Pat Buchanan Was "Deep Throat"

“IT’S SUCH A huge mystery,” says Professor William Gaines, of the University of Illinois. “One of the great journalism mysteries of all time.” In the movie “All the President’s Men,” Hal Holbrook played Deep Throat, the source in the shadows, passing on clues to a young reporter about a scandal that would ultimately topple a president. In real life, Richard Nixon resigned and “Washington Post” reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein won the Pulitzer Prize. But for nearly 30 years, the identity of “Deep Throat” — the legendary, cigarette-smoking, scotch-drinking secret source — has remained a mystery. Now, a soft-spoken professor and an eager team of journalism students are vowing to change that. “The goal is to find out the person who was Deep Throat,” says Professor Gaines. “Dateline” followed their search, what they hope will be the final phase of a remarkable, three-year investigation. Using modern computer technology and old-fashioned research, these students are finding new clues, trying to crack the case that’s baffled official Washington and the rest of the world for three decades. “I think the personality of Deep Throat is just the opposite of what you may think he is — just the opposite of the way he’s characterized in the movie,” says Gaines. “Otherwise, he wouldn’t get away with this. I mean, a con man can’t look like a con man and be successful.” ‘I think the personality of Deep Throat is just the opposite of what you may think he is — just the opposite of the way he’s characterized in the movie.’ — PROF. WILLIAM GAINES University of Illinois Over the years, there’s been plenty of speculation about the source who helped bring down the Nixon presidency — much of it from the president’s own men. John Dean, the former White House lawyer famous for his testimony at the Watergate hearings, has guessed about deep throat several times, pointing, first, to former Watergate prosecutor Earl Silbert, and later, to presidential aide Alexander Haig. Next week, Dean has promised to guess again. Others have speculated, too, suggesting everyone from former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to former CIA Director William Colby to top FBI officials L. Patrick Gray and Mark Felt. But Professor William Gaines and his eight students at the University of Illinois say all of those guesses are wrong. “Well, I don’t think anybody has really taken the time to analyze the situation,” says Gaines. For example, Gaines says if you simply match up the dates when Woodward says he and Deep Throat had those late-night garage meetings made famous by the movie, you can eliminate some people right away. “Like Henry Kissinger,” says Gaines. “He was in Paris signing the Vietnam Peace agreement at one of the times in January of 1973 when Deep Throat was meeting in the garage with Woodward.”

• For the students' full report on their Deep Throat investigation, visit their Web site.

So Kissinger’s off the list? “Kissinger is off the list,” says Gaines. Gaines crossed off Al Haig for the same reason. And before you dismiss the idea that a college professor and students who weren’t even born when Watergate happened might succeed where so many others have failed, you should know something else about the man leading the investigation. Bill Gaines isn’t just a professor. For years, he was an investigative reporter for the Chicago Tribune, sharing in not just one, but two Pulitzer prizes. “This guy is like the Columbo of journalism,” says Walt Harrington. “And if anybody can do it, I figured Bill could.” “I happened to see Bradlee say that somebody should be able to take everything that’s known about Deep Throat and figure out who he was. And Gaines said, ‘That’s a good idea. I think I’ll do that.’” — PROF. WALT HARRINGTON University of Illinois Another University of Illinois professor, Walt Harrington, suggested the Deep Throat project after hearing a comment by former “Washington Post” editor Ben Bradlee. “I happened to see Bradlee say that somebody should be able to take everything that’s known about Deep Throat and figure out who he was,” says Harrington. And Gaines said, ‘That’s a good idea. I think I’ll do that.’” “When I took the idea to the students they just went for it right away,” says Gaines. Professor Gaines actually started the project three years ago, continuing the research with a new class every semester. Each student is given research assignments, learning how to investigate, then entering his or her findings into a computer database and in the process, chipping away at the mystery. The class starts with the assumption that Deep Throat is a real person, not a composite character as some have suggested, and that everything Woodward and Bernstein wrote about him is accurate — even the signal Woodward used when he wanted a secret meeting, a red flag in a flower pot on his apartment balcony. Then, the class scours the book and the movie for clues to his identity.

