DEEP TRUTH: The Lives of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein

by Adrian Havill (Birth Lane Press)

Bob Woodward of the Washington Post is the most celebrated investigative reporter in the county. but questions about his tactics and truthfulness have created almost as many headlines as his exposes.

The attacks on Woodward's credibility have mounted over the years. Revisionist Watergate histories like Len Colodny and Robert Gettlin's Silent Coup exposed Woodward's own military background as a high-level briefer for Gen. Alexander Haig. Jim Hougan's Secret Agenda debunked secret source Deep Throat, demonstrating that their romantic signaling process - a flowerpot placed on Woodward's balcony or a clock drawn on his New York Times - were nearly impossible given the layout of Woodward's apartment building. Some reviewers of The Commanders wondered if Woodward had the responsibility for revealing Gen. Colin Powell's early opposition to the Persian Gulf war in the Post rather than selling it to the public for $24.94 after the war's conclusion.

Despite the mountains of criticism, Adrian Havill's Deep Truth is the first book-length profile of the duo who cracked Watergate. Havill poses few new questions in Deep Truth; his book's great strength comes from meticulously researching the charges others have leveled. While Havill alternates chapters between the two, he's tougher on Woodward than Bernstein - largely because Bernstein's career peaked with Watergate and Havill can only chronicle the self-destruction rather than dig into his past.

Havill builds his case with merciless prosecutorial zeal, venturing first to Woodward's hometown of Wheaton, Illinois. From talking with his high school classmates and describing Woodward's early family life as the son of a small-town Republican judge, a picture emerges of a driven, straight-laced teenager teeming with repressed emotion. "He was always well-intended, but remote. In many ways, he was like Nixon," said Craig Simpson, a Wheaton High friend and Woodward's campaign manager in a losing race for student president. Woodward's yearbook quote: "though I cannot out-vote them, I will out-argue them."

Havill contends that as an undergraduate at Yale, Woodward developed a tendency toward fiction and might have been recruited by military intelligence as a member of the elite Book and Snake club. The latter charge is tenuous at best. Havill notes that Yale's secret societies have long been popular recruiting spots for intelligence agencies, that Woodward served four years in ROTC and was later stationed on a Navy communications ship certain to have an intelligence conduit on board. Despite his tenacious digging into the ship's logs, Havill never offers any concrete evidence to substantiate such a serious charge, or discuss the implications. Is Havill inferring that Woodward is a dupe or purveyor of disinformation? He never says.

He stands on firmer ground when exploring Woodward and Bernstein's predilection for fiction, especially in the book and film adaptation of All the President's Men. Havill reveals that the idea for the book actually came from Robert Redford, who would later portray Woodward. Before Hollywood came calling, Woodward and Bernstein planned a simple book merely profiling the list of Watergate characters. With the chance to profit and see

themselves immortalized, they wrote a book that read like the Hardy Boys Go to the White House.

That led to the creation of Deep Throat - who Havill brands a composite of sources, most prominently Alexander Haig - and what he calls "anything for imagery" style to contribute to the myth. It's here where Havill's reporting really shines. In their book, Woodward and Bernstein wrote of walking back to the Post in the rain on Oct. 25, 1972, dejected after being denounced by the White House yet again. Havill called the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration. There was no rain that day.

The weather was a frequent metaphor for them throughout the book - which Havill debunks nearly every time. And there's more. Bernstein wrote of seeing the porn film Deep Throat on February 25, 1975, while avoiding a subpoena filed by Nixon's re-election team. Only Deep Throat hadn't played anywhere near Washington in months. The scene in the film where Bernstein sneaks past a secretary and into the Miami district attorney's office? Scripted by Bernstein and future wife/screenwriter Nora Ephron.

Why? Money and fame, says Havill. "Writing a book that assailed the senses, created empathy for pitting two plucky reporters against the system and the elements, was a carefully planned endeavor." Manufacturing Deep Throat and other details helped sell the book and define its heroes. Havill finds similar falsifications in The Brethren, Woodward's book on the Supreme Court, and in Veil. The disparities between Woodward's story about sneaking into William Casey's hospital room for a deathbed interview and the actual set-up of the room are shocking.

Havill punches serious holes in the Woodstein myth and in their reporting techniques. Ultimately, however, he fails to point out where their reporting itself has been erroneous. While claiming Woodward is a frustrated novelist, he doesn't demonstrate where he has made up facts. That Casey directed a covert war in Nicaragua - the fundamental assertion in the questionable deathbed interview - has since been borne out by history. Truth doesn't let Woodward off the hook if he created the scene. But that shouldn't obscure the overall accuracy of his reporting. Likewise, even if Deep Throat is a composite - which Woodward's fervently denies - that doesn't change the fact that Woodward's astounding access has helped him to break countless stories. The stories and sources are real even if Deep Throat is not.

Havill's overall conclusions, however, are reasonable and important. "Bob has become a cultivator of power, reflecting the views of people near the top of the executive branch of American government; his books and other writings now chronicle the actions of that ruling structure." If nothing else, Havill's book demonstrates the problems caused by overuse of anonymous sources and the consequences of reporters getting too close to those they cover. Bob Woodward ought to have some answers ready. (David Daley)

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