美国国家公共电台 NPR--Bob Woodward recounts the Watergate story in an art museum

Bob Woodward recounts the Watergate story in an art museum

Transcript¹

In the early morning hours of June 17, 1972, a Saturday, Bob Woodward was asleep. Twenty-nine years old and the lowest-paid reporter at the Washington Post ($165 a week), he'd been on the paper for nine months when the city editor called at 9 a.m. to put him to work on a burglary at Democratic National Committee headquarters. Another young reporter, Carl Bernstein, became his partner. The burglary and everything that followed — the cover-up, obstruction³ of justice, Senate hearings and resignation of President Nixon — was their story.

Now, 50 years after the break-in, the National Portrait Gallery is showing a new exhibition — "Watergate: Portraiture⁴ and Intrigue⁵" — with cartoons, photographs and paintings featuring art from the period. I invited Bob Woodward to tour the show with me.

He looked at a cartoon of most of the president's men, tied up in phone cables and pointing at one another in blame. Their names — Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell, McCord, Magruder, Dean, Hunt, Liddy — became memorized by mesmerized⁶ Americans who watched the televised Watergate hearings. All those presidents' men went to jail. Nixon did not; he resigned.

A Time magazine cover in the museum shows a younger Nixon, after his 1972 landslide⁷ victory: the new president, a bit sweaty, fingers raised in a V-sign, big grin. In his face, Bob Woodward sees Nixon "trying to force-feed the camera the face of confidence, when you can see behind the eyes the doubt, almost that sense that he was in the wrong business: politics."

The scandal that brought Nixon down was doggedly⁸ reported by Woodward and Bernstein, with huge help from a highly placed secret source they called Deep Throat. He and Woodward had hush-hush meetings at 3 a.m. in an underground garage in Virginia — lots of cloak and dagger⁹ stuff, like flowers on window sills to signal whether or not to meet. Everyone wondered where the information came from. Even (or especially) Sam Ervin, the North Carolina Democrat² who chaired the Senate Watergate Committee.

"Senator Ervin called me up," Woodward says. "It was January 1973, and [he] said, 'we're going to have a Senate investigation¹⁰. Will you tell me your sources?' And I said 'we just can't do that.'" The reporters were mum: Their editor didn't know their source, nor did the publisher of the Washington Post.

You can know him now, from this Richard Avedon photo at the Portrait Gallery: mouth a bit clamped, eyes a bit narrowed. Some 35 years after Watergate, Mark Felt revealed he was Deep Throat. "This was the man in the FBI," Woodward says, "who was in charge of the Watergate investigation. So if you were going to go down the list of who you want to be your secret source, he'd be at the top!"

Nixon's White House Counsel John Dean became a very public source in the Watergate hearings. He'd run the cover-up for the President. At 35, Dean hoped to protect himself by telling the truth to the Committee. First, he told it to Ricard Nixon: "I began by telling the President that there was a cancer growing on the presidency¹¹. and if the cancer was not removed, the president himself would be killed by it."

In his portrait at the Gallery, Dean is painted in a tweed jacket, blue and white striped shirt: a sorry hero, a whistleblower. In the painting, he looks conflicted. "It's a portrait of somebody trying to look innocent, but isn't," Woodward says. Dean was disbarred and spent four months in jail. Nowadays, he's a trusted TV commentator¹².

Nixon's former law partner and attorney general, John Mitchell, went to jail for 19 months for conspiracy¹³, perjury¹⁴ and obstruction of justice. His late wife, Martha (a chatty Arkansan known as "The Mouth of the South"), is having her moment these days. Julia Roberts is playing her in a cable series. Martha's kidnapped, to stop her from blabbing.

"She knew nothing," says Bob Woodward. "None of the facts about Watergate. But living with John Mitchell, all of her alarm bells went off about the lies and the cover-up." She felt something wrong was going on, "but she knew none of the detail."

Martha's portrait shows a sort of stunned¹⁵ blonde: game, but maybe a little on edge. Woodward has a great story from the early 70s. John gets in trouble; Martha makes trouble. She calls Woodward and Bernstein and says, "come on up to my Fifth Avenue apartment. He's left, and we'll let you go through his office." The reporters found all kinds of useful documents — useful to Martha, too, Woodward says. "She said, 'I hope you get the S.O.B.'"

The fallout from the whole saga¹⁶ was immense: the lies and cover-ups led to divorces, jail time, and a presidential resignation. The Nixon administration fell apart, and America got a new leader, President Gerald Ford¹⁷ — who pardoned his predecessor¹⁸ a month later.

The pardon "was thought to be corrupt," says Woodward. "I investigated 25 years later, and found out actually Ford pardoned Nixon to get Nixon off the front page. It was actually a courageous¹⁹ act, because he knew he was killing²⁰ himself politically."

