In February of 1960, a company called Società Generale Immobiliare [SCI] bought 10 acres of real estate from Washington Gas. Società Generale Immobiliare, partially owned (15% of shares) by the Vatican, paid $10 million for the 10 acres, and on October 21, 1960,  the development of the Watergate Complex was announced.

The Watergate building project was mired in controversy from the beginning. A group (Americans United for Separation of Church and State) opposed the project, obviously because the Vatican was a major investor. “By mid-November 1962, more than 2,000 protest letters had been sent to Congress and another 1,500 to the White House.” This could have been an omen.

Ironically, the approval of the complex was during the Kennedy administration.

It was around 2 am on June 17, 1972, when the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee was burglarized. The location was on the 6th floor of Watergate Hotel and Office Building, Suite 600 to be exact.

There was suspense surrounding the Deep Throat mystery and for the longest time it was to remain a mystery. In fact, Carl Bernstein’s ex-wife, Nora Ephron, was one of a handful who blew the lid on the case. Not many knew the answer.

Ben Bradlee, a colleague of Bernstein, was one of those few.

Bradlee was once married to Antoinette Meyer, a sister to Mary Pinchot Meyer, who was married to a key figure of Operation Mockingbird, Cord Meyer. In reality, it was organized by Cord Meyer and the infamous Allen Dulles.

“Operation Mockingbird was a secret campaign by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to influence media.”

Actually, it was the Watergate scandal that caused the Church Committee to open an investigation. The reason was this: The revelation of Christopher Pyle (Getting Away with Torture: Secret Government, War Crimes, and the Rule of Law) in January 1970, proved that the U.S. Army was spying on the civilians.

While in the Army in the 60′s as a captain of intelligence, Christopher Pyle learned that “Army intelligence had 1,500 plainclothes agents watching every demonstration of 20 people or more throughout the United States”. That’s a ratio of 75 to 1.

Taken from another author, award-winning Washington Post reporter Robert O’Harrow, Jr., you have No Place to Hide.

Upon reading Bernstein’s personal notes, Ephron guessed it was Mark Felt, way before the crowd knew that it was Felt. But then nobody believed her.

Heartburn, a 1986 comedy starring Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson, is bittersweet yet very amusing. The screenplay was written by Nora Ephron and was inspired by her second marriage, which involved Carl Bernstein and his affair with Margaret Jay, the daughter of former British Prime Minister James Callaghan.

To fans of the classic 1943 novel by Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead, you’ll like Ephron even more, because she read and appreciated the book. It is a long read…

And Carl Bernstein, The Washington Post journalist, was inclusive in a very important circle of friends during this time. Along with Bob Woodward, Bernstein did the majority of news reporting on the Watergate scandal. These scandals led to the downfall of President Richard Nixon. Some feel strongly that Nixon was a victim of a political plot to assassinate his character.

If you could think of someone who was among the insiders, it surely must have been Bernstein. After The Washington Post, he goes on to work for ABC News, and he writes several books, including the popular All the President’s Men, co-authored with Woodward.

Nevertheless, adding to all of the hoopla and immense success enjoyed by Bernstein, what I find to be most interesting is his research about the media. Carl Bernstein spent a year researching a 25,000-word piece that was published in the Rolling Stone magazine. The piece is quite an eye-opener to say the least. It certainly is a must read.