In Search Of Deep Throat: The Greatest Political Mystery Of Our Time [Paperback]

Leonard Garment (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2001

More than a quarter century after Bob Woodward introduced his Scotch-drinking, cigarette-smoking, garage-skulking friend and source in All the President's Men, the public remains enduringly engrossed by the mystery of Deep Throat's identity. Leonard Garment became fascinated himself and began his own search for Deep Throat. This is the story of that hunt and its successful outcome, a hunt conducted in quintessential Washington fashion: at lunches, dinners, and parties, through the examination of secret, classified documents and testimony, and assisted by liberal doses of political gossip and insider tips from Woodward himself.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Ever since the Watergate scandal broke, people have speculated on the identity of Deep Throat, Woodward and Bernstein's secretive source. Nixon administration insider Leonard Garment went In Search of Deep Throat to solve the mystery. On page 2 of his book, Garment reveals his theory--and it's not who you might think.

Garment explains how he came to arrive at his conclusion, admitting that there's no "smoking gun"--and that his subject denies the charge vehemently (as do Woodward and Bernstein). He debunks other theories, and also somewhat laughingly describes the wrong turns he made during his investigation. For a time he was mistakenly convinced that Deep Throat was David Gergen, in part because of Gergen's height; in All the President's Men, Woodward describes how Deep Throat had arranged to leave a note on a ledge in the parking garage where the two men met. When Woodward arrived, he was too short to reach it. Gergen was 7 inches taller than Woodward and "could have comfortably placed the note on the ledge without giving a thought to his friend's height disadvantage. At the time, I thought this fact to be of momentous significance."

Unveiling aside, Garment provides an insider's look into the Nixon administration and the Watergate scandal. Garment may well be wrong in his identification of Deep Throat, but his assessment of the state of post-Watergate politics rings painfully true. Though today's federal government appears "cleaner," owing in part to the rise of investigative reporting à la Woodward and Bernstein, Garment feels that "the ironic aftermath of the changes that Watergate and Deep Throat set in train is that politics and government are in substance distinctly meaner and dirtier than they were when Deep Throat decried the 'switchblade mentality' in the White House." As Garment points out, somehow "the idea of politics as inherently corrupt has led to its becoming more so." And that's what's hard to swallow. --Sunny Delaney --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Garment, President Nixon's acting counsel during the collapse of his administration and author of the highly praised memoir Crazy Rhythm, concludes that until one of the four people who know who Deep Throat is comes forth (ace Watergate reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein; Ben Bradlee, now vice president of the Washington Post; or Deep Throat himself), his true identity will remain speculation. Garment then unaccountably devotes an entire book to trying to convince the reader that Deep Throat was John Sears. Sears, who has called Garment's charge "hogwash," was a minor political operative driven out of the Nixon administration in 1969 by his henchmen, Bob Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, and who went on to manage Ronald Reagan's 1976 and 1980 presidential campaigns. According to Garment, Sears had the knowledge and motive (revenge) to serve as Woodward's secret source, who would confirm or deny questions but wouldn't offer new information. The search for Deep Throat, 26 years after Nixon's resignation, is apparently more important to Garment than the public. Readers can overlook this book and anticipate Garment's promised future investigation into the tortured and torturing President he served. This rehashing of Watergate should be purchased by public libraries only if interest warrants.AKarl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (April 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465026141
• ISBN-13: 978-0465026142
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,898,593 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent read, July 26, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: In Search of Deep Throat : The Greatest Political Mystery of Our Time (Hardcover)

This is must-read for any serious political junkie. Garment provides a pretty compelling argument for the identity of the most mysterious informant of the century. It's well-written and provides several interesting insights to the Watergate scandal and players.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Garment takes us on an intriguing trip down memory lane, August 23, 2000

By 

R. Steiner "Books for the ages" (New York City USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In Search of Deep Throat : The Greatest Political Mystery of Our Time (Hardcover)

Having come of age in the era of Nixon and Watergate, I thoroughly enjoyed this jauntily (and often painfully) personal reflection upon the key events of the Nixon presidency as well as its long prologue and aftermath. Whether or not Garment "got it right this time", the book has great value owing to the insight it brings to the elements that allowed "Watergate" to occur, both the elements that lived inside the mind and character of Richard Nixon and those elements intrinsic to the times in which his administration took place. Everyone will form an individual perception as to whether Garment's culprit was the real Deep Throat, but the quality of his investigation and the uniqueness of his perspective lend a lot of credibility to his conclusion.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Woodward's secret is still safe..., March 22, 2001

By 

John B. Maggiore (Buffalo, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In Search of Deep Throat : The Greatest Political Mystery of Our Time (Hardcover)

In Search of Deep Throat is at once both interesting and not very good. Garment is not really a writer. The book would have been better if written by a reporter. Instead, like the lawyer that he is, Garment feels compelled to establish the facts of the case first, so he devotes too much space to outlining what happened in Watergate. The book really shouldn't need to do this because Watergate could and has been the subject of entire books. If the reader doesn't know about Watergate already, he or she has no reason to be interested in Deep Throat's identity.

The second problem is with Garment's treatment of suspects that he rules out. He repeatedly makes reference to theories or theorists who speculate that X was Deep Throat, without identifying who forwarded such theories and how they were forwarded. The book would be far more interesting if it catalogued various Deep Throat theories in greater detail. Perhaps even worse, Garment discounts various candidates apparently based on their temperament, their apparent loyalty to Nixon, their presumed aversion to the type of sneakiness perpetrated by Deep Throat or some other very superficial reason.

It gets worse. Garment rules someone out based on his wife's first glance at the suspect's wife. He settles on John Sears (this is not letting the cat out of the bag - Garment identifies Sears within the first few pages) in part because it makes sense to his wife. I was hoping that the case for Sears would be stronger than the case against others. This was not to be. At one point, Garment lays out a relatively compelling case that Sen. Robert F. Bennett was Deep Throat. He then concludes that Bennett was not basically, I guess, because he doesn't smoke and drink. Patrick Gray is ruled out because...why? I'm not sure.

Garment's Sears theory is dependent in part on Sears secretly actually being two sources in All the President's Men. Garment thinks Sears is a Bernstein source because the material supplied by this source sounds like Sears to Garment. That presumption was why Garment hadn't really thought about Sears as Deep Throat before. Then it occurred to him that Woodward and Bernstein did not always reveal their sources to each other, so Sears could have been a source for both. Other than that, Garment's basic case for Sears is that his mannerisms seem compatible to those attributed to Deep Throat in All the President's Men.

There are a few big problems with this. The first is that Woodward revealed Deep Throat's identity to Bernstein. Even if Woodward didn't know that Sears was a source for Bernstein, Bernstein would know that Sears was Deep Throat. Why would Bernstein allow him to be turned into two characters for the book he co-wrote? The other problem is that Bernstein's source interacted with Bernstein in a completely different way than Deep Throat did with Woodward. Deep Throat was extremely secretive - Bernstein's source was not nearly so. Why would the same person insist on cloak-and-dagger tactics to communicate with Woodward while at the same time apparently taking phone calls from Bernstein?

If there is an answer to that question, it is not in the book. The book would be more interesting anyway with more concrete evidence, such as evidence that Sears was or was not in one place or another on one date or another. Phone records, testimony, etc. are all missing. Garment basically makes his case based almost entirely on his assessment of different personalities. The topic itself is inherently interesting enough to have inspired me to read the book quickly, but in the end I still don't feel like I know who Deep Throat is.