Customer Reviews

The Secret Man

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

To say that The Secret Man is laconic is like saying Phoenix is somewhat warm. For one of the biggest secrets of our times, Woodward had surprisingly little to say. The book is short! Short on information. Short on revelations. Short on words (about 40,000 I`d guess). Short on interest. Short, Short, Short. That`s not to say the book is totally without merit. Woodward continues to write in his `aw shucks`, `down home' style of writing and he does manage to give Deep Throat a face. A face of a kindly old befuddled gentleman now and the proud, confident, mildly ruthless, extremely secretive informer of the seventies.

Much to the authors chagrin he was unable to ascertain Felt`s true motive`s behind his secretive revelations before his dementia and we are subjected to his rehashing of all that has been said by his contemporaries in the past. However, we do get to see a side of Woodard that I had never suspected. That of a pushy, prodding, sometimes demanding but not ungrateful recipient of Felt's largess. As Woodward recites the events, it seems that Felt, whatever his motives, be it personal, or resentment of the Nixon team for compromising his beloved FBI, was recalcitrant and events would not have moved forward, without Woodward's persistence. This ultimately led to a split of these unlikely friends where Felt wouldn`t take Woodward`s calls and they did not talk for a period of some twenty years.

My feeling is that although Woodward had his book ready to go in draft form, he was taken by surprise by the sudden surprise announcement from Felt's family and was rushed to come up with the finished manuscript. As short as the book is, it seems it was stretched by repeating things in the last third of the book. I found this repetition annoying. In summary I found the book mildly amusing and I`m glad I read it, if for nothing else, to get a feeling for the man they called Deep Throat. Was he a hero or a traitor? My sense is that Nixon and his gang were out of control and Ship of State was dangerously listing and Felt with some help from Woodward and Bernstein were to only ones bailing the water at first. Yeah he was a hero. Wish we had some of his ilk today. He wasn't obsequious. Nor was he a sycophant. He would have never said `Mr. President, it's a slam dunk.'

I have mixed feelings about the book. I feel like the book was rushed for obvious reasons. The story, what there is of if is compelling but seems incomplete. I give it a rating of 3.2 Stars.

This is a surprisingly good book. Woodward is honest and reflective about whether he met the high standards Deep Throat set for him, and that he set for himself. And he grapples with whether Deep Throat was a hero or villain or a little of both -- and concludes, convincingly, that Deep Throat was more hero than villain.

Deep Throat's identity sheds entirely new light on the Watergate scandal. That he was the number 2 man in the FBI whose motive was to protect the agency from Nixon's politicization and subversion of law enforcement goes a long way in explaining Nixon's downfall. Yet, Woodward does not shy away from the sordid doings of Hoover and others, including Deep Throat himself. There is a curious resonance between the FBI and the White House plumbers. Is Deep Throat protecting some idealized view of his agency or just his beloved turf?

Woodward is reflective and self-critical. This is the best book he has written and is quite moving.

Secret Man is an interesting but ultimately unsatisfying review of Bob Woodward's dealings with Mark Felt, the "Deep Throat" of All the President's Men (ATPM) fame. While Woodward does a reasonable job of filling in many of the remaining blanks, it would have been better to release the new material as an additional 100 pages or so in a revised edition of ATPM. Part of this comes from the feeling that most of the truly gripping material here has already been released, part comes from admitted hasty editing, but the biggest disappointment is that what should be the heart of this story - the relationship between Woodward and Felt - isn't compelling as it becomes sadly clear Woodward didn't know Felt all that well. Instead, what Woodward ends up producing is a fairly unflattering autobiographical sketch of himself before and during Watergate. Still, it's worth a read both for political junkies and as the standalone historical footnote it is, but could and should have been a lot more after all these years. One star off for the rehash, and one half each for the results of essentially working without an editor and the poor value proposition here leave this at three stars.

Any retelling of Watergate with Woodward, Bernstein, and Deep Throat is going to have problems living up to the monumental thriller that was ATPM. Love them or hate them for their role in bringing down Nixon and what some view as their unintentional fathering of today's "gotcha" journalism, the movie version of ATPM vaulted all three men to superstardom. In fairness, there's an additional hurdle of trying to make the facts live up to the incredible scenes between Hal Holbrook and Robert Redford. Not an easy task for even one of the principals.

The good news is that this book confirms that most of the scenes in ATPM were dead-on factual. The bad is that most of the truly meaty parts of the story - the counterespionage moves Felt forced on Woodward to meet him, the warning to both that their lives may be in danger - have already been told in spectacular drama in ATPM word for word. Woodward is a good enough writer to recognize this, and instead tries to explore the relationship between himself and Felt. Unfortunately, most the remaining meat here too has also been released; about two-thirds of the most interesting new details ended up under Woodward's byline in the Washington Post a couple of days after confirmation of the Vanity Fair story. (You know there's something inherently wrong when the most salacious newly published revelations here - the shock both writers felt when they finally realized Nixon might be impeached - come from the Bernstein endnote.) It's interesting stuff for sure especially if you didn't catch the Post articles, but not gripping by any means.

