by John W. Dean
First published 2002
John Dean sits in his study, surrounded by boxes of documents and transcripts from the Nixon years. The former White House counsel who brought down a presidency now faces his most personal investigation. Somewhere in the shadows of Watergate history lurks Deep Throat, the mysterious source who fed crucial information to Washington Post reporters Woodward and Bernstein. Dean knows this figure intimately yet not at all. They worked in the same corridors, attended the same meetings, perhaps even shared the same secrets. Now Dean must parse through years of lies, half-truths, and cover-ups to unmask his former colleague. The search becomes more than academic curiosity. Deep Throat will claim the top spot on Nixon's enemies list, outranking even Dean himself. As he sifts through evidence and reconstructs conversations, Dean confronts the web of betrayal that consumed the Nixon administration. His quest to name Deep Throat becomes a reckoning with his own role in the scandal that changed American politics forever.
Genres: biography, history, 20th-century, political-science, non-fiction, american-history
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: betrayal, quest, reckoning
Setting: White House
Period: Nixon Years
174 pages · Paperback · Salon.com