What we know and what we don't know
about Mark Felt's role in American history.
We know that the United States went more than twenty-five years after 1975, politically immobilized by its loss of lives in Vietnam because North Vietnam succeeded in capturing and defeating South Vietnam after a peace treaty was signed. Lives lost; war lost.
We know that Kissinger and Nixon had signed a successful peace treaty in 1973 with North Vietnam after North Vietnam was severely defeated in the Tet Offensive. South Vietnam forces were well trained and ready to defend themselves under treaty agreements.
We know that South Vietnam would have successfully fended-off North Vietnamin late 1974 if South Vietnam had had the money and military supplies promised by the United States.
We know that at the end of 1974 South Vietnam was deprived of funds and military support necessary for its survival, because President Nixon had been forced to resign in August of 1974. Newly installed President Ford did not have the power to influence Congress and support the South Vietnamese
What we don't know is the importance of
the role of Mark Felt in bringing down President Nixon.
Felt had three historically unique
attributes. First, he was the direct successor of J. Edgar Hoover,
the founder and dangerous tyrant who ran the FBI as his personal
fiefdom.
Felt used his top position in the FBI, and the powers assembled by Hoover, to destroy President
Nixon by secrecy and subterfuge. Second, Felt had unique skills in
espionage, learned as head of the FBI counter-intelligence desk,
which he used to keep his use of power a secret. Third,
Felt had a long history in Washington politics, tutored by Hoover, a
master of deceit. Felt leaked his material slowly so that no
counter attack and no defense by Nixon was possible.
How the sum total of these unique attributes combined to influence history will take a long time to sort out. My personal guess is that Mark Felt killed more people (Iranian revolution, Yugoslavia, Lebanon etc. ) and did more damage to the lives of other people (returned Vietnam Vets and their families) than any other American since the Rosenbergs (Soviet nuclear spies).