A PRIOR SOURCE The first one, they say, is when Woodward, played by Robert Redford, calls Deep Throat just after the Watergate burglary on June 17, 1972. Is there a clue in that conversation? “Just the fact that he said that he talked to him about the Wallace investigation before,” says ones student. George Wallace was shot just a month before the Watergate break-in. The FBI was investigating and Bob Woodward covered it. Former “Post” staffers say they remember Woodward’s secret source helped on that story, too, leading some Watergate buffs to conclude Deep Throat must have been in the FBI. But when Professor Gaines got some FBI files about Wallace through the Freedom of Information Act, his class made a fascinating discovery. “We found that those reports were immediately sent over to the White House,” says Gaines. “Every report went to the White House. And we have cover sheets that show which offices it went to.” So Deep Throat didn’t necessarily have to be in the FBI to know about the Wallace case? “That’s right,” says Gaines. “It appears that every report was immediately dispatched to the White House.”

So Deep Throat didn’t necessarily have to be in the FBI to know about the Wallace case? “That’s right,” says Gaines. “It appears that every report was immediately dispatched to the White House.” And then there was another clue buried right in the university library, in the middle of all the rolls of microfilm. There were copies of the FBI files of the original Watergate investigation — 16,000 pages of possible leads. When the students painstakingly reviewed those files, they discovered something even more startling. “That’s the smoking memo,” says Gaines. It was an FBI memo criticizing one of Woodward and Bernstein’s major stories, saying it had inaccurate information about what was in FBI files. “The foregoing statement is absolutely false,” it said. It turns out, Woodward wrote in his book he’d gotten that information straight from Deep Throat. “When the FBI read The Washington Post, they put out a memo saying that, ‘This is false,’ according to their information,” says a student. So all these people who’d said that Deep Throat must have worked at the FBI, suddenly you’re saying… “No,” says the student. And the Illinois students say they found another important clue hiding in plain sight. It involves Deep Throat’s tip that the now-famous Nixon White House tapes had this mysterious 18-and-a-half minute gap. When Woodward and Bernstein first wrote about the tapes in the Washington Post, they quoted “White House sources.” The students say one of the quotes from the paper also appears later in “All the President’s Men,” this time attributed directly to Deep Throat. It’s evidence, the students say, that Deep Throat had to work in the White House. “So right there, it was sitting in front of everybody the whole time for 30 years,” says one student.

WHITE HOUSE INSIDER? Armed with that information, the Illinois students focused on the White House, using lists of top Nixon aides, beginning a methodical process of elimination. Could a note they found in the margin hold the key to finally solving the mystery? “It says: ‘Bob, too close on ID of throat here?’” says Gaines.

“We examined each and every name,” says Gaines. “We had 72 names of individuals. One of the things we did, first of all, was to go on the Internet and find out if these people were living or dead. Because Deep Throat is a living person. Bob Woodward has said he’ll reveal the name of Deep Throat when Deep Throat dies.” Other people, like Press Secretary Ron Ziegler, were eliminated because Deep Throat talked about or imitated them. “Deep Throat did an imitation of Ziegler,” says Gaines. “Well, he wasn’t imitating himself we assume.” One by one, the class began crossing off names, with different colors for people who died, arrived too late or left the White House too early. And students began tracking down former White House insiders, making phone calls, trying to pinpoint who in the Nixon White House had access to critical information and who did not. Some, like former Nixon aide Steven Bull, at one time in charge of the president’s secret taping system, cooperated. “He seemed like a nice gentlemen, but right off the bat, he’s like: ‘You know, I’m not Deep Throat,’” says a student. “But unfortunately for him, everything that he told me fit right in. He even admitted to saying that he would have had all the information that Deep Throat had.” Others, like former White House lawyer Fred Fielding, they could never reach. “It can definitely be frustrating because you’re putting so much effort into this,” says another student. “And it’s so important to you.” Just as they were making those calls, came what seemed like an enormous breakthrough — the original manuscript of “All the President’s Men.” How many pages are we talking about here? “Like around 800,” says the students. “There’s a lot.” Are there clues in the manuscript that were not in the book? “Definitely,” they say. “Yes. Oh, yes.” Could a note they found in the margin hold the key to finally solving the mystery? “It says: ‘Bob, too close on ID of throat here?’” says Gaines.

• The Watergate Tapes Audio and transcripts: University of California, Berkeley Library • National Archives: Nixon Presidential Materials Collection • Social Security Administration Special Collection: Nixon White House Tapes

At the University of Illinois, these would-be Woodward and Bernsteins had been developing some Deep Throat sources of their own. And one of them — they aren’t saying who — gave them a copy of the typewritten manuscript, a rough draft of “All the Presidents Men.” The class studied it — every page, line by line, including the margin notes, looking for clues. And right there on page 519, this cryptic question: “Bob, too close on ID of throat here?” Bob Woodward said he wouldn’t talk about specific names, but said the student project “sounds like a guessing game.”

