Twenty-five years ago this week, President Richard Nixon was forced out of office over his involvement in the Watergate scandal.
His chief-of-staff, H.R. Haldeman, and his Attorney General, John N. Mitchell, were imprisoned for various crimes committed in office during the Watergate era. The fate of the Nixon administration and its place in the history books was decided for all time on June 17th, 1972 when a hotel night watchman, now dead, spotted a light in the office of Larry O'Brien, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and telephoned the police to report a break-in at the Watergate Hotel. The United States hasn't been the same politically since.
Five "burglars" were arrested in or around the Watergate complex within the hour. They were Bernard L. Barker, Virgilio R. Gonzalez, Eugenio R. Martinez, James W. McCord and Frank A. Sturgis. Two other men were also arrested later, E. Howard Hunt jnr and G. Gordon Liddy.
All were ex-CIA and some anti-Castro Cubans. On this occasion, however, they were working for the Nixon White House, and specifically for the president's re-election committee. When they appeared in court, Bob Wood ward, a young reporter for the Washington Post, covered the hearing.
Despite these sensational developments, which took time to sink into the national consciousness, amid charges and counter-charges, Mr Nixon defeated George McGovern, campaigning on an anti-Vietnam War ticket, in the 1972 presidential elections. No one in the White House wanted to discuss the case of the Watergate "burglars", nor were the media particularly interested, with the exception of the Washington Post, which began to run increasingly sensational stories about the true nature of the break-in.
Woodward and Carl Bernstein reported day after day on the details of what was now being called the Watergate conspiracy.
It was hard slogging. Republicans saw it as an attempt to undermine a president and the US war in Vietnam. "If this is such a hell of a good story," people asked, "why doesn't anyone else have it?" The taunt was raised, apparently, even at the Post itself.
Bernstein and Woodward , however, had a powerful ally in Ben Bradlee, the editor of the Post, who encouraged and protected the two relatively junior journalists and their secret sources.
The most important source they named "Deep Throat". Bernstein revealed in a CBS-TV interview last Sunday that their informants held "an executive post in the administration", but would go no further. They have agreed that his name will not be revealed until "he passes away".
"Deep Throat" did not so much give them information - they dug that up themselves in documents and interviews - but guided them when they were on the wrong track and hinted at the right one. As for their reward, Bernstein said their story proved "the US constitutional system worked", and that was sufficient.
Woodward, a graduate of Yale, had a commission in the US Navy which he resigned to take up journalism. He is now an assistant managing editor of the Post and writes books on Washington politics and personalities.
Bernstein also has written several books and works for a number of journals, including Time magazine. His career began a s a copy boy for the now-defunct Washington Star. He joined the Post in 1966 when he was 19. He is a relative of the celebrated leftwing journalist I.F. Stone.