Watergate Affair

With his passion for history, Richard Nixon undoubtedly would have appreciated the irony. On the last day of the former President's life, Hillary Rodham Clinton sat in the State Dining Room at the White House, fielding the most intimate and pointed questions any First Lady had ever faced from reporters. Twenty years ago, she had come to Washington as a young law school graduate to work on the House Judiciary Committee's impeachment proceedings against Nixon.

In the official narrative of the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace, Carl Bernstein has long been one of the arch-villains, a reporter whose name -- along with that of former Washington Post colleague Bob Woodward -- elicited special loathing.

Howard St. John Hunt remembers the night of the Watergate break-in as a bonding experience with his father. A sweating and disheveled E. Howard Hunt roused his 19-year-old son from a dead sleep to help him wipe fingerprints from the burglars' radios and pack the surveillance equipment into a suitcase. Then, father and son raced to a remote Maryland bridge, where they heaved the evidence into the Potomac River just before dawn on June 17, 1972.

The Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace in Yorba Linda has long been the most kicked-around of presidential libraries, and nothing invited more ridicule than the dim, narrow room purporting to describe the scandal that drove its namesake from office. Venturing into that room, visitors learned that Watergate, which provoked a constitutional crisis and became an enduring byword for abuses of executive power, was really a "coup" engineered by Nixon enemies.

In response to your editorial ("Tape Job," May 19) on the subject of President Nixon's role in the Watergate affair: It avails a man nothing to be an astute politician if he is morally blind. JOAN W. HAYES Dana Point

That summer of 1973, she was the perfect Washington wife, standing by her man no matter what. Impeccably dressed, flawlessly made up, her hair pulled back into a polished bun, she mesmerized the nation with the silent vigil she kept behind her husband's witness table day after day at the Watergate hearings while his testimony brought down a President. What a difference 14 years can make. Yes, she still is married to John Dean, only now they live in Coldwater Canyon.

CBS News, in a documentary Wednesday night on the Watergate affair, speculated that L. Patrick Gray, former acting director of the FBI, was "Deep Throat," the key source for the Washington Post in the affair. Deep Throat's identity has been a mystery since the character emerged in the book, "All the President's Men," written by Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein about the Watergate break-in. Gray, who declined to be interviewed for the documentary, has denied being Deep Throat.

Secretary of State George P. Shultz said today he told U.S. allies that the Iran- contra scandal is "an absolutely total contrast" to the Watergate affair that drove Richard M. Nixon from office. "In this case there is the desire on the President's part to see that everything comes out, is dealt with and we go about our business," Shultz told reporters.

It brought down a President, spawned an assertive mood in Congress, fostered a new generation of political leaders, brought about an array of reforms in government, altered American journalism and set a benchmark for subsequent political scandals. In short, the Watergate scandal radically transformed American politics. Yet many of the changes wrought by what began as "a third rate burglary" on June 17, 1972, appear to be evaporating.

Howard St. John Hunt remembers the night of the Watergate break-in as a bonding experience with his father. A sweating and disheveled E. Howard Hunt roused his 19-year-old son from a dead sleep to help him wipe fingerprints from the burglars' radios and pack the surveillance equipment into a suitcase. Then, father and son raced to a remote Maryland bridge, where they heaved the evidence into the Potomac River just before dawn on June 17, 1972.

W. Mark Felt, who for nearly 33 years denied that he was "Deep Throat," also held a tragic secret from his family: It was suicide, not a heart attack, that felled his wife after years of strain from Felt's FBI career and ensuing legal troubles. In his new book, "A G-Man's Life: The FBI, 'Deep Throat' and the Struggle for Honor in Washington," Felt reveals that Audrey Robinson Felt shot herself in 1984 with his .38 service revolver after a long emotional and physical decline.

L. Patrick Gray III, acting director of the FBI in the early months of the Watergate investigation, said in an interview broadcast Sunday that he had resisted repeated orders to fire FBI Deputy Director W. Mark Felt, who the White House believed was leaking information about the case.

For those who have wondered why former deputy FBI director W. Mark Felt finally admitted he was "Deep Throat," the answer may be four words: movie and book deal. Felt's family recently joined Creative Artists Agency's client list, and now Variety reports that Universal Pictures and Playtone partners Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman have signed a deal with Felt.

Shortly after a 91-year-old man was revealed last week as the answer to the 30-year-old mystery of the Watergate affair, President Bush cast the scandal as something from the distant past. "A lot of people wondered ... who 'Deep Throat' was, including me," Bush said after news broke that former FBI official W. Mark Felt had been the source leaking Watergate details to the press. "It would kind of fade from my memory, and then all of a sudden, somebody would pop it back in.

The daughter of the ex-FBI official who was revealed last week as "Deep Throat" has acknowledged that money played a role in the decision to go public. W. Mark Felt, 91, was the mysterious source used by Washington Post reporters in their investigation into the Watergate break-in, which led to the resignation of President Nixon.

The unraveling of the Iran- contra- White House tangle is a process that must be painful to all concerned Americans, no less than to the high officials who were involved. The inevitable comparisons to Watergate create a sense of deja vu , the quality of the instant replay, the feelings that we are retracing a familiar path. We see the investigators digging away and building their reputations, the journalists almost gleefully reporting the faintest scraps from an Administration that has evaded press confrontations with skill.

Liberal foes of Judge Robert H. Bork's nomination to the Supreme Court, knowing they will need more than a difference in philosophy to derail his appointment, are expected to look to Bork's role in the Watergate affair as a peg on which to hang their opposition. It was Bork, acting on the orders of President Richard M. Nixon, who fired Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox on Oct. 20, 1973--after then-Atty. Gen. Elliot L. Richardson and Deputy Atty. Gen. William D.

The former FBI man unmasked as "Deep Throat" probably won't be prosecuted for sharing information with reporters during the Watergate scandal, Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales said. "It happened a long time ago," Gonzales said of W. Mark Felt's conduct more than 30 years ago, when he was the No. 2 man at the FBI. "The department has a lot of other priorities." Gonzales declined to characterize Felt as hero or villain. "I will leave it to history to make that determination," he said.

Simon & Schuster in July will publish journalist Bob Woodward's book about his relationship with the Watergate source known as Deep Throat, who this week was revealed to be former FBI official W. Mark Felt. "The Secret Man: The Story of Watergate's Deep Throat" will tell how Felt guided Woodward's coverage of the political scandal, Simon & Schuster said Thursday.