Woodward’s exasperated conclusion was that “it had been a wasted trip”.
Woodward mused that, in her indiscretions, she might be “becoming the Greek chorus of the Watergate drama – sounding her warnings to all who would hear.” But when, in September 1972, he visited the Essex House hotel on Central Park south where the Mitchells were staying, he found her “anxious”, “fidgeting” and reluctant to discuss “dirty politics”. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in the Washington Post newsroom, 1973 Her reward for trying to do the right thing was brutal treatment by Nixon’s henchmen, systematic efforts to discredit and defame her, and a later life of obscurity and insecurity.įor their part, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward – the Washington Post reporters who followed the trail from the 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters at the Watergate complex, all the way to the Oval Office – barely mention Martha Mitchell in their original book, All the President’s Men. Martha Mitchell at home with her husband Attorney General John Mitchell and their daughter Marti, 1970Īs the wife of John Mitchell, Nixon’s Attorney General and then campaign manager, Martha was perfectly placed to blow the whistle on the scandal – and did her best to do so at social events and in phone calls with journalists. With this in mind, it is extraordinary how little credit has been given to her in the scores of books that have been written and documentaries made about the downfall of the 37th US president and the extraordinary revelations about corruption and crime in the White House that led to his public disgrace and resignation in August 1974.