All the President’s Men is a 1974 non-fiction book by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, the two journalists investigating the Watergate  break-in and ensuing Watergate scandal for The Washington Post. A film adaptation, starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Woodward and Bernstein, respectively, was released in 1976.

The book chronicles the investigative reporting  of Woodward and Bernstein from Woodward’s initial report on the Watergate break-in through the resignations of H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, and the revelation of the Nixon tapes by Alexander Butterfield in 1973. 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. It also gives detailed accounts of Woodward’s secret meetings with his source Deep Throat whose identity was kept secret for over 30 years. Only in 2005 was Deep Throat revealed to be then-FBI Associate Director W Mark Felt.

The name of the book alludes to the nursery rhyme about Humpty Dumpty (“All the king’s horses and all the king’s men / Couldn’t put Humpty together again”), alluding to Nixon’s dominating personalty and the difficulty of repairing political fiascos. The title is similar to that of the Robert Penn Warren novel “All the King’s Men”, which describes the career of a fictional governor based on Huey Long, who, like Nixon, was accused of running a dictatorial governmental system. The book was the second best-selling non-fiction book of 1974.

Following the success of All the President’s Men, Woodward and Bernstein wrote something of a sequel,The Final Days, chronicling the last months of Nixon’s Presidency, starting around the time that their previous book ended.

All The President’s Men

delete reply starfishred wrote on Oct 8, ’08 boy is this appropose thanks

edit delete reply lauritasita wrote on Oct 8, ’08 Thanks, Heidi, hee, hee ! I wonder how many people forgot about this movie.

delete reply pestep55 wrote on Oct 8, ’08 I remember the events and the movie /:-)

edit delete reply lauritasita wrote on Oct 8, ’08 It was a very controversal movie at the time, based on true events as you know.

delete reply gileson wrote on Oct 9, ’08 Ironic in the timing, but I have just recently starte re-reading “All the King’s Men” about Huey Long. Each time I read it I find some little morsel in there about Huey that cracks me up. What doesn’t show up is a story (allegedly true) where Huey was the guest at some big hoo-doo in NYC hosted by Henry Luce (famous publishing magnate.) The story is that Henry got up from the table to go to the rest room, followed shortly by Huey. As it turns out there was only one urinal, and Henry was usiing it. Huey was in dire straights, and there is no explanation as to why he couldn’t just use the toilet … maybe it was out of order. Huey sizes up the situation. Luce is probably close to 6’6″ tall which put him at least a full 12 inches taller than Huey. Huey looks at those long legs reaching half way to the ceiling and decides to go around behind Luce and do what he has to do figuring the distance between what he had to do and the top of Luce’s legs left enough of a gap that no one would be the wiser. Seemed like a good idea at the time, except Huey had had a bit too much to drink and his aim wasn’t as good as he thought it would be. His first blast hit Luce somewhere behind his left knee and then he over corrected and got him just above the right knee, from behind. Luce beat Huey to a bloody pulp, and in all the years since, up to the modern day, not once has any publication owned or operated by the Luce Family ever written a favorable review of anybody or anything in Louisiana

edit delete reply lauritasita wrote on Oct 9, ’08 Thanks for commenting, Tim !