Student Robert Breslin found the “Too close to Deep Throat” reference in the manuscript. What was that moment like? “Actually, Professor Gaines gave me 200 pages. And I went through, I think 180 of them with no reference to Deep Throat whatsoever,” says Breslin. “And then I just turn over one page, and then right there, like — just caught my eye right away, because it was like half the margin size. You just see that and you get excited. And you just look at it and you figure, ‘Well, what does it all mean?’” Next to the note: a passage describing Deep Throat that the students say never appears in the book. It reads: “He was perhaps the only person in the government in a position to possibly understand the whole scheme and not be a potential conspirator himself.” What did that tell the students? “That led me to believe that it was someone who dealt with the press, like a speech writer, or a press secretary,” says one student. “Just because they wouldn’t have been making the decisions.”

ADDITIONAL CLUES And the class found other clues not in the book — a line in the manuscript saying that Woodward and Deep Throat had become “fast friends” is eliminated. And, in another description of Deep Throat, the phrase “older person” is taken out. In the manuscript it says: “There was no bitterness on his part, rather, the understanding of an older person whose fight had been worn out in other battles.” “We argue about that quote,” says one student. “We can’t figure it out,” says another. But it’s different in the book, right? “Yes. They take out the word ‘older,’” says a student. “Does that mean that Deep Throat was an older man, or that he had been in the White House, or in position to have been worn out and aged.” “Or it might be misleading,” says another. “Might have caused people to think that he was an older person, but it might not have been.” “We don’t know,” says another student. ‘I can’t go on a hunch. I’m happy the class has an opinion. But I’m not in a position to do that because I’m afraid it would detract from the type of investigation that we’re doing.’ — PROF. WILLIAM GAINES In class, the students discussed the new clues in the manuscript for days. But, in the end, they decided none of them answered the question: Who was the secret source Woodward used to signal by moving a flower pot on his balcony? Time was running out. The semester was about to end. At the time of their final class, how many suspects were still on the list? “Seven,” say the students. Out of the list of 70 possible candidates for Deep Throat they’ve narrowed it down to seven? “Well, I think it’s out of more than 70,” says one student. “I mean, some people think he was in the FBI. I mean, we’ve narrowed it down from like thousands of people to 70 to 12 to seven, you know? That’s impressive.” Who’s left on the student’s list of possible Deep Throats? Stephen Bull, the special assistant to the president with access to the Nixon tapes. White House lawyer Fred Fielding, who worked closely with John Dean and, earlier, served at the National Security Agency. Gerald Warren, a Nixon press spokesman who’s described favorably in the manuscript of “All the President’s Men.” Jonathan Rose, a presidential aide who, like Woodward, attended Yale and whose father was a Nixon confidant. Speechwriter David Gergen, another Yale grad who, like Woodward, served in the Navy. Raymond Price, Nixon’s chief speechwriter. Another Yale grad and Navy veteran. Finally, Patrick Buchanan, speechwriter and special consultant to the president during the Watergate crisis.

STUDENTS’ HUNCH And, although they’re far from certain, the students told “Dateline,” they have a hunch. Do they know who Deep Throat is? “We all think we know,” says one student. Who’s their best hunch? “We can all just say it together, I think,” says one.

“I don’t know,” says another. “Buchanan. Yes, Buchanan,” they all say. “We all think Buchanan.” Patrick Buchanan — the same Pat Buchanan who would later run for president himself. They think Patrick Buchanan is Deep Throat? “Right now. Right now,” they say. Since Buchanan grew up in Washington, the students say he’s the one most likely to have suggested the out-of-the-way, blue-collar bar where Deep Throat once met Woodward.

