Papers belonging to Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein concerning Mark Felt, the source known as Deep Throat, have gone on public display at the University of Texas at Austin. Some can be viewed online. The first set of notes includes a direct quote from Felt: “this could ruin the admin, I mean ruin.”
Woodward and Bernstein’s papers, including notebooks, memos, interviews, story drafts, clippings and manuscripts for All the President’s Men and The Final Days, are housed at the Ransom Centre.
On June 19, 1972, while pursuing leads about one of the burglars caught in the Democratic National Headquarters two days earlier, Woodward called a friend at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). This was the first of at least 17 contacts between Woodward and his friend, FBI Associate Director Mark Felt.
Woodward’s accounts of these meetings in All the President’s Men (1974) and The Secret Man: The Story of Watergate’s Deep Throat (2005) indicate that between June 1972 and November 1973, Woodward called Felt seven times, and met him once at his FBI office for an on-the-record interview, once at Felt’s house, once at a bar in Prince George’s County, Md., once at an undisclosed location and six times in a parking garage in Rosslyn, Va.
Woodward never took notes when meeting with Felt but would often type memos of their conversations soon after they talked. Some conversations were so specific or short that no memo was written.
Felt would not allow Woodward to quote him or identify him as a source. He resisted providing Woodward with new information, preferring to confirm information already known by Woodward or suggest a particular path of investigation.
Felt’s role was revealed for the first time when All the President’s Men was published in 1974, but he was identified only as a source nicknamed Deep Throat. His identity remained a well-guarded secret until May 2005 when Vanity Fair magazine published Felt’s announcement that “I’m the guy they called Deep Throat.”
The University of Texas at Austin acquired the Watergate papers of Washington Post reporters Woodward and Bernstein for $5 million, an acquisition entirely supported by donors. Woodward and Bernstein were the first journalists to establish the connection between the June 17, 1972, break-in at the Democratic national headquarters in the Watergate complex and aides to President Richard M Nixon.
To celebrate the collection, the Ransom Centre hosted a public programme titled “The Legacy of Watergate: Why It Still Matters.” The event, sponsored by the Austin American-Statesman and statesman.com, consisted of two panel discussions, each involving Woodward and Bernstein, on Friday, March 23, at the University of Texas at Austin campus.
Participants in the first panel, “Watergate and Presidential Accountability,” included Bruce Buchanan, professor of government; Francis J. Gavin, associate professor of public affairs; and Sanford Levinson, professor of law. Panelists for “Watergate and the Media: Did the System Work?” included Roderick P Hart, dean of the College of Communication; Richard Oppel, editor of the Austin American-Statesman; and David Oshinsky, professor of history.
The collection can be viewed here.
