Mark Felt's role in history was secured when he decided to share his
views on the Watergate break-in with a young reporter on the Washington
Post named Bob Woodward. He made sure that the greatest political
scandal in the twentieth century, which would besmirch an entire
administration and bring down a presidency, was revealed in an
unchallengeable way.
This absorbing account of Felt's FBI career, from the end of the great
American crime wave through World War II, the culture wars of the 1960s,
and his conviction for his role in penetrating the Weather Underground,
provides a rich historical and personal context to the Deep Throat
chapter of his life. It also provides Felt's personal recollections of
the Watergate scandal, which he wrote in 1982 and kept secret, in which
he explains how he came to feel that the FBI needed a Lone Ranger to
protection it from White House corruption. Much more than a Watergate
procedural, A G-Man's Life is about life as a spy, the culture of the
FBI, and the internal political struggles of mid-20th century America.
Only as he neared the end of his life did Felt confide his role in our
national history to members of his family, who then shared it with their
lawyer, John O'Connor. The answers to the questions Who is Mark Felt?
And why did he risk so much for his country? are brilliantly answered in
A G-Man's Life.
