Mark Felt, Deep Throat, is a Tarnished Hero

The greatest journalistic mystery of the 20th century is no longer a mystery. “Deep Throat,” the key source in the Washington Post’s investigation of the Watergate Affair, turns out to be W. Mark Felt, the second-in-command at the FBI in the early 1970s. Former Nixon speechwriter, Pat Buchanan said, “he’s a snake,” while others claim he saved the Republic, but in fact, Mr. Felt is a tarnished hero.

First, the hero part. The Watergate break-in was the third-rate burglary some have called it, but it was also part of a clandestine operation run out of the White House to bug the offices of the Democratic National Committee. In 1972, the DNC was well on the way to self-destruction, and it is a sign of the paranoia in the Nixon administration that anyone thought it would be a good place for a listening device. Mr. Nixon had taken an oath to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." Telling the CIA to interfere with an FBI investigation (the tape of June 23, 1972) was most certainly such a failure. But Mr. Nixon lacked the understanding that the president was bound not only by his oath, but by the laws and by human morality. Recall that he told David Frost, “Well, when the president does it that means that it is not illegal.”

What reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, editor Ben Bradlee and owner Katherine Graham of the Washington Post did was chase up the story no matter where it led, and cast enough light on the illegal, unconstitutional and immoral actions at the White House to force Mr. Nixon out. What Mr. Felt did was feed them information. In short, he leaked. And until recently, he wasn’t very proud of it. G-men don’t believe in squealing anymore than the mob used to tolerate it (time have changed). However, loyalty to the agency and the administration clashed with loyalty to the nation. He did the right thing.

There are many on the right who will argue that what Mr. Nixon did was no worse than what Messrs. Johnson or Kennedy did, and in that, they are probably right. That tu quoque argument didn’t work at Nuremberg, and it should work in the US either. Just because one president got away with violating his oath, undermining the foundations of the nation and ultimately weakening the citizens’ faith in the government doesn’t mean another one should get off scot-free.

And now the tarnish. Mr. Felt’s motivation and events since Watergate put more than a little dirt on his reputation. In working with the Post (note the New York Times was nowhere on this story), Mr. Felt was striking back at the White House for being denied the top FBI job when J. Edgar Hoover died. While it is possible to do the right thing for the wrong reasons, it doesn’t make one a model of rectitude. But also, he was convicted in 1980 for ordering searches of homes without warrants (illegal, unconstitutional and immoral) while pursuing the Weathermen underground in 1972 and 1973. President Reagan pardoned him, and he never did a day in jail.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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