The FBI Pyramid From the Inside by W. Mark Felt and Ralph De Toledano 1979 Hardcover
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22 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
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.
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.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
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.
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.
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
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.
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.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Making His Mark on History
This very readable 1979 book has 351 pages but lacks an index and a table of contents to his life in the FBI. Read more
Published on August 19, 2005 by Acute Observer
Then or Now?
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? Read more
Published on June 17, 2005 by joepozz
Out of print? - my guess is, not for long!
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... Read more
Published on June 2, 2005 by Deep Throat 2
Read about the Watergate scandal from 'Deep Throat' himself
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. Read more
Published on June 1, 2005 by Gerald Donegan
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