But why Buchanan? A man many viewed as a staunch conservative, an outspoken Nixon loyalist, a man who, even in “All the President’s Men,” is quoted defending Nixon. Well, the students say Buchanan also had an independent streak, shown later when he bolted the Republican Party and ran on the Reform ticket. And they say just a few months before Watergate, he had threatened to quit when Nixon opened relations with China. “He actually threatened to resign,” says one student. Is Buchanan a smoker? “Yes,” they say. Is he a drinker? “Yes,” the students say. Did he live close to Woodward? “Yes, very, very close. A mile away,” they say. Which meant he could have seen the flower pot signal on the balcony at Woodward’s apartment? “Oh, yes, easily,” says another student. “A nice morning walk.” And the students say they have other reasons to suspect Buchanan. During their phone calls, another famous Nixon insider — Hugh Sloan — told them Buchanan was in a position to know a lot. “Sloan specifically said that Buchanan would have information pretty much on everything,” one student says. Did they ask Hugh Sloan, flat out, “Who do you think Deep Throat is?” “He said he didn’t know,” says a student. “But he said, out of the list, Buchanan knew the most.” What’s more, since Buchanan grew up in Washington, the students say he’s the one most likely to have suggested the out-of-the-way, blue-collar bar where Deep Throat once met Woodward. And this week, when “Dateline” called the people left on the student’s list, they all denied being Deep Throat — except one. Pat Buchanan. He declined Dateline’s request for an interview, a staffer telling us Buchanan was “not interested in making a statement.” Bob Woodward said he wouldn’t talk about specific names, but said the student project “sounds like a guessing game.” And the cautious professor who’s leading the investigation isn’t quite ready to run with his students’ story. What is his hunch? “I can’t go on a hunch,” says Gaines. “I’m happy the class has an opinion. But I’m not in a position to do that because I’m afraid it would detract from the type of investigation that we’re doing.” And the professor has the understanding of an older person who’s been reporting for a number of years? “But I’m not Deep Throat,” he says. It’s not him? “It’s not me, I wasn’t there at the time,” Gaines says.” I have an alibi.”

If they were concerned in hiding his identity and took out the term "older man" one might think he was an "older man".

Good mystery anyway.

Another version...


U. of I. students track down Deep Throat
			Posted by GeneD On Jun 15 4:39 AM with 50 comments The Chicago Tribune ^ \| 6/14/02 \| Ron Grossman As the 30th anniversary of Watergate nears, student investigators at the University of Illinois have concluded that Deep Throat, the White House source who helped journalists unravel the greatest political scandal in American history, was most likely conservative commentator Pat Buchanan. Since 1999, journalism professor William Gaines and his students have set about unmasking the elusive informant. Building on the work of their predecessors—and examining information ranging from thousands of pages of FBI records to interviews with members of the Nixon administration—this year's class unanimously fingered Buchanan, a White House speechwriter during the Watergate era. Gaines, a Pulitzer Prize-winning former...

Pat has a history of betrayal.

Nothing like the "history of betrayal" the Republicrats have recorded. Remember "read my lips", "it depends on the meaning of is", "we will reduce the size of government", etc.?

Let's return to Constitutional government and throw the bastards out.

It doesn't surprise me either, now, in retrospect. When I consider that David Frum former WH speechwriter/part-time writer for Billy Kristol's "The Weakly Standard" has quietly left his position, after Kristol went on Fox News to proclaim that Guliani was to be named the Homeland Defense advisor. Ooops that little leak was wrong. Now, I will go back and look at all kinds of strange goings on in the past admins. Patty has been one scarey character, and I'm beginning to realize why........

Let's return to Constitutional government and throw the bastards out.

Nice little buzz phrase. Now define it in specific detail.

Woodward and Bernstein must be getting a good chuckle out of the continued Deep Throat speculation. Face it, there never was a Deep Throat. The reporters needed a second source before they could print their stories (the Post had slightly higher standards then). So they made up Deep Throat to back up their other source.

Their insistence that they won't reveal the name until the person is dead fits Woodward's past practices (see Bill Casey). A dead man won't be able to refute or defend himself.

"It wouldn't surprise me. Pat has a history of betrayal."

I don't know why we beat that dead horse anymore. Buchanan isn't even on the radar screen as far as politics are concerned. He couldn't get elected dog catcher these days.

This is a very interesting article...I have to admit that I would not have thought of him, but it really doesn't surprise me either. I don't think Pat knows what loyalty means. Maybe this was pay back for China??? If he was that mad he almost quit then he probably thought if he got Nixon impeached (probably thought it would be faster than it happened) then China wouldn't happen! He probably thought he was doing the country a favor.

No, I was the REAL DC informer... and I shot Hitler and drowned Lincoln, and made Charles the Great eat fried catfish..., oh yeah, gave my old friend Napoleono that bad batch of finger lickin' brie........

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