Review - Bob Woodward, "The Secret Man"

Bob Woodward's book, "The Secret Man," revealing how W. Mark Felt came to be his Watergate muse known as Deep Throat, is satisfying.
Many of us came to understand the place of journalism inour society through Woodward and Bernstein's book, "All the President's Men."
I read it (and a few other volumes on various subjects) during a vacation spent in seclusion during one summer in the mid'70s.
I had published a couple articles and "All the President's Men" really inspired me and helped form the focus of my career over the next few decades. Even when involved in the ministry, I found time to write as much as I could and was published in several more journals. I even have a sermon outline (funeral sermon!) in "The Christian Minister's Manual" published by Standard Publishing Co., Cincinnati, Ohio. Eventually, I became a newspaper reporter and editor.
All that might have happened without "All the President's Men" but who knows? That vacation in seclusion was certainly a watershed time for me.
So, "The Secret Man," revealing Woodward's parking garage confidant, is satisfying, but it also leaves the reader hungry for more -- more information that may not "come out" for more decades to come.
If "All the President's Men" is an outline of dirty tricks and cover-ups in the Nixon White House, and the reporting that went into uncovering it, "The Secret Man" is the flesh over the skeleton.
I mean, if the Watergate break-in and cover-up was bizarre, as a skeleton is is bizarre and shocking, then "The Secret Man" puts a human form on the incident.
Mark Felt is human. He had motives that are common to man.
He was passed over for the top job in the FBI when Pat Gray was made chief. Felt did not like the way the President and the CIA tried to shut down the FBI investigation of Watergate.
Felt later participated in break-ins of families of criminals known as "The Weathermen" during the Vietnam War.
Felt guided Woodward in Watergate and was a willing participant in The Weathermen break-ins because he loved America.
After reading "The Secret Men," I believe Felt should be remembered as an American patriot who risked all for his country.
But there seems to be more to the story.
Richard Nixon remains a cartoon character in popular history. Certainly the movie, "Nixon," did nothing to clarify him to the world.
Perhaps all of Felt's story has been told, but I have to believe there is much more to learn about the U.S. government during the 1960s and '70s; and, no, I don't think it will be told in the short term. But I have to believe the truth will be known, eventually.