“Deep Six”

“Deep Six” is a euphemistic expression for completely disposing of something. In the Watergate reporting, it carried a sharper meaning: an instruction, as understood by an associate of John Dean, to make files concerning E. Howard Hunt disappear. The phrase compressed the alleged effort to suppress damaging evidence into two words, and its reported use helped turn that effort into a front-page story.

The Phrase and Its Context

Carl Bernstein was pursuing a report about files associated with E. Howard Hunt. Deep Throat told the reporters that L. Patrick Gray had been told the files were “political dynamite” and should “never see the light of day.” According to this account, John Ehrlichman had earlier urged John Dean to dispose of them in a river. L. Patrick Gray reportedly kept the files for about a week before putting them in a burn bag in his office; he said he had not been directly ordered to destroy them, but understood what John Ehrlichman and John Dean wanted.

The phrase itself came from a follow-up conversation. Bernstein reached an associate of John Dean, who asked, “You ever hear the expression ‘Deep Six’?” He then explained, “That’s what Ehrlichman said he wanted done with those files.” The remark did not describe a completed act so much as the intended fate of the records, and the account distinguished that intention from L. Patrick Gray’s later explanation of what he had done with them.

From Reported Language to Publication

Once Bernstein had checked the account with John Dean’s associate, the story was considered solid. Howard Simons ordered the front page remade for the second edition. The phrase thus moved from a private description of what a senior official allegedly wanted into a concise, publishable account of the files’ intended disposal.

The expression’s force depended on its context. It followed reports that the files contained politically dangerous material, an alleged suggestion to put them in a river, and L. Patrick Gray’s account of placing them in a burn bag. Against those concrete details, “Deep Six” sounded less like casual slang than an indirect order to ensure that the records could not resurface.

Narrative and Political Significance

Bernstein was more shaken by the episode than by anything since the Watergate break-in. The language and setting of the alleged exchange made the conduct seem openly conspiratorial: the narrative compares the discussion between John Ehrlichman and John Dean to a pair of Mafiosi arranging to discard evidence before it harmed their leader. That comparison is the reporters’ interpretation of the reported words and circumstances, not a separate quotation from the participants.

“Deep Six” also crystallized a broader pattern in the book’s accounts of enforced silence. Hugh Sloan recalled that employees were not explicitly told to lie, but were told to “Hold ranks,” or “Keep the ship together.” The two expressions do different work: the latter phrases present silence as organizational loyalty, while “Deep Six,” in this episode, names the desired disappearance of records. Together, they show how indirect language could obscure the acts being demanded while still making their practical meaning unmistakable.