"After leaving the Navy, I thought I would be going home," he says, referring to his North Carolina birthplace.

He never made it back.

After spending the last year of his tour of duty stationed in Washington, in 1971 he took a job in the Nixon administration.

"I wound up almost by serendipity working for the Nixon administration as assistant to head of the speechwriting shop."

Being the rookie in an administration that quickly became mired in the Watergate controversy proved to be a formative experience for the young Gergen. By working for a President obsessed with his public image, he was able to learn a great deal about the changing relationship between the presidency and the press.

In 1973, after a series of personnel changes at the White House, Gergen found himself promoted to head the speechwriting department, a post he held until Nixon's resignation in August of 1974.

It was during this period that Gergen was nicknamed "the Sieve" for his willingness to leak details to the press. Gergen later acknowledged that he was a source for the account written by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the days preceding Nixon's resignation.

The Watergate storm baptized Gergen into political life, along the way teaching him how to stay afloat inside the Beltway. Most importantly, Gergen learned the value of increased control over the relationship between the presidency and the press. And apparently, he learned it better than most.

Since the end of the Nixon administration, numerous politicians have sought Gergen's advice.

In 1975, Gergen was selected by Gerald Ford to serve as the director of communications. After Ford's defeat in 1976, Gergen left politics for journalism, eventually becoming managing editor of the conservative American Enterprise Insititute's monthly magazine.

Gergen jumped back into politics in 1980, working behind the scenes for George Bush's presidential campaign. His public support for Bush increased after early primary victories.

But this Navy veteran knew when to jump ship. When Ronald Reagan emerged as the leading candidate, Gergen vanished from the spotlight in the Bush campaign.

Just months later he was named staff director--and later communications director--in the Reagan administration. He served in that capacity for about two years, further honing his skills at selective information disclosure and Presidential image management. In 1983, as is common in politics, Gergen was squeezed out of the position.

In the intervening decade Gergen moved from one lucrative career to the next, working as a managing editor and editor-at-large at U.S. News and World Report, a visiting professor at Duke and as a fellow at the Institute of Politics.

By the 1990s, Gergen was dubbed a communications wizard, and was one of the political "natives" brought in to shore up the missteps of the Clinton Administration's first hundred days.