Why? Sadly, the underlying theme is Woodward coming off as an ambitious young reporter who is given a career-making gift by Felt yet doesn't bother reciprocating. It's less that Woodward didn't or couldn't help out Felt when he was in his own legal mess in the late 1970s; its more that Woodward didn't even attempt to contact Felt more than as he puts it `halfhearted(ly)' until almost 2000, when Felt's memory was clearly gone. (At least Woodward has the self-honesty to admit the portrait he paints of himself is unflattering and that he comes across as pushy and secretive, which is better than the portrait of Felt's family given the conversation with Felt shows he's nowhere near full capacity nowadays. Not that Felt lacked for ambition either; how he waited years for a half hour meeting with Hoover and parlayed that into working himself into Hoover's inner circle is one of the few great insights on him gleaned here.) A key weakness is that even if Felt wasn't exactly forthcoming with much beyond the bare facts, it still feels as if Woodward really didn't care about trying to figure him out once he got relevant information from him. As a result, Woodward's exploration of Felt's actions comes off as less of a insightful first hand witness than a rushed historian as he uses Felt's novel more than personal stories to explain his actions. Still, at least Woodward's speculation as to Felt's motivation makes sense - following the lead of his boss and hero Hoover to turn down Nixon administration attempts to influence the ITT bribery investigation, the more the Nixon younglings pushed after Hoover's death to control the FBI, the more angry Felt got. Combine that with being passed over twice for the top FBI job (or as Felt called the second snub, "Blue Monday"), its clear Felt had a beef to pick with his bosses on a couple of levels.

It's up to the reader to decide whether this makes Felt a hero, and journalism school students will likely argue whether or not Woodward's almost mythical devotion to protecting his source's anonymity can offset the almost puzzling indifference he displays towards towards Felt in other things. What doesn't require any debate is that the long-secret and dormant manuscript needed more than the admitted 10 day rush edit, as making Woodward add to the too-brief discussion about protecting Felt for 30 years and more analysis of the various Deep Throat 'identifications' would have helped significantly, and that we would have all been better served if Woodward and Felt had long ago collaborated on a tell-all novel instead of the incomplete piece we have here. Hopefully Felt's notes will produce something more compelling from his point of view, and in the meantime this serves as an interesting but not critical footnote to the Watergate saga. Three stars.

The Secret Man is the final unveiling of the identity of Deep Throat, the invaluable inside source during the Watergate Scandal. W. Mark Felt, the Number 2 man at the FBI during the Nixon Administration, is now revealed as the confidential source for so much of the information that the famous reporters, Woodward and Bernstein, wrote on for the Washington Post. Years of speculation surrounded the mysterious identity, but here Woodward chronicles the path that led to his confirmation of Felt's identity.

At first the book makes an effort to summarize the on goings of the Watergate investigation. While somewhat necessary, it initially gave the impression that Woodward was simply trying to relive the heyday of his career. The reader was left hoping that he would "hurry up and get to the juicy stuff." But then he does. He describes the events that led up to the Felt disclosure as well as the turmoil he went through in agonizing over when disclosure was appropriate. Should he let Felt, now suffering from bouts of dementia, decide? Should he wait until Felt's death? Should the confidentiality of a source remain that way even after death?

This book also makes clear how much of an impact Felt had on exposing the underpinnings of the Nixon administration and how much of a personal impact Felt made on Woodward. It is obvious from the narration how deeply Woodward admires Felt and how, above all, he protected him from anything that might tarnish his reputation and career.

The Secret Man is fascinating in its historical viewpoint as its human perspective. It seems a bit self promoting at times as Woodward never fails to mention the names of the many books he has written, but overall is the icing on one of history's most intriguing cakes.

"The Secret Man" has all the marks of Woodward's style. Its prose is brisk and sharp. The details provided are never superfluous. It reads in two levels: the corollary of a story whose elements are finally bared and put together, as well as a last meditation about a chapter of American history and the earlier years of a distinguished journalistic career.

For those interested in journalism as a craft, these pages cannot but represent a mine of interesting points. The first example comes early in the book: The description of the first meeting between Felt and Woodward is a lesson that stands alone in the art of contacting potential sources.

Obvious statement: Anyone interested in Watergate should consider this title required reading. Less obvious may be to state that Woodward's book should be read along Felt's "The FBI Pyramid", and that a re-reading of "All The President's Men" and "The Last Days" is, at the very least, necessary. Those titles complement each other, presenting a fascinating picture of the government and the press, byzantine in its dimension and intrigue.

