Deep Truth: The Lives of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein
by Adrian Havill

• His father was a lawyer and later a judge; parents divorced when he was young.
• Bob grew up a Republican in conservative Wheaton, IL (far north suburb of Chicago). His speech given during high school graduation "was right out of the Barry Goldwater wing of the Republican Party." (p. 9).
• Bob went to Yale (a notorious CIA recruiting ground) on a Navy ROTC scholarship.
• Bob "was temperamentally secretive, loathe to volunteer information about himself." (p. 31).
• In his senior year at Yale, Woodward joined a secret society--Book and Snake. Other famous former members were Porter Goss (CIA agent, Florida Congressman, and CIA Director under Bush 43) and Les Aspen (Congressman and Clinton's first Sec. of Defense). Membership in a secret society at Yale increases interest from the CIA.
• Bob was a communications officer in the Navy with security clearance. His first station was the USS Wright, a floating presidential command ship for emergency use in time of nuclear war.
• According to Kathy Woodward (first wife) and Al Woodward (Bob's father), the Navy sent Bob to Washington to work at the Nixon White House in 1970. (p. 53). Bob's version of his duties in Washington were that he was low level officer in Pentagon who "had courier duty [to the White House] occasionally ... carrying some documents or a folder." (p. 54).
• Highly placed sources say Woodward was much more than courier, that he gave personal briefings to Gen. Alexander Haig, the Dept. National Security Advisor. Havill names Adm. Thomas Moorer and Melvin Laird as the officials who said Woodward briefed Haig in 1969-1970. (p. 54-55). Woodward claims not to have met Haig until 1973 (when he was out of the Navy). Haig says the two met in 1974.
• Bob left the Navy in 1970 and was accepted to Harvard Law School. (p. 59). He declined to go to Harvard (a sure ticket to Wall Street and riches) but opted to apply for a job at the Washington Post.
• David C. Miller--was White House fellow in the Johnson Administration "after serving in Vietnam as a member of the CIA". Miller was a friend of Woodward. (p. 60). "In the late 1970s [Miller] sometimes playfully signed memos to friends as 'Deep Throat,' Later he would serve in the National Security Council, monitoring world terrorism. By 1990 he was [Bush 41's] staff assistant for national security." (p. 62). Note: The reason for the author's hazy references to David Miller are never explained in the book. My reasoned assumption is that the book was heavily edited in this section removing additional information about Mr. Miller from the original draft. One clue: the first refernce to Miller in the book on page 60 starts "the aforementioned David C. Miller".
• Navy Intelligence "Task Force 157 was a US Navy intelligence program that used current and former CIA 'free-lancers' to further US interests around the world. ... In 1968, TF 157 was part of several intelligence groups that helped to get a wealthy conservative candidate, Luis A. Ferre, elected governor of Puerto Rico." (p. 60-61).
• Woodward met with journalist Jerry Landauer and attorney Richard Copaken to share info he had gathered while employed at the Pentagon about military practice bombing on Culebra Island near Puerto Rico. (p. 61-62).
• Laundauer later broke the story of VP Spiro Agnew's bribes and income tax problems forcing him to resign. (p. 62).
• Speculation that Woodward was either a freelance CIA agent or a member of Task Force 157. (p. 62).
• Woodward hired by Harry Rosenfeld (metro editor) in Aug 1970 for 3 week trial. Rosenfeld found Woodward not possessing the proper writing skills and got him a job at the Montogmery County Sentinel in Rockville, MD to gain experience. (p. 63).
• He made $110 a week at the Sentinel but was considered "wealthy" and "never short of money" by his co-workers. (p. 64-65).
• Wrote stories critical of the Vietnam War while at the Sentinel. (p. 66).
• Woodward got a copy of the S.Ct. opinion in the Pentagon Papers case two days before it was officially released by the court (while still employed by the Sentinel). In September of 1971, Woodward was rehired by the Washington Post again by Rosenfeld in the Metro section. His salary was $13,000. (p. 69).
• Joseph Heller thought Deep Throat was a composite. (p. 70).
