeman in his federal reports: "FBI agents testimony, Felt confirms have established that that Haldeman does, [Watergate] stems in fact. control the from a massive cam- Rind. The Post paign of political spying prints Felt's blind and sabotage." quote: this Is a OCT. 19: In the White Haldeman operation." House. H, R. Haldeman NOV. 7: Nixon Is crew, vith McCord at far left names Felt as the top re- elected with more tattler. "If we move on than 60 percent of MAY 16: deputy campaign direr, - him." says the chief of the vote—one of the Fresh from a tor Jeb Magruder and staff, -hell go out and largest landslides in frantic encounter CRP staffer Herbert unload everything." American history. with Felt, Woodward AUGUST: When asked Porter received at tells Bernstein that by The Washingtonian least $50.000 in 'everyone's life is in deputy also resigns; in- if he's Deep Throat, Felt secret-fund dough. danger" and "electronic stead Acting A.G. Robert says: 'I can toll that it lirvelliance is going Bork must fire Cox. was not I and it is noi I . SEPT. 29: The JAN • ....els it"; they never find Post reports: NOVEMBER: Felt tell.; AUG. 9: Richard Nixon re- Woodward In the evidence of either. signs from the presidency, "John Mitchell. Roselyn garage Woodward that there are while serving as and confirms that MAY 17: The Senate deliberate erasures on [A.G.), personally Watergate Committee the tapes that Nixon )1/Inchon and Whit,: controlled a has just turned in House special begins its nationally AiRrICLF secret Republican televised hearings. counsel Charles NOV. 21: The Senate fund that was Colson wore JUNE 3: The Post reveals that there's RCLi. CALL used to gather "behind the Water- reports that Dean has an 181/2-minute gap 09. 7/4* information about 11 _ gate rmotion." testified to discussing in the tape of Nixon's the Democrats." the Watergate cover-up June 20.1972, chat Books of JAN. 30: After (01.1314.111. OCT. 8: Meeting In with Haldeman. Watergate evidence pleading not guilty on with the president "on at ,i II 1.0nirg -.- - AL 10011101_ -_ - - Roselyn from 1:30 to least 35 occasions." all counts, McCord and -. 1111. mummrasit_ 1, ..- a.m., a harried Felt AA ADWILI11-04._ OCT. 27: After Wood - Liddy are convicted LH_ .110. ,...11119417___ le' tolls Woodward that 50 of conspiracy, burglary i■ ward and — Ai ILLIMIXS__ V staffers at CRP and the JULY 13: In his con- — M11. 11111.1411.___ wrongly report that the and wiretapping. 1 White House engaged in gressional testimony, APRIL 30: The ---- CRP treasurer fingered --1 ROL" 17" 10sARRM__ -- ups designed to harm APRIL 26: As evidence a former Nixon aide White House releas- _MR 1101PIANCI_ Mt 0S0 0101LISAI___ Nixon's OPP011en, that implicates Halde- reveals that since 1971 es more than 1,200 ...! AL. DAMMAM _ pages of edited tape ..: MR OXMAN man, Mitchell and top the president has _I ML wrap aide John Ehrlieliman transcripts: the —.I ma 7011DAN recorded all West 1ML taxxerroor_ goes public. Felt Wing phone calls and House demands the ,' Ill 110111J11/1 actual tapes. _1 AL OM confirms that FBI conversations. am raviDitar Acting Director JULY 18: Nixon shuts JULY 24: The .1 AA 11t1T011110011 ;:iray destroyed _. Mk 1104.0111'_— edillidi= Supreme Court AL incriminating doe - off the taping system. wpm 1111 rejects Nixon's _! AL SIMI. III I _i SOL 11411111 uments recovered JULY 23: M Asked to claim of executive . UK w100101_ - from Hunt's White turn over the White .i ML ILANA privilege, ruling Al ram . 142=1. House tape recordings unanimously that ... 11.11. iwz::. to the Senate or the 17 III APRIL 30: Nixon must turn ' MIL 10.171110 Al ing Mt C.0101X Haldeman. special prosecutor. over the tape AL WIT Nixon refuses. ' Al 1110E111.1CH_ _ leill4 — Ehrlichman and recordings of 64 YR lloolVILL0 _ An 11110‘.111L__ Attorney Gott - OCT. 20: White House —r__—=== ki I" The Saturday III. 1.11.1A I. -le i '__ oral Richard Night Massacre. With conversations. Mt AMMO. r.m. Kleindienst .Ir. impeachment looming, JULY 27-30: The resign; Nixon asks A.G. Elliot House judiciary Nixon fires Richardson to fire special committee adopts _ White House prosecutor Archibald __ For the three articles of judiciary committee counsel Cox. but the A.G. resigns impeachment, including impeachment vote , in protest. Richardson's obstruction of justice.

