NEW YORK, May 31: After more than 30 years of silence, the most famous anonymous source in American history, Deep Throat, has identified himself to a reporter of the Vanity Fair magazine. Mr W. Mark Felt, 91, an assistant director at the FBI in the 1970s, told the reporter, John D. O’Connor, that he was ‘the man known as Deep Throat’.

He was responsible for pointing the Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein towards the ‘money trail’ which resulted in resignation of US president Richard Nixon in the Watergate episode. Mr O’Connor told ABC News in an interview that Mr Felt had for years thought he had done something dishonourable by talking to Bob Woodward, a Washington Post reporter during the Watergate saga.

“Mark wants public respect and wants to be known as a good man,” Mr O’Connor said. “He’s very proud of the bureau, he’s very proud of the FBI. He now knows he is a hero.” The Washington Post had no immediate comment.

Mr Felt was initially adamant about remaining silent on the subject, thinking disclosures about his past to be somehow dishonourable. “I don’t think (being Deep Throat) was anything to be proud of,” Mr Felt indicated to his son, Mark Jr, at one point, according to the article. “You (should) not leak information to anyone.”

Mr Felt is one of a number of people who have been named over the years as the source whose disclosures helped bring down the Nixon presidency. Others include Assistant Attorney General Henry Peterson, deputy White House counsel Fred Fielding, and even ABC newswoman Diane Sawyer, who then worked in the White House press office. Agencies add: The Vanity Fair article said Mr Felt’s family had convinced him that his actions during Watergate were heroic and worthy of acknowledgment.

His daughter had spoken to Mr Woodward, who visited Mr Felt in Santa Rosa, California, in 1999, by phone at Least six times to discuss a potential joint announcement, Vanity Fair said. But Mr Woodward would often begin those conversations with a caveat, the magazine said, saying: “Just because I’m talking to you, I’m not admitting that he is who you think he is.”