• Post learns Woodward has a high level source inside the government. "At first the source was referred to as his 'friend' or 'Mister X,' later becoming known as 'Bob's friend.'" This friend gave Woodward info on Bremer's attempted assignation of George Wallace. (p. 71).
• Howard Hunt directed a Julie Nixon chartiy film. (p. 73).
• Bob lived at 1718 P Street NW, Apt. 617, during the Watergate investigation. His apartment balcony faced an interior courtyard, not out to the street. It would have been very difficult if not impossible for Woodward to signal to Deep Throat by placing a flower pot on the balcony. After publication of "All the President's Men", Woodward was evasive about exactly which apartment he lived in. (p. 78-79).
• Story about Deep Throat drawing a clock on the the New York Times delivered to Bob's apartment as a meeting signal was almost assuredly bogus. (p. 79-80).
• In APM (the movie), Woodward calls a source on the phone and it is answered "Dr. Kisinger's office." Gen. Haig was Kisinger's deputy at the NSC at the time. (p. 82).
• "The transparent clues to Haig as a source do not set him apart. Some of the references could fit David Miller, Robert Bennet, or Adm. Bobby Ray Inman." (p. 83).
• "Bob told Time in 1976 that he never revealed the identity of Deep Throat to any of the editors at the Post." (p. 83).
• Woodstein allowed themselves to be used by the CIA for printing smears. (p. 98).
• In 1975, Woodward lived a few houses down from Gen. Haig and near Bradlee when he moved to 4506 Edmund Street. Haig moved out a few months after Woodward arrived on the street when appointed NATO commander. (p. 107).
• "Final Days" had no named sources as had been the case with "All the Presidents Men". Only book Woodward ever wrote with named sources was "Wired" about the death of John Belushi. Later came out that the following officials supplied info for "Final Days": J. Fred Buzhardt, Pat Buchanan, Barry Goldwater, Ollie Atkins, Bryce Harlow, Ray Price, Lt. Comdr. Andrew Combe, Leonard Garment, Stephen Bull, William E. Simon, Bruce Herschenson, Henry Kissinger, Lawrence Eagleburger, Ben Stein, David Esienhower (the president's son-in-law), and David Gergen. (p. 112-113).
• Gen. Haig denied giving info to Woodward although it is known he flew to Europe for a meeting with the General. (p. 114-115). Strange given that Haig figures prominently in the book.
• Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart and his allies on the court leaked to Bob for his book "Brethren", which was essentially a hit job on Chief Justice Warren Burger. (Chapter 12).
• Carl Bernstein: "If you read the book (APM) very carefully, you can see how it's not a composite, as a matter of fact; that is one person." (p. 156).
• Woodward writes script for prescient domestic terrorism movie (made for TV, 1986), Under Siege (a 9-11 precursor).
• Bob screws Belushi's widow out of royalties on the story of John Belushi's death (Wired). (Chapter 16).
• Bob goes to bat for Haig when his nomination for Secretary of State is in peril but does so in a disguised way. He defuses an issue blocking Haig's confirmation in the Senate but then takes a few shots at Haig personally in an attempt to demonstrate his independence on this issue. (p. 182).
• "Casey, Inman and Turner were three transparent [but unacknowledged] sources for Veil (Turner publicly admitted being a source)." (p. 193).
• I am a "cold, compulsive, workaholic fact-gather." (p. 198).
• Bob does hit piece on John Tower torpedoing his nomination for Sec. Def. (p. 209).
• Book "The Commanders" is a piece of instant history on the first Iraq War. Gen. Colin Powell is main source (interviewed 40 times, hundreds of hours by Woodward). Also interviewed Brent Scowcroft (National Security Advisor), Dick Cheney (Sec. Def.), C. Boyden Gray, Richard Darman, Les Aspin (then a Congressman). (p. 210).
• "The secret of Deep Throat is that there was no Deep Throat." (p. 215).
• Sources say on tape Woodward was a briefer for Haig. (p. 216).
• Bob writes a hit piece on Ross Perot. (p. 216).
• Bob writes puff piece on Dan Quayle. Declares Quayle is ready to be president. Writes a puff piece on Aspen when named Sec. Def. under Clinton. (p. 218).
• In GT home, Bob has an old movie post on the wall from the movie "The Man Who Knew Too Much".