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THE MAKING OF A G - MA; Felt poses with his pistol as a young FBI agent (left); on the high-school basketball team (above, circled); J. Edgar Hoover honors Felt, with wife Audrey, for his service (below)

But the instant Hoover was gone, Nixon from Nixon's "plumbers" to hush money Post reporter, the two men stayed in touch, moved to install his own man, L. Patrick to the mechanics of cover-up; the White and Felt even fed Woodward a few tips. Gray, as head of the bureau. House at one point wanted the CIA to block This did not sit well with the FBI's No. 2 the FBI's investigation of illegal payments. UT FELT WAS NERVOUS man, Mark Felt. In his memoirs, Felt says By all accounts, including his own mem- when Woodward called he deserved the FBI's top job. Interviewed oir, Felt was furious at such meddling with looking for information by NEWSWEEK, Felt's fellow G-men of that the bureau. Two days after the initial about the Watergate break- era recall Felt as an old-school Hoover loy- crime—a mysterious June 1972 break-in at in, and he soon stopped re- alist, a white-shirt, snap-brim-hat stickler Democratic National Committee headquar- turning the reporter's calls. for discipline. "He was disdainful of jour- ters at the Watergate Hotel—Felt received a The persistent Woodward nalists,' recalled Cartha (Deke) DeLoach, call from a Washington Post reporter went to his house. Felt was even more anx- 84, a former high-ranking FBI official. But named Bob Woodward. Felt had been a ious. But he didn't cut Woodward off. As an FBI historian Curt Gentry, who inter- friend of Woodward's, the Post reporter re- old German-spy hunter from World War viewed Felt, quoted FBI hands as saying vealed last week after the Deep Throat story II, Felt knew a few counterespionage tricks. that Felt had "a touch of the chameleon. broke. Two years earlier, as a young Naval Felt and Woodward worked out an elabo- Talking with Roy Cohn, he seemed like an Intelligence officer running an errand to the rate system of signals to arrange meetings, archconservative; with Robert Kennedy, an White House, Woodward had bumped into usually after 2 a.m., in a parking garage enlightened liberal." Felt, also cooling his heels outside an execu- across the river in Rosslyn, Va. In his note- What drove Felt to break ranks and be- tive office, and struck up a conversation. books, Woodward began referring to his come the most famous anonymous source (The fact that Woodward had been in uni- source as "M.E. (My Friend). in history? Was it his disappointment at be- form, calling Felt "sir" and asking career ad- After Deep Throat was revealed by Vani- ing passed over? That may have been part vice, rather than asking questions as a ty Fair magazine, a debate broke out on of it, but not all. There was a larger power scruffy reporter, no doubt helped warm the talking-head shows and the Internet about struggle unfolding as Watergate moved up relationship.) After Woodward became a whether to call Felt a hero. Many conserva-

CLOCZWISE FROM UM HOWARD PIADRE-DIESERET MOANING NEWS -6017 IMAGES. 28 NEWSWEEK JUNE 13, 2005 CO URTEV OF TAM FALLS TINES-MEWS, POLAR* According to the Vanity Fair ar- ticle by Felt's family lawyer John O'Connor, "I'm the Guy They Call Deep Throat," Felt ago- nized over his secret role in Wa- tergate for decades. In his 1979 memoir of his days in the FBI, "The FBI Pyramid," Felt had written that leaking was wrong. Only in his old age did his fami- ly convince him that he had been a hero, and even then he seemed to have had doubts. The family brought in a freelance writer, Jess Walter, to try to help him tell his story. According to New York publisher Judith Re- gan, who saw Walter's manu- script, Felt, addled by dementia, was unable to recall any details. Felt did acknowledge he was Deep Throat on most days—but on other days he would deny it. Yet there is no doubt that Felt was Deep Throat and played a Sen. key role in unseating Richard at the hearings Nixon. In the first couple of (above, center), months after the Watergate Attorney General break-in, The Washington Post, Mitchell and virtually alone among news or- his wife arrive ganizations, pursued the story at the Justice while administration spokesmen Department (left), scorned