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61 pages 2 hours read

Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein

All the President's Men

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1974

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Themes

“The President’s Men”

When John Kennedy took office in 1961, he surrounded himself with a team of young, energetic problem solvers called the “Whiz Kids.” In a mocking fashion, journalist David Halberstam would call the group the “Best and Brightest.” Dating back to the progressive era of the early 20th century, it was assumed that the president would surround himself with the smartest talent that the country could produce to help manage the administration. The public thought of the administration much like a university faculty—subject matter experts and technocrats who would apply the best and latest in scientific and social theories to accomplish their agency’s goals. This air of confidence lasted through the 1960s, and while some crises, most importantly the Vietnam War, shook people’s faith in the White House, many still wanted to believe that Nixon would surround himself with the best. Certainly, this perception of competence was not something the administration wanted to challenge. However, this was also a perception purveyed in the halls of power: Many in the White House and other federal agencies saw themselves and their coworkers as the “Best and Brightest” as well. As one former administration official said, “I know the President well enough to know if he needed something like this done it certainly wouldn’t be a shoddy job” (17).

Woodward and Bernstein’s reporting shatters this illusion of competence. The President’s men are anything but competent. Their Watergate break-in was poorly executed; indeed, the entire espionage operation was amateurish. It was planned and executed by people who wanted to play spy rather than anyone with real-world experience. The cover-up, headed up by active and former high-level White House officials including the President and his inner circle of advisors, is equally poorly executed, and this is even more shocking. It is revealed over the course of several months of reporting that the White House does not operate at the high level people believed. Factions compete with each other for position and access to the President. Friendships and loyalty matter far more than competence. Most importantly, often groups within the same agency or office have no idea what other members of their organization are doing. When the cover-up begins to collapse and it looks like real consequences might materialize for conspirators, everyone in the White House, including the President, turns on one another like a pack of animals in an attempt to escape blame or punishment.

Reporting on the President’s men highlights the curious loyalty of many in the administration. This is deeply related to and connected with the issues of corruption that Woodward and Bernstein reveal. Many across the executive branch are deeply loyal to the President. Hugh Sloan, the CRP treasurer, came to Washington as an idealistic true believer in the President’s program. His faith in the system is shattered by what he sees at CRP. However, even when confronted by obvious signs of the corruption of CRP, signs that clearly extend into the Oval Office, Sloan refuses to abandon the President. Repeatedly he suggests that someone else, not Nixon, is responsible for what he has seen. Sloan is naïve. Others, such as Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman, are less idealistic. Nevertheless they maintain a near fanatical loyalty to the President. If the President authorized it, then they will do it. If they are caught, then they will sacrifice themselves to draw blame away from the President. Ronald Ziegler engages repeatedly in bitter, unsubstantiated, and ultimately incorrect denunciations of the Washington Post and its reporters to protect the President.

The reporting of Bernstein and Woodward and all that came out of it reveal that the White House is not filled with the best and brightest at all. From the President on down, the first loyalty is to personal enrichment. The second loyalty seems to be to the President personally. Neither the law, the Constitution, nor the norms of American politics seem to factor in at any stage to the behavior or choices of all but a select few.

Vulgarity and Corruption

Woodward and Bernstein’s reports highlighted just how corrupt and unsavory the Nixon White House was. While today it might be expected that the administration is self-serving, that the White House staff protects the President not the nation, and that many politicians are crass behind closed doors, these are lessons Americans first learned thanks to Watergate. Many were shocked to see the language quoted by the Washington Post. Former attorney general John Mitchell’s sexist attacks against Post publisher Katharine Graham are just one example. Another is the reporting done on Ken Clawson, who seems more concerned about covering up his attempt to cheat on his wife than in denying the claim that he torpedoed a Democratic campaign. Clawson’s transformation from upstanding journalist to White House stooge highlights just how corrupting exposure to the White House seemed to be.