But Woodward acknowledges the decision was good for the country; the country was able to move on.

As the journalist inspected the Portrait Gallery exhibition, a crowd had gathered near to listen. When he finished, the museum visitors burst into applause.

There are no pictures of Bob Woodward or Carl Bernstein in the exhibit. Curator Kate Clarke Lemay says they haven't found appropriate or affordable²¹ ones yet.

Asked what business a group of convicted felons²², jailbirds and democracy-damagers are doing on the walls of an important Washington museum, the curator replied: "Well, we like to say we're not a Hall of Heroes. We are a museum of United States history."

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

3 obstruction   

n.阻塞，堵塞；障碍物

参考例句：

• She was charged with obstruction of a police officer in the execution of his duty.她被指控妨碍警察执行任务。
• The road was cleared from obstruction.那条路已被清除了障碍。

4 portraiture   

n.肖像画法

参考例句：

• I am going to have my portraiture taken.我请人给自己画张肖像。
• The painting of beautiful women was another field of portraiture.人物画中的另一个领域是仕女画。

5 intrigue   

vt.激起兴趣，迷住；vi.耍阴谋；n.阴谋，密谋

参考例句：

• Court officials will intrigue against the royal family.法院官员将密谋反对皇室。
• The royal palace was filled with intrigue.皇宫中充满了勾心斗角。

6 mesmerized   

v.使入迷( mesmerize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The country girl stood by the road, mesmerized at the speed of cars racing past. 村姑站在路旁被疾驶而过的一辆辆车迷住了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• My 14-year-old daughter was mesmerized by the movie Titanic. 我14岁的女儿完全被电影《泰坦尼克号》迷住了。 来自互联网

7 landslide   

n.(竞选中)压倒多数的选票；一面倒的胜利

参考例句：

• Our candidate is predicated to win by a landslide.我们的候选人被预言将以绝对优势取胜。
• An electoral landslide put the Labour Party into power in 1945.1945年工党以压倒多数的胜利当选执政。

8 doggedly   

adv.顽强地，固执地

参考例句：

• He was still doggedly pursuing his studies.他仍然顽强地进行着自己的研究。
• He trudged doggedly on until he reached the flat.他顽强地、步履艰难地走着，一直走回了公寓。

9 dagger   

n.匕首，短剑，剑号

参考例句：

• The bad news is a dagger to his heart.这条坏消息刺痛了他的心。
• The murderer thrust a dagger into her heart.凶手将匕首刺进她的心脏。

10 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

11 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

12 commentator   

n.注释者，解说者；实况广播评论员

参考例句：

• He is a good commentator because he can get across the game.他能简单地解说这场比赛，是个好的解说者。
• The commentator made a big mistake during the live broadcast.在直播节目中评论员犯了个大错误。

13 conspiracy   

n.阴谋，密谋，共谋

参考例句：

• The men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.这些人被裁决犯有阴谋杀人罪。
• He claimed that it was all a conspiracy against him.他声称这一切都是一场针对他的阴谋。

14 perjury   

n.伪证；伪证罪

参考例句：

• You'll be punished if you procure the witness to commit perjury.如果你诱使证人作伪证，你要受罚的。
• She appeared in court on a perjury charge.她因被指控做了伪证而出庭受审。

15 stunned   

adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The fall stunned me for a moment. 那一下摔得我昏迷了片刻。
• The leaders of the Kopper Company were then stunned speechless. 科伯公司的领导们当时被惊得目瞪口呆。

16 saga   

n.(尤指中世纪北欧海盗的)故事，英雄传奇

参考例句：

• The saga of Flight 19 is probably the most repeated story about the Bermuda Triangle.飞行19中队的传说或许是有关百慕大三角最重复的故事。
• The novel depicts the saga of a family.小说描绘了一个家族的传奇故事。

17 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。

18 predecessor   

n.前辈，前任

参考例句：

• It will share the fate of its predecessor.它将遭受与前者同样的命运。
• The new ambassador is more mature than his predecessor.新大使比他的前任更成熟一些。

19 courageous   

adj.勇敢的，有胆量的

参考例句：

• We all honour courageous people.我们都尊重勇敢的人。
• He was roused to action by courageous words.豪言壮语促使他奋起行动。

20 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

21 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

22 felons   

n.重罪犯( felon的名词复数 )；瘭疽；甲沟炎；指头脓炎

参考例句：

• Aren't those the seats they use for transporting convicted felons? 这些坐位不是他们用来押运重犯的吗？ 来自电影对白
• House Republicans talk of making felons out of the undocumented and those who help them. 众议院共和党议员正商议对未登记的非法移民以及包庇他们的人课以重罪。 来自互联网