''All the President's Men'' is a 1974

non-fiction Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with b ...

book by

Carl Bernstein Carl Milton Bernstein ( ; born February 14, 1944) is an American investigative journalist and author. While a young reporter for ''The Washington Post'' in 1972, Bernstein was teamed up with Bob Woodward, and the two did much of the original n ...

and

Bob Woodward Robert Upshur Woodward (born March 26, 1943) is an American investigative journalist. He started working for '' The Washington Post'' as a reporter in 1971 and now holds the title of associate editor. While a young reporter for ''The Washingt ...

, two of the journalists who investigated the June 1972 break-in at the Watergate Office Building and the resultant political scandal for ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

''. The book chronicles the

investigative reporting Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years res ...

of Woodward and Bernstein from Woodward's initial report on the Watergate break-in through the resignations of Nixon Administration officials

H. R. Haldeman Harry Robbins Haldeman (October 27, 1926 – November 12, 1993) was an American political aide and businessman, best known for his service as White House Chief of Staff to President Richard Nixon and his consequent involvement in the Watergate s ...

and

John Ehrlichman John Daniel Ehrlichman (; March 20, 1925 – February 14, 1999) was an American political aide who served as the White House Counsel and Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs under President Richard Nixon. Ehrlichman was an important i ...

in April 1973, and the revelation of the

Oval Office The Oval Office is the formal working space of the President of the United States. Part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, it is located in the West Wing of the White House, in Washington, D.C. The oval-shaped roo ...

Watergate tapes The Nixon White House tapes are audio recordings of conversations between U.S. President Richard Nixon and Nixon administration officials, Nixon family members, and White House staff, produced between 1971 and 1973. In February 1971, a sound-a ...

by Alexander Butterfield three months later. It relates the events behind the major stories the duo wrote for the ''Post'', naming some sources who had previously refused to be identified for their initial articles, notably

Hugh Sloan Hugh W. Sloan Jr. (born November 1, 1940) was treasurer of the Committee to Re-elect the President, Richard M. Nixon's 1972 campaign committee. Previously, he was an aide to White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman. He resigned from the Committe ...

. It also gives detailed accounts of Woodward's secret meetings with his source Deep Throat, whose identity was kept hidden for over 30 years.In 2005, Deep Throat was revealed to be then- FBI Associate Director W. Mark Felt. Gene Roberts, the former executive editor of ''

The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pen ...

'' and former managing editor of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', has called the work of Woodward and Bernstein "maybe the single greatest reporting effort of all time." A

film adaptation A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dia ...

, produced by

Robert Redford Charles Robert Redford Jr. (born August 18, 1936) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award from four nominations, a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, the Cec ...

, starring Redford and

Dustin Hoffman Dustin Lee Hoffman (born August 8, 1937) is an American actor and filmmaker. As one of the key actors in the formation of New Hollywood, Hoffman is known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and emotionally vulnerable characters. He is th ...

as Woodward and Bernstein, respectively, was released in 1976. That same year, a sequel to the book, ''

The Final Days ''The Final Days'' is a 1976 non-fiction book written by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein about the Watergate scandal. A follow up to their 1974 book ''All the President's Men'', ''The Final Days'' concerns itself with the final months of the Pres ...

'', was published, which chronicled the last months of

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

's presidency, starting around the time their previous book ended.

Background

Woodward and Bernstein had considered the idea of writing a book about Watergate, but did not commit until actor

expressed interest in purchasing the film rights. In ''Telling the Truth About Lies: The Making of "All the President's Men,"'' Woodward noted that Redford played an important role in changing the book's narrative from a story about the Watergate events to one about their investigations and reportage of the story. The name of the book alludes to the

nursery rhyme A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and many other countries, but usage of the term dates only from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes. From ...

about

Humpty Dumpty Humpty Dumpty is a character in an English nursery rhyme, probably originally a riddle and one of the best known in the English-speaking world. He is typically portrayed as an anthropomorphic egg, though he is not explicitly described as such. ...

("All the king's horses and all the king's men / Couldn't put Humpty together again"). An allusion similar to that was made more explicitly a quarter-century earlier in

Robert Penn Warren Robert Penn Warren (April 24, 1905 – September 15, 1989) was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic and was one of the founders of New Criticism. He was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He founded the lit ...

's 1946 novel ''

All the King's Men ''All the King's Men'' is a 1946 novel by Robert Penn Warren. The novel tells the story of charismatic populist governor Willie Stark and his political machinations in the Depression-era Deep South. It was inspired by the real-life story of U ...

'', which describes the career of a fictional corrupt governor, loosely based on

Huey Long Huey Pierce Long Jr. (August 30, 1893September 10, 1935), nicknamed "the Kingfish", was an American politician who served as the 40th governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932 and as a United States senator from 1932 until his assassination ...

