Watergate: A New History

by Garrett M. Graff

The identity of Woodward’s source remained a mystery to the other editors and reporters on the Watergate chase; Woodward called him simply “my friend.” Finally, managing editor Howard Simons nicknamed him “Deep Throat,” a reference both to the source’s insistence on operating on “deep background” and to the then popular pornographic film of the same name that celebrated a character’s wide-open mouth. Making sense of the Segretti story was precisely the type of lead where Deep Throat seemed useful, and so Sunday night, October 8, Woodward arranged to meet with Mark Felt in person. On the way, Woodward switched cabs twice and was dropped off several blocks away from their parking garage rendezvous location. When he arrived around 1:30 a.m., Felt was already standing there, smoking. They talked straight through until morning, a conversation that finally allowed Woodward to grasp the full scope of the story he had been chasing. “Remember, you don’t do those 1,500 [FBI] interviews and not have something on your hands other than a single break-in,” Felt pointed out. “They are not brilliant guys, and it got out of hand.”