The good parts of the story are already in All the President's Men. The new material is Oprah-ready filler about a young man and his source. Woodward has not (dares not?) thought very deeply about Mark Felt, his motives, or his trustworthiness. This is the same incomplete Watergate story that his the papers in 1973.

I know journalists can only write the first draft of history. But Woodward is still selling that same first rough draft three decades after the events took place.

For more than 33 years, people have wondered about the identity of "Deep Throat". The man that brought down the Nixon White House hid for a number of reasons and many wondered if the world would ever know his identity. In "The Secret Man", Bob Woodard adds the final piece to the Watergate puzzle. When Mark Felt chose to reveal his identity, the trilogy of books that began with the legandary "All the President's Men" was completed. Simultaneously, a great piece of American history was made available for all to see.

While few new details are added to Watergate, the relationship between Felt and Woodward becomes the prime focus of the book. Having met by chance, Felt began to serve as a mentor for the young Bob Woodward. When Watergate broke, Felt chose to initiate the relationship that leaked information about the president's crimes. Because Felt is currently ill with dementia, we may never know his motives for the leaks. He was shunned in not being appointed to the head of the FBI after J. Edgar Hoover's death. He was also disturbed by the White House's attempts to control the FBI. Yet these may not be the root of his true motive.

Obviously, Felt was successful in covering his tracks. While few guessed correctly that Felt was "Deep Throat", most remained in the dark until recently. The question as to whether Felt is a hero is open to debate for some. Clearly Woodward makes the case that Felt was doing what he saw as the best interest of his country. Based on Nixon's violation of the electoral process and attempt to cover his crimes, Felt was acting in the best interest of his country in my judgement.

While I was hoping for much more in this book, my expectations are unattainable. Much of Felt's thoughts and feelings can and will never be expressed because of his mental state. This is a great misfortune. Yet Woodward still does a commendable job of presenting the new piece of the Watergate puzzle.

It's hard to believe that this book was spawned by a "book length draft of the Deep Throat story" that Woodward had prepared in advance. It reads like a Memorandum of Findings, with scattered episodes thrown in that contribute incidents of minimal revelation or all too lengthy confirmations of Felt's later senility.

One would expect more of a co-author of "All The President's Men." Woodward seems bored, writing obligatorily so as to rush something out at the time of the announcement. While he tries to force in some emotion, he fails to convey it to the reader. Woodward would have done history a favor by taking some time with this to reveal the real intensity and drama that took place, rather than rushing and doing it so superficially.

So the mystery of "Deep Throat" has finally been solved. In the ultimate irony for author Bob Woodward, it was revealed not by himself, but by Mark Felt's family (in a May, 2005 article in Vanity Fair).

"The Secret Man" (238 pages) was rush-released in mere weeks after the Vanity Fair article. Woodward clearly had the basis of the book ready to go, "just in case" (i.e. if and when Deep Throat passed away), and then put the finishing touches on it. Couple of things: (1) the book clearly does feel rushed, almost unfinished, at times; (2) more importantly, there never was much of a deep relationship between Woodward and Felt, and therefore there isn't a whole lot to talk about. Woodward rehashes certain events in a historical context that have been described much better and in greater detail in other books before (such as "All The President's Men" and "The Final Days").

This is not a 'bad' book per se, but there is not much remarkable about it either. We don't really learn a lot new. Carl Berstein gets to add a chapter at the end, basically to tell us that, even though he is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, he had no idea the revealing article was about to be published. Ok, Carl. As for Woodward, he's written a lot better books, and I'm sure he realizes that too.

It appears that all, or almost all, of the information in this book was made available in the Washington Post after this past summer's revelation that former FBI official Mark Felt was the infamous Watergate source. Thus masticated once, it is even more thoroughly chewed upon here, livened only with confessional insights by Woodward about his role in former President Nixon's exit from the Presidency.

There's no correct way to review the events of Watergate and what President Nixon did, as the subject involves too many aspects of government and social and political policy. One's personal politics and maturity will intrude upon any judgment as well.

I was 22 in 1974, when President Nixon resigned. An ardent Nixon critic, I knew the Watergate tale as well as the back of my own hand and danced the night he announced his resignation. In hindsight, I consider Nixon's wrongs to be perhaps even worse than I did at the time, but I also better understand the thundrous effect the scandal and his resignation had on American politics.

There's a direct road from the intellectual, thoughtful Nixon who got caught to the untouchable, lightweight, ineffectual leaders of today.

I think Woodward reveals some inklings of a guilty conscience about the role he, Bernstein and the Post played during the Watergate scandals. In telling his own history, it's clear that Woodward's background in no way prepared him to be a scourge of any institution. He's a white-bread, all-American, cross-your-ts-and dot-your-is kind of guy who had a lucky break into journalism and then into the Watergate epic, almost his first Post assignment.

Woodward isn't responsible for what happened to American politics and the role of the Presidency in the wake of Watergate. Perhaps Woodward's hubris is confusing himself with the story.