In their 1974 book All the President's Men, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein recount their investigation into the 1972 Watergate break-in and the revelations that followed. On the 50th anniversary of the event, the veteran reporters pay homage to the unsung heroes who helped them defend American democracy: from security guard Frank Wills, to major media figures such as Walter Cronkite, to their superiors at The Washington Post. There, editors Benjamin Bradlee and Barry Sussman provided essential guidance. Most critical, however, was the support of Katharine Graham, The Post’s valiant publisher. Bernstein gives an example of how Graham stood up for them when the government tried to use legal means to confiscate their notes, and reveal their sources.
Carl Bernstein (American accent): The guard downstairs said: “There’s a subpoena server here from the Nixon re-election committee with a subpoena for all your notes.” And I went to Ben Bradlee. So he goes upstairs to Katherine Graham’s office and he comes back to me five minutes later and he says: “Katherine says they’re not your notes, they’re her notes. And if anybody’s going to go to jail it’s going to be her.”
FOLLOW THE MONEY
Throughout the Watergate investigation, the Nixon administration tried to cover its tracks. Bernstein spoke more about their investigative method and its crucial revelations.
Carl Bernstein (American accent):
I had learned, you don’t get to people in their offices where they’re under pressure, you go see them in their homes… And so we started knocking on doors at night, and I found “the bookkeeper” as she’s called in the book. She started telling us that there were five people that controlled the secret fund that paid for Watergate. We learned that John Mitchell, the former Attorney General of the United States, had been among the five. We told Bradlee, and he said: “Are you sure you’re right? You’re going to call the Attorney of the United States a crook!”.
POLITICAL SABOTAGE
By October 1972, suspicions of a vast political conspiracy had propelled the break-in story to a whole other level. Woodward described the role of their famous source Deep Throat, revealed in 2005 to be Mark Felt, a former associate director of the FBI.
Bob Woodward (American accent): I’d gone to see Deep Throat and he was agitated and he said: “Don’t you understand what you have here? This is not just the burglary, this is a much bigger thing!” And people for thirty-five years wondered, ‘Who was Deep Throat?’ And there, you know, it was in the headline: “FBI files show that there was this massive campaign of sabotage and espionage.” The FBI!
THE NIXON TAPES
In November 1972, Nixon was re-elected as president. However, in February of 1973, the Senate voted unanimously to create a committee to investigate his administration. Over the course of a year, four Democrats and three Republicans subpoenaed witnesses and materials. John Dean, who served as White House Counsel between 1970 and 1973, testified against Nixon. Alexander Butterfield, the President’s former deputy assistant, revealed the existence of a secret taping system installed in the White House in 1971. These tapes were crucial in more ways than one; it was Nixon’s refusal to turn them over that triggered impeachment proceedings that eventually led to his resignation. In a landmark order by the US Supreme Court, the tapes were released, however. They supported Dean’s testimony and also revealed exactly who Nixon perceived to be his enemy. Woodward still finds this incredible.
Bob Woodward: What is the psychology of somebody who’s attained their goal, and fails to ask the question: “What’s the next stage of good for a majority of people in the country?” This is from Nixon’s tapes, six weeks after he’s won that re-election; he’s in the Oval Office with his aides: “Never forget: the press is the enemy, the establishment is the enemy, the professors are the enemy. Write that on a blackboard a hundred times and never forget it.”
CHANGING TIMES
During Watergate the whole constitutional system worked to protect democracy, with members of his own party forcing Nixon to resign. Ultimately, too, it was the American people who refused to stand for corruption. Would that happen today? Bernstein is unsure.
Carl Bernstein: By the time of Nixon’s impeachment, the percentage of people who wanted to see Nixon either convicted or resign from office had gone from 19 per cent to 57 per cent. And we don’t have that situation today. So many more people today are not open to the best obtainable version of the truth. People are looking for information to reinforce what they already believe.
Watergate: 50th Anniversary