Customer Reviews

The FBI pyramid from the inside

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I was able to find this book in the library after it was discovered that Mark Felt was indeed Deep Throat. The book overall is a good, fast read, but don't expect to get any inside story about being Deep Throat (which he denies several times in the book). What the book is instead is a solid description of the FBI bureaucracy, especially in the 60s and early 70s.

More importantly from a historical perspective is that this book is also an unapologetic defense of his mentor J. Edgar Hoover. For example, he characterizes Hoover as being more pro-civil rights than just about anyone else in Washington, such as being against the Japanese internment camps in World War II, refusing to bug offices of a President's opponents etc. Hoover apparently was more pro-civil liberties than Felt himself, as Hoover tried to pull the plug on certain illegal activities which Felt allowed to continue. He refutes many of the dark allegations made against Hoover, such as the investigation of Martin Luther King, although I don't have the background to know if his description of these issues is accurate. Still, it is very interesting to get an alternative point of view on the subject.

Felt is very even-handed, as he complains almost as much about the Kennedy administration (especially the Attorney General RFK) as he does about Nixon. He complains that both Kennedy and Truman did not take the Red Menace seriously enough. The one organization to which he had unqualified loyalty was the FBI itself. Because of this, Felt resents the attempts by both the Kennedy and Nixon administrations to interfere with FBI investigations.

The book is not perfect. True to his career as an adminstrator, he sometimes spends too much time describing bureaucratic minutiae that do not have much relevance to the story. That being said, the book gives a fascinating description of the late Hoover era at the FBI, and shows at least some of the motivation, if not the exact details, of why Felt became Deep Throat.

This is a vote for "The FBI Pyramid" to be re-printed.
At the moment, let's see......ONE original copy available, $1995.00 -- No, I don't think so. :-)

There is much that we can look for in this book. Besides possible clues about Mr. Felt's motivation for being "Deep Throat" and perhaps even unconscious hints that it was he, we will get a close view of the nature and structure of the FBI and of what he valued about it. I would look particularly for what he said about possible kinds of threats to the authority and functioning of the agency; it then may not be hard to read between the lines for hints of the threats that Mr. Felt had seen and sensed from the Nixon administration.

But this is all speculation until we get the book ourselves. Please re-print it, and help this postscript of the Watergate story to unfold.

This was a really good book, which I promptly started reading when it came out that Mark Felt was the mysterious "Deep Throat" of Watergate fame. I am amazed to see the inside cover, and read this blurb: "Mark Felt, who was rumored to be the famous informer Deep Throat, and whose name and face are known to millions of newspaper readers as the first top FBI executive......".

I mean, my goodness, how much more blunt could it have been!
....and the book came out 25 years ago!

I also find it ironic that Mr. Felt was actually sent to prison himself---and had former President Nixon testify on his behalf! He was even later pardoned by President Reagan, and got a congratulatory note from former President Nixon, that said, "Justice Always Prevails". Mr. Felt was definitely a brave man! You will definitely find this to be an interesting book.

This very readable 1979 book has 351 pages but lacks an index and a table of contents to his life in the FBI. Felt's recollection of events was refreshed by FBI records, Senate and House reports, and the Nixon tapes. Neither personal malice nor selfish motivations colored his actions or judgment at any time in his career (p.12). After J. Edgar Hoover died Felt, the #2 man, stayed to help the new Acting Director (who had no experience with law enforcement but many years as a Nixon loyalist). Felt resents "political considerations" imposed on the FBI; yet politics created the Bureau of Investigations. Shouldn't he advocate placing the FBI under Civil Service, like the US Secret Service? When the Secret Service convicted a Senator and Congressman for the Teapot Dome scandal, Congress cut their budget; later FDR reassigned counter-intelligence from the SS to the FBI. FDR depended on J. Edgar Hoover to get reports on the personal life of FDR's friends and enemies. Hoover's gathering of "dirt" on Congressmen and others was a form of pre-emptive defense necessary to political life in America (p.207).

