Revealed: John Ehrlichman Believed Henry Kissinger was Deep Throat

By: Greg Mitchell In three decades of speculation about the identity of legendary Watergate source ?Deep Throat,? few prominent members of the Nixon administration swept up in the scandal have endorsed a likely suspect. Even John Dean has hedged and offered multiple guesses. But now E&P has learned that former top Nixon aide, John Ehrlichman, who went to prison for his role in Watergate, felt strongly that he knew the identity of Deep Throat.

His candidate: Henry Kissinger.

This revelation comes from Walter Anderson, the chairman and CEO of Parade magazine and a close friend of the former Nixon aide, who died in 1999. Ehrlichman, Anderson said, identified Kissinger as Deep Throat in a conversation with him more than 20 years ago.

?He was absolutely convinced of it,? Anderson said, when asked by E&P to comment on the recent surge in speculation about the identity of Deep Throat. He added that Ehrlichman's view of Kissinger as Deep Throat has never surfaced before, as far he knows.

?Ehrlichman argued that Kissinger was high enough in the organization to have the information, and understand it, close enough to Nixon to know all the details,? Anderson said, ?and he was virtually untarnished by the Watergate scandal, particularly in the press.?

Kissinger served as Nixon?s national security adviser from 1969 to 1973.

As editor of Parade, Anderson published several articles by Ehrlichman starting in 1981, and remained friends with him until his death. He also wrote a lengthy profile of Ehrlichman in his book, ?Courage Is a Three-Letter Word,? published in 1986.

He had met Ehrlichman in April 1981, three years after his release from a federal prison camp, where he?d served 18 months for perjury and conspiracy in the Watergate cover-up. Anderson assigned him to travel around the country with famed photographer Eddie Adams, to capture the dignity of poor people. The resulting article, ?Chronicles of Courage Among America?s Poor," published in Parade later that year, proved popular.

Anderson then urged him to tell the full truth about Watergate, and Ehrlichman, working closely with the editor, wrote an article on that subject that appeared in Parade on Sept. 26, 1982.

Now Anderson tells E&P that, a few months after that, he met Ehrlichman again in New York City. They had covered so much Watergate ground in previous meetings, but there was one question Anderson had not yet asked: Who was Deep Throat?

?Without missing a beat,? Anderson recalls, ?he said, Henry Kissinger. He believed it very strongly. I was taken aback that he answered so quickly and so assuredly. I didn?t expect that.?

In listing the reasons for his choice,including Kissinger's surprisingly friendly relations with the press, he didn?t seem ?angry? about it, Anderson said. ?He was so declarative... absolutely convinced that Kissinger was Deep Throat,? Anderson added.

Over the years, Kissinger has not generally been a prime candidate for Deep Throat, but he has gained more supporters in recent years. Some have pointed to his guttural speaking voice as one thing in his favor, among others. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the Washington Post reporters who broke the Watergate case, have said that they will reveal the identity of Deep Throat after he passes away. The opening of their Watergate archives at the Univerrsity of Texas this month sparked another round of Deep Throat speculation.