Who was Deep Throat? Thirty-five years after they met, and 30-plus since their clandestine chats in an underground garage helped bring down a president, The Washington Post's Bob Woodward admits that he doesn't truly know what motivated former FBI official Mark Felt to help the Post tie the Nixon White House to a 1972 break-in at the Watergate hotel. Felt is now 91, and because his memory was in decline well before his role as Watergate's most enigmatic figure was publicly revealed by his family several weeks ago, Woodward may have blown his opportunity. From their first chance encounter in 1969 or 1970, Woodward writes, he saw Felt as a man who could help him professionally. But Woodward says that he has long burned to ask of Felt, 'œWho are you? Who were you?' and he's 'œdisappointed and a little angry' at himself that he waited too long to try.
'œIf Bob Woodward were in journalism school,' said Ronald Brownstein in the Los Angeles Times, his rushed effort on this project would earn an 'œincomplete.' The Secret Man offers only speculations about Felt's motives, it avoids some touchy ethical issues, and even at a modest 232 pages, it 'œfeels padded.' Yet for a reader who can accept that it's 'œmore about Woodward than Felt,' the book can be at least as 'œfascinating' as it is 'œfrustrating,' said Bob Minzesheimer in USA Today. Woodward actually acknowledges having been occasionally needy, opportunistic, and even cowardly as he pursued the original Watergate story and then zealously guarded Felt's identity, said Bob Thompson in The Washington Post. Ultimately, 'œwe're going to have to wait for an insightful Woodward biographer to understand' the author himself, but this book offers 'œat least a road map for further analysis.'
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