the Post with denials, E. Howard Hunt abuse and not-so-veiled threats. testifying before During this trying period, Deep the Watergate Throat's guidance and confirma- committee (right) tion of essential details was `‘vi- tal," former Post executive editor told NEWSWEEK. Nixon himself suspected fives, including a few old Nixon hands, "politicized" is shaky, or at least hypocritical. branded him a "snake" and a "traitor." Oth- that Felt was leaking to the press. On the After all, Hoover routinely blackmailed White House tapes, he can be heard inquir- ers, particularly on the left, observed that politicians. And Judge Laurence Silberman, Felt had shown considerable courage—and ing about Felt and deriding him with an an- who, as acting attorney general in the Ford ti-Semitic remark (assuming, without any then never tried to cash in, at least until administration, was one of the few non- now Defenders of the FBI pointed out that evidence, that Felt was Jewish). Why didn't Hooverites ever to see Hoover's secret files, the White House insist on firing Felt? Pos- Felt (and, before he died, J. Edgar Hoover told NEwswEEK that every president except himself) had resisted a Nixon White House sibly, Nixon was still afraid of those secret Truman and Eisenhower used, or tried to files collected by Hoover—but now kept in plot—the Huston Plan—to illegally snoop use, the bureau against his political enemies. on student radicals and other "subversiv." Felt's office. If Felt was offended by Nixon's heavy Watergate did not just spell the end of But the G-men may not have had the purest hand on the FBI, what could he have done of motives. The fact is that the bureau had the Nixon presidency. It started a chain re- about it Not go to his boss or Attorney action of investigations and prosecutions run plenty of "black-bag jobs" (warrantless General John Mitchell, both Nixon stooges. entries); indeed Felt was later convicted that eventually exposed all manner of se- He might have gone to a congressional cret wrongdoing by the FBI and the CIA: (and pardoned by ) for oversight committee—but that would have authorizing illegal break-ins of suspected black-bag jobs, illegal mail opening and invited scrutiny into whatever Hoover had CIA plots to assassinate foreign leaders. radicals (Nixon provided testimony sup- been up to all those years. porting Felt). Most scholars of the period The effect of these investigations by the So he became Deep Throat instead. press, the courts and congressional com- agree that Hoover's real reason for oppos- Years later, the straitlaced Felt apparently ing the Huston Plan was that he didn't mittees was profound. Battered by failure told his family that he never liked that name, in Vietnam and the exposure of the CIA's want the White House intruding on his borrowed from the pornographic movie monopoly on illegal spying. "crown jewels" (its most hidden and "deni- (the code name for Woodward's source was able" covert operations), the military and The argument that Felt resisted Nixon be- coined by the Post's late managing editor cause he did not want the bureau to become the intelligence community became as a kind of in-house joke). deeply demoralized in the late 1970s. From

ELUL-KIM num TOP: WALLY mai mu-1 ,1000FIII CAMP, EMWEI NUPE NEM/JEW- ECM MMES. WO HUME KEMMERLY-EVE/MS JUNE 13, 2005 NEWSWEEK 29 Politics buildup of the military and an "unleashing" and had to be pressured by the then Secretary the highest levels to the lowliest com- of Defense Dick Cheney. mands, the watchword was caution. of the CIA, as well as stirring rhetoric about renewed American pride. But Reagan, or his President Bill Clinton and his cabinet of- ficers often felt thwarted by the balky mili- HEN UNARMED minions, overreached. Working out of the national-security staff of the White House, tary and intelligence services. "What good is Islamic militants it to have the greatest military in the world poured into the Lt. Col. Oliver North ran a scheme to sell if you can't use it?" a frustrated Secretary U.S. Embassy in arms to Iranians in order to free some Amer- of State Madeleine Albright once demanded Tehran in Novem- ican hostages, and to use the proceeds to ille- when the Pentagon was resisting action ber 1979, the Ma- gally fund freedom fighters in