• by Erik Sass , October 21, 2014

Ben Bradlee, the editor-in-chief of The Washington Post who directed coverage of the Watergate scandal, eventually helping force Richard Nixon to resign the presidency, died on Tuesday at the age of 93, his family announced. Bradlee had suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and growing dementia for several years.

As editor of The Washington Post from 1968-1991, Bradlee is credited with transforming it from a leading regional newspaper to a national paper of record, rivaling The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal with its reporting on U.S. politics and national and international events.  

The news of Bradlee’s passing triggered an outpouring of tributes and accolades from across the journalistic spectrum.

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who first broke Watergate story after they were contacted by an anonymous source at the FBI (later revealed to be associate director W. Mark Felt), offered this eulogy to their former boss: “Ben was a true friend and genius leader in journalism. He forever altered our business. His one unbending principle was the quest for the truth and the necessity of that pursuit.”

Born in Boston to an illustrious New England lineage,  Bradlee served aboard a U.S. Navy destroyer in the Pacific theater in the Second World War, taking part in a number of battles, including Leyte Gulf. After trying unsuccessfully to start a newspaper in Manchester, New Hampshire, Bradlee first joined The Washington Post as a reporter in 1948, befriending future president John F. Kennedy before leaving to join the U.S. diplomatic service.

In 1954, Bradlee returned to journalism, covering European affairs for Newsweek. When Washington Post Co. publisher Philip Graham bought Newsweek in 1961, in large part due to Bradlee’s encouragement. He stayed on to become The Washington Post’s Washington bureau chief.

After Graham’s suicide in 1963, his widow Katharine relied on Bradlee provide editorial leadership as she dove into the business of publishing the newspaper.

Even before the historic Watergate story, with Bradlee at the helm, WaPo vaulted to national attention with the publication of the Pentagon Papers in 1971 -– explosive secret documents, leaked by RAND consultant Daniel Ellsberg, which showed that the Department of Defense believed the U.S. was losing Vietnam. This brought him, Graham, and the newspaper squarely into the sights of Richard Nixon, who mounted a legal challenge to their right to publish the papers. In the end, they battled Nixon all the way to the Supreme Court, which upheld their right to publish the documents.

During Watergate, Bradlee made a leap of faith, standing behind Woodward and Bernstein and taking the newspaper’s reputation on their relationship with a disgruntled FBI employee. Bradlee insisted on meeting Felt and became personally convinced that his revelations about the cover-up of the Watergate burglary and the shadowy “plumbers” operating with the White House’s knowledge were true.

After a series of mounting scandals triggered by deputy assistant Alexander Butterfield’s disclosure of secret tapes, White House counsel John Dean’s testimony about hush money, and Nixon’s bizarre attempt to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox, Nixon ultimately resigned on August 8, 1974.

Somewhat unusually for a newspaper editor, his role in the Watergate scandal earned Bradlee a place in popular culture. In 1976, he was played with gravely brio by Jason Robards in “All the President’s Men,” the movie recounting Woodward and Bernstein’s reporting of the Watergate scandal. Among Bradlee’s numerous honors and recognitions was the Presidential Medal of Freedom, bestowed by President Barack Obama in November 2013.