Important individuals

The President

The President's Men

(listed with their 1972 positions in either the president's executive staff or in his re-election committee, where applicable)

White House

* Alexander P. Butterfield, Deputy Assistant to the President *

Dwight L. Chapin Dwight Lee Chapin (born December 2, 1940) is an American political organizer, businessman, and retired public servant. He was Deputy Assistant to President Richard Nixon, during the Watergate scandal. Chapin was convicted of lying to a grand ju ...

, Deputy Assistant to the President *

Ken W. Clawson Ken Wade Clawson (August 16, 1936 – December 17, 1999) was an American journalist, best known as a spokesman for U.S. President Richard Nixon at the time of the Watergate scandal. He was promoted from Nixon's deputy director of communications to ...

, Deputy Director of Communications for the President *

Charles W. Colson Charles Wendell Colson (October 16, 1931 – April 21, 2012), generally referred to as Chuck Colson, was an American attorney and political advisor who served as Special Counsel to President Richard Nixon from 1969 to 1970. Once known as Pr ...

, Chief Counsel for the President *

John W. Dean III John Wesley Dean III (born October 14, 1938) is an American former attorney who served as White House Counsel for U.S. President Richard Nixon from July 1970 until April 1973. Dean is known for his role in the cover-up of the Watergate scand ...

White House Counsel The White House counsel is a senior staff appointee of the president of the United States whose role is to advise the president on all legal issues concerning the president and their administration. The White House counsel also oversees the Of ...

John D. Ehrlichman John Daniel Ehrlichman (; March 20, 1925 – February 14, 1999) was an American political aide who served as the White House Counsel and Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs under President Richard Nixon. Ehrlichman was an important ...

, Counsel and Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs *

H.R. Haldeman Harry Robbins Haldeman (October 27, 1926 – November 12, 1993) was an American political aide and businessman, best known for his service as White House Chief of Staff to President Richard Nixon and his consequent involvement in the Watergate s ...

, White House Chief of Staff * E. Howard Hunt, Jr., President's Special Investigations Unit ("

White House Plumbers The White House Plumbers, sometimes simply called the Plumbers, the Room 16 Project, or more officially, the White House Special Investigations Unit, was a covert White House Special Investigations Unit, established within a week after the public ...

") *

Henry A. Kissinger Henry Alfred Kissinger (; ; born Heinz Alfred Kissinger, May 27, 1923) is a German-born American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the preside ...

National Security Advisor A national security advisor serves as the chief advisor to a national government on matters of security. The advisor is not usually a member of the government's cabinet but is usually a member of various military or security councils. National sec ...

* Egil Krogh, Jr., head of the President's Special Investigations Unit ("White House Plumbers") * Gerald Warren, White House Press Secretary, succeeding Ziegler * David R. Young, special assistant at the

National Security Council A national security council (NSC) is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security. An NSC is often headed by a n ...

* Ronald L. Ziegler, White House Press Secretary

Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP)

* Kenneth H. Dahlberg, CRP's Midwest finance chairman *

Herbert W. Kalmbach Herbert Warren Kalmbach (October 19, 1921 – September 15, 2017) was an American attorney and banker. He served as the personal attorney to United States President Richard Nixon (1968–1973). He became embroiled in the Watergate scandal ...

, personal attorney to United States President Richard Nixon and Deputy Finance Chairman of CRP * G. Gordon Liddy, CRP employee *

Clark MacGregor Clark MacGregor (July 12, 1922 – February 10, 2003) was an American politician and Republican U.S. Representative from Minnesota's 3rd Congressional District for five terms from 1961 to 1971. After his time in Congress, he worked as a senior ...

, CRP Chairman *

Jeb Stuart Magruder Jeb Stuart Magruder (November 5, 1934May 11, 2014) was an American businessman and high-level political operative in the Republican Party who served time in prison for his role in the Watergate scandal. He served President Richard Nixon in va ...

, Deputy Director, and assistant to the Director of CRP * Robert C. Mardian, CRP political coordinator *

John N. Mitchell John Newton Mitchell (September 15, 1913 – November 9, 1988) was the 67th Attorney General of the United States under President Richard Nixon and chairman of Nixon's 1968 and 1972 presidential campaigns. Prior to that, he had been a municipal ...

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

, and CRP campaign director * Robert C. Odle, Jr., Director of Administration ("office manager") for CRP * Kenneth W. Parkinson, CRP counsel *

Herbert L. Porter Herbert L. "Bart" Porter was a campaign aide to U.S. President Richard M. Nixon. Early life At University of Southern California, he was a member of Trojans for Representative Government with future Watergate scandal participants Dwight L ...

, CRP organizer and former White House aide * Donald H. Segretti, political operative for CRP * Hugh W. Sloan, Jr., CRP treasurer * Judy Hoback Miller, CRP bookkeeper * Maurice H. Stans, CRP finance chairman *

Gordon C. Strachan Gordon Creighton Strachan (born July 24, 1943) is an American attorney and political staffer who served as an aide to H.R. Haldeman, the chief of staff for President Richard Nixon and a figure in the Watergate scandal. Early life and educatio ...