Nicaragua in the Balkans. The record shows that Clin- rine guards fired a (violating a congressional ban). The plot im- ton would from time to time ask the military few cans oftear gas—but otherwise held back ploded and Reagan narrowly missed facing W impeachment charges. For top CIA officials, or the CIA why it couldn't do more to get rid and let the "students" seize the embassy. of Osamu bin Laden. But each time, excuses Secretary of Defense Harold Brown and who were prosecuted, the message was clear: Do not take risks. Safer to keep your were made (armed intervention would re- national-security adviser Zbigniew Brzezin- quire too many troops, too much airlift, as- ski wanted to avoid military action. A 444- head down. At the same time at the Pentagon, Joint sassinations were illegal, etc.). day hostage crisis ensued. (According to In the spring of 2001, George W. Bush what may be an urban legend, the Soviet in- Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Colin Powell was preaching the Powell Doctrine, which at least once expressed frustration at the telligence services took a more draconian lack of effective options against Al Qacda. approach to ending hostage crises. Standard roughly held that the military should never intervene without overwhelming force, pub- "I'm tired of swatting at flies," he said. "I'm procedure, or so the story goes, was to kid- tired of playing defense. I want to play of- nap one of the kidnappers and send a severed lic approval, the certainty of victory and an exit strategy, i.e., almost never. Powell actual- fense. I want to take the fight to the ter- body part to the others.) rorists." But the White House national- The Reagan presidency saw a renewed ly resisted invading Iraq in the first gulf war

OPItoNt; tat Felt greets the press with daughter Joan Shopping a Big Secret and his grandson Nick Jones seven publishers last week, have n the City of Leaks, it is as- meetings with more scheduled— tonishing that the secret of and have been in talks with movie Deep Throat lasted as long as and TV producers as well). Regan I it did. But now that the word is confirms that there's an offer on out, the scramble is on to cash in. the table, but says she's still Indeed, money is at least one rea- concerned about 'his ability to be son that Deep Throat's family interviewed for the book." revealed his identity, through an As Felt toddled past reporters article written by the family lawyer, last week on his daily outing, he John O'Connor, in Vanity Fair. declared that he was enjoying the Mark Felt's daughter Joan. once hubbub. "It's doing me good. I'll estranged from Felt (she was liv- arrange to write a book or some- ing on a commune when he was thing and collect all the money I spying on subversives), is now his can." he exclaimed. (The family caretaker. As the Vanity Fair arti- got no direct payment for the cle made clear. she felt that her Vanity Fair article; O'Connor was father deserved recognition be- paid a writer's fee, possibly about fore he died. and, as she put it, $10,000.) But if Deep Throat is she saw a way to pay off some in a fog. who will want to read his debts for her children's tuition reminiscences? The one sure bills. Her original hope was to best seller is Woodward's own work with Bob Woodward, The book about Deep Throat. In the Washington Post reporter who works for months, it will be pub- made Deep Throat famous. But lished in July. Woodward will Woodward, who was unsure of presumably resolve the last mys- brought in to interview Felt. out mentally. Some days he said Felt's mental capacity (Felt had teries, like why Deep Throat was Walter spent about four hours he was Deep Throat, some days suffered a debilitating stroke) to described in "All the President's recording conversations with Felt he said he wasn't," she told waive Woodward's promise of Men" as a heavy smoker, even but found it "riddling" to talk to NEWSWEEK. David Kuhn, a well- confidentiality, would never ac- though his family claims that Crisp connected agent representing the knowledge that Felt was, in fact, him. he told NEWSWEEK. Felt family. says Regan's firm he quit in 1943. (Hint from an Deep Throat. G- man to the end, Felt was very faxed an offer to O'Connor last anonymous source who sounds So Joan, with O'Connor's help, fastidious about his appearance. Wednesday, and that it is under a lot like Woodward: over met looked elsewhere for an amanuen- Judith Regan, a well-known New consideration, pending negotia - a secret smoker who lights up sis. An attempt to sell the story to York publisher who saw the pro- lions with other publishers (Kuhn under stress?) People magazine fizzled. A free- ject, was interested in the Felt says he and O'Connor met with -EVAN THOMAS with KAREN BRESLAU lance writer. Jess Walter, was book but balked. "Felt was in and !4 $

