In Search Of Deep Throat: The Greatest Political Mystery Of Our Time - Hardcover

Garment, Leonard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0465026133 ISBN 13: 9780465026135

Publisher: Basic Books, 2000

Synopsis

More than a quarter century after Bob Woodward introduced his Scotch-drinking, cigarette-smoking, garage-skulking friend and source in All the President's Men, the public remains enduringly engrossed by the mystery of Deep Throat's identity. Leonard Garment became fascinated himself and began his own search for Deep Throat. This is the story of that hunt and its successful outcome, a hunt conducted in quintessential Washington fashion: at lunches, dinners, and parties, through the examination of secret, classified documents and testimony, and assisted by liberal doses of political gossip and insider tips from Woodward himself.

About this title

Review:

Ever since the Watergate scandal broke, people have speculated on the identity of Deep Throat, Woodward and Bernstein's secretive source. Nixon administration insider Leonard Garment went In Search of Deep Throat to solve the mystery. On page 2 of his book, Garment reveals his theory--and it's not who you might think.

Garment explains how he came to arrive at his conclusion, admitting that there's no "smoking gun"--and that his subject denies the charge vehemently (as do Woodward and Bernstein). He debunks other theories, and also somewhat laughingly describes the wrong turns he made during his investigation. For a time he was mistakenly convinced that Deep Throat was David Gergen, in part because of Gergen's height; in All the President's Men, Woodward describes how Deep Throat had arranged to leave a note on a ledge in the parking garage where the two men met. When Woodward arrived, he was too short to reach it. Gergen was 7 inches taller than Woodward and "could have comfortably placed the note on the ledge without giving a thought to his friend's height disadvantage. At the time, I thought this fact to be of momentous significance."

Unveiling aside, Garment provides an insider's look into the Nixon administration and the Watergate scandal. Garment may well be wrong in his identification of Deep Throat, but his assessment of the state of post-Watergate politics rings painfully true. Though today's federal government appears "cleaner," owing in part to the rise of investigative reporting à la Woodward and Bernstein, Garment feels that "the ironic aftermath of the changes that Watergate and Deep Throat set in train is that politics and government are in substance distinctly meaner and dirtier than they were when Deep Throat decried the 'switchblade mentality' in the White House." As Garment points out, somehow "the idea of politics as inherently corrupt has led to its becoming more so." And that's what's hard to swallow. --Sunny Delaney

About the Author:

LEONARD GARMENT was a key player in the Nixon Administration, beginning with Nixon's comeback campaign in 1968 and continuing through the final days of Watergate. From 1969 to 1976, he served as special consultant to the president on domestic policy. When John Dean resigned during Watergate, Garment assumed the role of acting counsel to the president. After Nixon's resignation, Garment continued to move in Washington legal and political circles, serving as assistant in 1974 to President Ford who named him U.S. representative to the United Nations Human Rights Commission, where he served until 1977. He was also counselor to the U.S. delegation to the United Nations from 1975 to 1976.

Leonard Garment's first career was as a jazz saxophonist, working with such luminaries as Billie Holiday, Woody Herman, and Alan Greenspan. After graduating from Brooklyn Law School, he began his law career at the firm that became Nixon Mudge, where as chief of the firm's trial department he helped tutor Richard Nixon in appellate argument.

In 1997, he published his first book Crazy Rhythm: My Journey from Brooklyn, Jazz, and Wall Street to Nixon's White House, Watergate, and Beyond. He lives in Chevy Chase, MD, with his wife and daughter.

About this edition

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0465026133
• ISBN 13: 9780465026135
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288