, staff assistant to Herbert G. Klein but was assigned to be

H.R. Haldeman Harry Robbins Haldeman (October 27, 1926 – November 12, 1993) was an American political aide and businessman, best known for his service as White House Chief of Staff to President Richard Nixon and his consequent involvement in the Watergate s ...

's liaison to CRP

Rest of the President's Men

Alfred C. Baldwin III Alfred Carleton Baldwin (June 23, 1936 – January 15, 2020) was an American FBI agent known as the so-called "shadow man" in the Watergate break-in and the ensuing Watergate scandal. Baldwin had been hired by James McCord for a variety of p ...

* John J. Caulfield * L. Patrick Gray III, acting

Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a United States' federal law enforcement agency, and is responsible for its day-to-day operations. The FBI Director is appointed for a single ...

* Richard G. Kleindienst,

(succeeding John Mitchell) * Fred LaRue, no rank, title, salary or even listing in the White House directory * Powell Moore * Kenneth Rietz * DeVan L. Shumway

The Burglars

* Bernard L. Barker * Virgilio R. Gonzalez * Eugenio R. Martinez * James W. McCord, Jr. * Frank A. Sturgis

The Prosecutors

Henry E. Petersen Henry E. Petersen (January 1, 1921 – May 29, 1991) was an attorney and United States federal government official. He served as Assistant U.S. Attorney General during the Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford administrations. He also engaged in ethica ...

, United States Assistant Attorney General * Earl J. Silbert,

United States Attorney for the District of Columbia The United States Attorney for the District of Columbia (USADC) is the United States Attorney responsible for representing the federal government in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The U.S. Attorney's Office for t ...

* Donald E. Campbell, Assistant U.S. Attorney * Seymour Glanzer, Assistant

The Judge

John J. Sirica John Joseph Sirica (March 19, 1904 – August 14, 1992) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, where he became famous for his role in the trials stemming from the Watergate scandal. ...

, District Judge for the

United States District Court for the District of Columbia The United States District Court for the District of Columbia (in case citations, D.D.C.) is a federal district court in the District of Columbia. It also occasionally handles (jointly with the United States District Court for the District ...

''The Washington Post''

, Reporter *

Benjamin C. Bradlee Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee (, 1921 – , 2014) was an American journalist who served as managing editor, then as executive editor of ''The Washington Post'', from 1965 to 1991. He became a public figure when the ''Post'' joined ''The New Y ...

, Executive Editor *

Katharine Graham Katharine Meyer Graham (June 16, 1917 – July 17, 2001) was an American newspaper publisher. She led her family's newspaper, '' The Washington Post'', from 1963 to 1991. Graham presided over the paper as it reported on the Watergate scandal, w ...

, Publisher * Harry M. Rosenfeld, Metropolitan Editor *

Howard Simons Howard Simons (June 3, 1929 – June 13, 1989) was the managing editor of '' The Washington Post'' at the time of the Watergate scandal, and later curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Early life and education ...

, Managing Editor * Barry Sussman, City Desk Editor * Brett Gurganious, Local News Reporter

The Senator

Sam Ervin Samuel James Ervin Jr. (September 27, 1896April 23, 1985) was an American politician. A Democrat, he served as a U.S. Senator from North Carolina from 1954 to 1974. A native of Morganton, he liked to call himself a "country lawyer", and often ...

(D-NC), chair of the Senate Watergate Committee

The Informant

* Deep Throat (revealed in 2005 to be W. Mark Felt)

Publication

Dick Snyder Richard J. Snyder Jr. (born February 1, 1944) is an American former professional basketball player. He played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the St. Louis Hawks, Phoenix Suns, Seattle SuperSonics, and Cleveland Cavaliers. Snyd ...

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publi ...

purchased the right to publish the book through the agent David Obst. The authors received an advance of $55,000. In his memoir, Michael Korda said of the book's publication that it "transformed book publishing into a red-hot part of media" and books became "news" instead of history. Because the book was embargoed until publication day, there were no advance copies for reviewers.

became known as the "

Watergate The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's continu ...

" publisher by following up ''All the President's Men'' with books by

John Dean John Wesley Dean III (born October 14, 1938) is an American former attorney who served as White House Counsel for U.S. President Richard Nixon from July 1970 until April 1973. Dean is known for his role in the cover-up of the Watergate scandal ...

, Maureen Dean,

and John Mitchell.

References

External links

The Woodward and Bernstein Watergate Papers
an exhibition at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

40 years later retrospective joint interview on CBSCBS News: Watergate: High Crimes in the White House, 50th Anniversary
{{Richard Nixon 1974 non-fiction books Books about journalism Books about the Watergate scandal Books by Bob Woodward Books by Carl Bernstein Collaborative non-fiction books English-language books Non-fiction books adapted into films Simon & Schuster books The Washington Post