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Bush's supporters cheer him for Nixon hugs his daughter Julie on the day of Lrolling back the legacy of Watergate. his resignation security bureaucracy was just getting cations elsewhere. At the same time, investi- cessors—a world Deep Throat helped cre- around to meeting on how the president's gators who have examined the national- ate. Official Washington is a glass-walled wishes might be accomplished when ter- security establishment's performance since hothouse changed forever by the speed rorists started flying into buildings. 9/11 have seen signs of the old inertia, the and openness of technology and the resid- After 9/11, the Bush administration was fear that a wrong move could land an un- ual impact of Watergate. Though the all-out. Bush said he did not want to blow lucky bureaucrat in the hot seat of a congres- Great Scandal Machine that almost took up a few tents with cruise missiles; he sional investigating committee. Clinton down is idling, and the ardor of its wanted "boots on the ground." Defense operatives has cooled, it can always be Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was infuriated HERE IS NO DOUBT THAT restarted and re-energized with some old- by the Pentagon's slowness to get troops Bush wishes to expand fashioned digging and a few clicks of the into Afghanistan (the military, following executive power, to restore computer. The Bush administration may the CIA by a couple of weeks, arrived in it to pre-Watergate days. demand deference and long for a return to mid-October). But the sleeping giant was Vice President Cheney has a vanished Washington in which reporters awake, and starting to stir. Since then, the been particularly outspo- looked the other way when FDR was in his posture of the military and the intelligence ken about guarding the wheelchair or evaded Congress to send community has been "forward leaning," as prerogatives of the executive. At press con- arms to Britain, but after Watergate, even Rumsfeld likes to phrase it. ferences (most recently last week), Bush a restored Imperial Presidency would be in But will the Bush administration lean too has shown a kind of casual disdain for constant danger of crumbling. asked Bob far? And is risk aversion really a thing of the Congress and the press, his two main foes Last week NEWSWEEK past? The answers to both questions are un- in the Washington power game. Woodward whether, if Bush did overreach a new Deep Throat would ma- certain. The intelligence failure over WMD Bush, as even his wife, Laura, will ad- like Nixon, in Iraq, and the administration hype to com- mit, can get too cocky at times. Will cocki- terialize in the shadows. "I believe so; said pensate for it, was not encouraging. Nor is ness become arrogance and lead to the sort Woodward. "And I think they know in the the ongoing scandal of the treatment of pris- of sins of pride that doomed Nixon and Bush administration that it's always a real oners in Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo and nearly tripped up Reagan? It seems unlike- possibility." But what if Bush's New Centu- perhaps in secret prisons in undisclosed to- ly: Bush is not at all paranoid (like Nixon) rions do succumb to the age-old tempta- and he is more hands-on (and less vulnera- tion to abuse power? "Who knows?" mused J [Mayan Thomas for_alivoiallt.on_ ble to an 011ie North) than Reagan. Woodward. "1 hope we've all learned the 11J Thursday,dune_katmon. ET, at And, perhaps most important, Bush lessons of Watergate; Newsweek-comonMSNBC lives in a different world than his prede- With ANDREW MURK and ELEANOR CLIFT

NIXON PRESIDENTW. MATERIALS STAFF, NAromm Alli.1411,F,5 Al COLLEGE 04111, 32 NEWSWEEK JUNE 13, 2005