The man known as Deep Throat, the secret informant in the Watergate scandal that led to the downfall of president Richard Nixon in 1974, has died, the Washington Post said Friday. He was 95.Mark Felt, the "most famous anonymous source in American history," died in his sleep Thursday at a California hospice, reported Bob Woodward, one of the two Post journalists who exposed the Watergate affair.
Felt was associate director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) when he began helping the reporters. After revealing his identity in 2005, he said he never considered himself a hero, but was just "trying to help."
His daughter Joan Felt said he had a big breakfast before saying he was tired, and went to sleep, reported the Post.
"He slipped away," she said.
Felt was in poor health when he revealed he was the shadowy informant of late-night meetings in dark garages made famous in the book and movie "All the President's Men."
He kept his role secret for 33 years, not even telling his family.
It was with Felt's crucial input that Woodward and Carl Bernstein could write a series of investigative scoops about the Nixon administration's involvement in the June 1972 burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in the US capital.
The scandal -- including the White House's attempts at cover-up -- ultimately led to Nixon becoming the first US president to resign in disgrace in August 1974.
In a 2006 interview with CNN's Larry King, Felt was asked if he liked being called Deep Throat -- the name Woodward and Bernstein gave him in their book on the scandal.
Felt replied that he was "proud of everything Deep Throat did -- yes, I like being related to him."
He insisted on referring to his alter-ego in the third person.
Felt's daughter told King: "He's always said that Deep Throat is a personality that was created by Bob Woodward, a name that was created. He likes to say that he's the person that they called Deep Throat."
A Post editor had first come up with the Deep Throat moniker -- also the name of an erotic movie. The newspaper described it Friday as "a bit of wordplay based on the title of a pornographic movie of the time."
After confessing to his role in an article for Vanity Fair magazine, Felt was simultaneously hailed as a hero and denounced as a villain.
Felt's grandson, Nick Jones, described his grandfather as "a great American hero" and said his family hoped the country would see him the same way.
But not everyone did -- especially former Nixon aides.
G. Gordon Liddy, a Nixon operative who served four and a half years in prison for engineering the Watergate break-in, said Felt "violated the ethics of the law enforcement profession."
Former Nixon speechwriter and now TV news pundit Pat Buchanan bluntly labelled him a "traitor."
The Vanity Fair article told how Joan confronted her father about what a family friend, Yvette La Garde, had told her about his secret past.
Felt initially denied it, but after Joan told him what Garde said, he answered: "Since that's the case, well, yes I am."
When asked in an interview how he would like to be remembered, Felt however downplayed his role and the Deep Throat image.
"I want to be remembered as a government employee who did his best to help everybody. I would like a reputation of trying to help people," he said.
from : hot-lifestyle-news.com
No comments:
Post a Comment