Talks about CIA secret operation... Woodward reveals sources in 'Watergate'

Woodward Reveals Informants from the Reagan and Bush Years Close Friend Richard Dunn Provided Information on CIA Secret Operations, etc. Friendship Ended Due to Article Criticizing Bush's Economic Policies To fully understand the content, you must read the article text along with it. Submitted October 20, 2026 at 4:30 AM Woodward Reveals Informants from the Reagan and Bush Years Close Friend Richard Dunn Provided Information on CIA Secret Operations, etc. Friendship Ended Due to Article Criticizing Bush's Economic Policies Google Search prioritizes Yonhap News articles. (Washington=Yonhap News) Reporter Park Sung-min =밥 Woodward, a US journalist famous for the Watergate scoop, revealed his sources from the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations on the 19th (local time). In an article published in the US magazine 'New Yorker' on this day, Woodward revealed excerpts from his memoir 'Secret: A Journalist's Memoir,' set for publication on the 15th of next month, introducing his close friend Richard Dunn as one of the most important sources. Dunn, who passed away in 2008, served as the White House document manager and Treasury Secretary under the Reagan administration, and as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget under the Bush administration. In a 'The Danger of Getting Too Close to Informants' article in the New Yorker, Woodward recalled, "Dunn was my closest friend," and "though you may not have guessed, he was the conduit that connected me to the Reagan and Bush White Houses." Woodward, who was a reporter for The Washington Post, met Dunn for the first time in 1973 when the Watergate scandal, which led to Richard Nixon's resignation, was in full swing. At that time, Dunn was a key aide to former Attorney General Elliot Richardson, who had refused to approve the special prosecutor's dismissal of Nixon and subsequently resigned. Their relationship developed into that of close friends, and Dunn shared with Woodward sensitive and important decision-making processes within the White House. Woodward stated, "Dunn provided me with a goldmine of information, from important national security intelligence to various office anecdotes," adding that Dunn willingly shared information on the most sensitive issues, including wiretaps by the National Security Agency (NSA) under the Department of Defense and secret operations by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Woodward also recounted an anecdote where Dunn acted as the 'hatchet man' in power struggles within the White House, assisting James Baker, White House Chief of Staff, in trying to reduce the President's influence over First Lady Nancy, but failed in his efforts. The excerpts also included information that Dunn had told Woodward about how the former President was always carrying a card with a nuclear weapon launch code in his wallet, which the FBI obtained after the assassination attempt on the former President by the assassin in 1981, when Woodward was writing an article about the whereabouts of that card. Woodward stated that the friendship with Dunn ended when four series of articles exposing the failures of the Bush administration's economic policies were published, a month before the 1992 election. Although Woodward subsequently cut off contact with Dunn, he said he visited Dunn for the last time when he was hospitalized in the intensive care unit in December 2007 and saw his face. He wrote, "I could not meet a friend like Dunn again." The US internet media Axios evaluated that Woodward, 83 years old and having published numerous exposé books about US presidents starting with the Watergate reporting that caused a sensation in his youth, sharply and frankly portrays the process by which his friendship with Dunn crumbled after the series of articles in The Washington Post that impacted the former President Bush. min22@yna.co.kr Reported by KakaoTalk okjebo Yonhap News, Unauthorized reproduction-republication, AI learning and use prohibited> Submitted October 20, 2026 at 4:30 AM