Book Summary and Reviews of The Secret Man by Bob Woodward

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Cathryn_Conroy

A Piece of History That Reads Like a Spy Novel
The Watergate break-in on June 17, 1972 occurred eight days after I graduated from high school. That summer and the next two summers when I was home from college, our house was obsessed with the news developments. Well, mostly it was my father. If Dad was home, he was watching the news. I started paying attention. With each new and often confusing development, what happened became more horrifying—and terrifying.

This short and fascinating book is authored by Bob Woodward, who was half of The Washington Post team, along with Carl Bernstein, that is credited with bringing down a president. This is the tell-all book so many waited for. Although it was published in 2005 on the heels of a Vanity Fair magazine article in which Deep Throat—Mark Felt, the No. 2 man inside the FBI—revealed himself, it is still a riveting book for today's reader. While the identity of Deep Throat is important, the how, why, what, when, and where that drove the story is even more interesting.

Without Deep Throat, the inside government source who spilled the beans to Woodward in the underground parking garage in Rosslyn, Virginia during clandestine 2 a.m. meetings, Woodward may have remained on the lowly Washington Post police beat that he held in 1972 a lot longer instead of becoming an all-star reporter.

Who was Deep Throat? While quite a few speculated it was Mark Felt, no one knew for sure until that Vanity Fair article that was published on May 31, 2005 and the subsequent confirmation from Woodward and Bernstein, who kept the secret for 33 years.

In this book, Woodward details not only Deep Throat's identity, but also how it all worked—how they met each other in the first place, how they contacted each other, where the meetings took place, what was said, and the eventual falling out they had.

Some of the book's highlights:
• Find out the first time Bob Woodward and Mark Felt met in 1969 or 1970 (Woodward can't quite remember the date), how this serendipitous meeting occurred, and the surprising location. Had this chance introduction that led to an accidental friendship never occurred, there would not have been a Deep Throat.

• Learn why Mark Felt was deeply torn and even uncertain about being such a source to The Washington Post, both wanting to do it and not wanting to do it.

• Discover the extraordinary lengths Mark Felt took to protect his identity, lying to everyone he knew—even his family and closest friends.

• Find out how an apartment balcony flowerpot with a flag and a daily copy of The New York Times were critical components of the secret meetings between Mark Felt and Bob Woodward.

• Learn what Mark Felt would tell Bob Woodward and what he would not tell him—and why.

• Early on, the Nixon White House surprisingly correctly identified Mark Felt as Deep Throat but decided they couldn't out him for fear of what he would do next. The man simply knew too much and had access to absolutely everything inside the FBI.

This book is more than an unveiling of the source's identity as it reaches deeper to explore why a career professional at the pinnacle of success would risk so much. It's a piece of history that reads like a spy novel!

Bonus: "A Reporter's Assessment," which is the afterword by Carl Bernstein is fascinating reading. Don't skip it.

Other books by Bob Woodward at BookBrowse

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