After Mr. Hoover died, Nixon named L. Patrick Grey as Director of the FBI. Grey was a political hack who would do Nixon’s bidding. Mark Felt as the No. 2 man in the FBI and the top career FBI man, was loyal to Mr. Hoover’s legacy and to the FBI. However, unlike Mr. Hoover, Mark Felt did not have the position, popularity or political power to just tell Nixon “no.” Nixon controlled the Justice Department and, thus, presentations to grand juries. Further, at least one FBI official had been transferred out of the Washington, D.C. office when he tried to go through “proper channels” in protesting the administration’s interference in the Watergate investigation. Lacking other means, Mark Felt simply did what he had to do to keep Nixon from misusing the FBI.

Pat Buchanan’s comments have been way off base. He has to have known that this was a fight between Nixon, who was intent on using the FBI for political gain, and Mr. Hoover and Mark Felt, who were intent on stopping him. It is sophistry to suggest that Felt only went to Woodward out of spite for not being chosen as Mr. Hoover’s successor.

Comments about Felt authorizing wiretaps of “Vietnam War protestors” are also way off base. They are also offensive. The wiretaps were on members of the Weather Underground. The Weather Underground was a terrorist off-shoot of the SDS, which bombed buildings and killed people. The political and legal environment made it very difficult to track and infiltrate such groups, and it had been only a few years since wiretaps did not require a court order. My uncle was an FBI agent in Soviet Counter-Intelligence at that time, and my father, as a ex-agent, received materials from the FBI and the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI, which I read. I can tell you that the Weather Underground also had strong Soviet ties and a commitment to overthrow the United States Government.

Some may disagree with Mark Felt’s tactics, but it is wrong to impugn his motives in the wiretaps. I would also suggest that what Felt did was absolutely necessary to protect the country from more terrorist bombings. I would also note that the convictions were on appeal when President Reagan pardoned him. There is some doubt as to whether the convictions would have been upheld.

Mark Felt’s book is very enlightening in this matter. In addition, as noted, I am from an FBI family. My father is an ex-agent and my uncle was an agent in Washington, D.C. at the time all of this occurred.

Interesting post, on the whole. I don’t agree with all of it. Somewhere around half of it. I certainly do agree that Nixon’s positive contributions don’t get the respect they deserve.

I got hooked on politics listening to the House debate Nixon’s impending Impeachment on a little crystal radio that was my prize possession at the ripe age of 10. It was confusing and a bit scary. I mean, he was the President, after all. And, to a 10 year old, the President is a pretty massive authority figure.

I remember thinking that it seemed clear that he’d done something very wrong and probably deserved what was happening to him. But, at the same time I was sad because he’d done good things too - like breaking the ice with China - and none of that seemed to get the credit my young mind thought it ought to. Of course I was really just parroting what the radio commentators were saying. But, it was my grand entrance into the life of a political junky. I’ll never forget it.

WOODWARD was suggesting the media extravaganza, ninny. And I said what my “real cause” of discomfort was. Deal with it.

Perhaps the real cause of your discomfort is Mr Felt’s decision to go public now? Certainly it will bring to many peoples’ minds a time when the media was far more courageous than it is now, and that even presidents weren’t safe from the relentless inquiry of dedicated journalists interested in uncovering the truth.

We certainly could use someone like him now.

From the AP
NEW YORK — A former FBI official claims he was “Deep Throat,” the long-anonymous source who leaked secrets about President Nixon’s Watergate coverup to The Washington…