In regards to corruption, Everyone around Nixon seems to be willing to take bribes, violate norms, or break the law. The former attorney general used his office to spy on Americans for reporting the news. The acting FBI director destroys evidence vital to the investigation of the White House at the behest of the President. The President himself is willing to launder money to pay bribes to people he encouraged to break the law. Far from clean, it seems that every corner of the White House is covered in muck. Moreover, the bearing of many sources contradicts the image the White House has so carefully cultivated. Many Republicans try to present themselves as clean cut. Woodward and Bernstein’s reporting uncovers numerous officials who in public present themselves as paragons of modesty but in private are vulgar, aggressive, and offensive. The White House tapes reveal that Nixon swears like a sailor. Dozens of expletives in every conversation have to be removed.

Woodward and Bernstein’s reporting was the moment when most Americans realized just how much politicians tried to manicure their behavior for the cameras and campaign stops. Americans were shocked at what they saw spill out across the pages of their newspapers. They were horrified by the language and the attitude of most White House officials and consultants. The Nixon campaign ran in 1968 and again in 1972 as clean, Christian, and respectable. Behind closed doors, however, it became clear that the administration was anything but. 

Persistence, Persuasion, and Coercion

The Watergate story did not tell itself. The facts of the case did not unfurl like a carpet in front of the reporters as they dug. Rather, Woodward and Bernstein have to build their stories from scraps of information often obtained second- or third-hand from sources in the know. They work late nights, then go into the Post newsroom to turn a story by the printing deadline. Often they sleep in the office. Sometimes they travel across the country and stay in poor accommodations just to find out that a potential source is not ready to cooperate. Sources that are willing to cooperate, like Source Z, often want to play games with their information either to avoid legal jeopardy or so they will not have to bear the guilt of such information without also violating a promise to secrecy. Woodward and Bernstein work constantly to track down leads and uncover new facts. They also have to behave like salesman; when a source seems reluctant to answer questions, the reporters often overstay their welcome, invite themselves in for coffee, or push the limits of their host’s patience to ask another question.

There is also a dark side to Woodward and Bernstein’s persistence. In the case of Hugh Sloan, Woodward and Bernstein often pressure the treasurer to disclose information he originally stated he was unwilling to provide. They misrepresent information to him to see his reaction and often overstate their conversations with him to others afterwards. This behavior comes back to burn the Post when it publishes a story that misrepresents what Sloan said. In other cases, CRP and the White House have its staff followed. People who talk to Woodward and Bernstein have their careers and livelihoods threatened. There is also the possibility, though it went unrealized, that the White House might escalate its retaliation against leakers and sources. The reporters carry a target on their back, and they know as well as anyone the dangers that could come from being seen with them or associated with one of their stories. In pursuit of the story, however, the reporters are willing to do what it takes to get what they need, even if that means coercing or misleading a source to do so.

Even more problematic, when the leaks begin to dry up, Woodward and Bernstein take steps they know are illegal to obtain new leads. Woodward’s relationship with Deep Throat is often mentioned throughout the book, but because Deep Throat’s identity remained a closely guarded secret at the time, the exact nature of his revelations is never discussed. It is, however, almost certainly the case that Felt was revealing highly sensitive FBI materials to Woodward on a repeated basis. These FBI case files were confidential to protect both sources and the accused, who, before trial found otherwise, had a presumption to innocence. In nearly any other context, Felt’s discussions of highly sensitive case materials would be immoral or likely illegal. Woodward’s own conversations with Felt skirt a line, which in the 1970s was very much in flux, of legality. The attempt to turn grand jurors into sources for stories is also not just a gross violation of journalistic norms—it is illegal. In their desperation to publish, Woodward and Bernstein demonstrate a willingness to stretch the rules and cross boundaries to cultivate their sources. It is ironic, then, that the Post exposes the greatest conspiracy of illegality and norm breaking in the history of the White House by reporting that itself often breaks norms and skirts around the letter of the law.

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