Felt says the actions of the FBI neutralized the threat of terrorism from Al Fatah, the Jewish Defense League, and the Weather Underground (p.13). Felt warns against any complacency since terrorism can return (p.14)! The following chapters tell of his career and the events that propelled him to the top of the FBI Pyramid. Felt gives his side on the "palace intrigue" and his disagreements with William C. Sullivan. [Sullivan was shot before he could testify to the House Select Committee that Investigated Assassinations.] New agents were assigned to four different Field offices in their first four years. There were financial and personal hardships in this (p.25). Felt's reports were terse, succinct, and relevant. This attracted favorable notice (p.27). As a novice in the Espionage Section he uncovered a Nazi spy that had been overlooked (p.32). Chapter 4 tells of his career promotions, 1945-1958. Chapter 5 discusses the fallacy of life insurance weight charts, and the use of anonymous letters for revenge. Chapter 6 explains why errors had to found, and "carefully evaluated". Chapter 7 tells of Felt's skills in solving problems. Felt discusses the FBI's inactivities in the 1960s (pp.104-105); could Hoover have feared Congressional payback? About half the book concerns his last years from 1971 to 1978, and the events of those years.

In June 1971 Jack Anderson reported that an anti-trust case against ITT was settled for a $400,000 campaign contribution (p.166). [Was this a unique occurrence? Were charges brought against ITT to shake them down?] Felt's recollection of the Tytell typewriter is slyly inaccurate and shows his problem solving skills (p.171). Hoover's death shocked Felt, since there was no sign of ill health (p.179). Felt defends Hoover's use of FBI personnel at his house as needed for security purposes (p.204). [Note problem-solving skills!] As to leaking stories to Woodward & Bernstein, Felt says he didn't leak "anything to anybody" (p.225). Felt has a non-denial denial on page 226. [Anyone who says Felt absolutely denied being "Deep Throat" didn't read this closely.] Felt explains the "Official and Confidential Files" (pp.228-229). The reason for files on politicians was "to facilitate liaison" (p.233). [How clever!] Chapter 18 tells of their investigation into the Watergate burglary. Even J. Edgar Hoover couldn't have stopped them (pp.258-259). Chapter 19 gives Felt's account of the Wounded Knee incident. Chapter 20 tells why L. Patrick Gray was an "ineffective leader" (p.278). Felt's account of W. Chambers resignation is inaccurate (p.295). After disagreeing with Ruckelshaus' political ploys, Felt resigned (p.303). Later Ruckelshaus did the same (Saturday Night Massacre). Felt's refusal to testify against Patrick Gray led to his indictment for his investigation of the Weather Underground (Chapter 23). [Was that quote of T. Jefferson taken out of context (p.315)?] Did opposition to the Vietnam War really delay the final peace agreement (p.318)? In discussing militant organizations, Felt doesn't mention any part played by agents-provocateurs to create lawlessness (p.320). Felt explains his justification for "black bag jobs" (p.323). His prosecution was due to deceit and double-dealing by the Justice Dept. he said (p.343).

2 Jun 05: Since Mark Felt has recently been identified as "Deep Throat", I predict that his obscure memoir, will not only come back into print...but that it also hits someone's best seller list.

Watergate reporter, Bob Woodward, writes in today's Washington Post, "In his own memoir, "The FBI Pyramid: From the Inside," which received almost no attention when it was published in 1979, five years after President Richard M. Nixon's resignation, Felt angrily called this a "White House-Justice Department cabal."

Thirty years after President Nixon's resignation, the author is confirmed to be the source for Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's Washington Post reporting on the Watergate scandal. Yes, Mark Felt was and is 'Deep Throat'. This long-overlooked memoir is now being quoted in all the major media outlets about anything related to Watergate. Read it and judge for yourself.

In this book, Mark Felt denied being Deep Throat. Now he says that he was Deep Throat. So I pose the question - was he lying then or is he is lying now? Either way, we now know that he's a liar. And on his word, the media overthrew a duly elected President of the United States!