Dick Cheney by the Book

I'm afraid I consider the Cheney memoir a must read.

Unlike George W. Bush, a relative newcomer to American politics, Dick Cheney has been with us for a long time. His first government job was in the Nixon White House. His second, in the Ford White House, where he was recruited by Ford Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfeld. Then the U.S. House of Representatives. Then secretary of defense for George H. W. Bush. And until George. W. Bush fired Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and curtailed Cheney's power, he served as co-president of the United States.

I'm afraid I consider the Cheney memoir a must read.

Unlike George W. Bush, a relative newcomer to American politics, Dick Cheney has been with us for a long time. His first government job was in the Nixon White House. His second, in the Ford White House, where he was recruited by Ford Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfeld. Then the U.S. House of Representatives. Then secretary of defense for George H. W. Bush. And until George. W. Bush fired Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and curtailed Cheney's power, he served as co-president of the United States.

A novelist would describe Cheney as a dynamic character, with a fascinating career arc.  He is the material of great opera. The son of a civil servant who started out with nothing and married the brilliant Lady Lynne McChenney. Together they dedicate themselves to the acquisition of power and wealth. He cultivates his own Machiavelli, David Addington, whom he hires away from the CIA and with whom he conspires for 30 years. He fiercely defends the sexual orientation his gay daughter and positions his brilliant and ruthless (straight) daughter in high office at the State Department. He helps steer the nation into a series of wars, expanding the authority of the executive branch. And he does it all despite a heart that failed him when he was 37 and continued to remind him that one coronary event stood between him and death. (George W. Bush, who inherited political power and wealth and married a dull woman who smiles a lot, is at best a soap opera.)

And the Wars? Let us count them.

The Contra War, in which Ronald Reagan defied the Congress (and the law) to fund bands of insurgents and terrorists attempting to overthrow the government of Nicaragua. As a member of the Republican leadership team, Wyoming Congressman Dick Cheney supported the Contra campaign. As ranking Republican on the Iran-Contra Select Committee investigating Reagan's illegal movement of weapons and money between Iran and Nicaragua, Cheney successfully ran a damage-control operation for the president.

Reagan's invasion of Grenada, which Congressman Cheney supported without reservation, and from which he learned how important it is in a democratic society to control journalists' access to information.

George H. W. Bush's invasion of Panama, which Cheney encouraged then coordinated as Secretary of Defense. Like Grenada, Panama was a war of choice whose objective was regime change. It bore the signature marks that would distinguish Cheney throughout his career in the executive branch: the use of broad executive authority, contempt for Congress, disregard for non-American casualties, and near-absolute secrecy.

The First Gulf War, in which Secretary of Defense Cheney applied lessons learned in Panama. The elder Bush also called on Cheney to travel to Riyadh to persuade the Saudi monarchy to accept unprecedented U.S. presence in the kingdom. Cheney also reviewed the initial war plan and declared it unacceptable.

The invasion of Afghanistan.

The Invasion of Iraq, which Cheney worked to make inevitable, through carefully timed speeches that drove policy and by compelling the CIA to provide actionable intelligence where there was none. (In the run-up to the war, Cheney made between eight and 15 visits to C.I.A. headquarters in Langley, something never before done by a vice president.)

Cheney's admission in his memoir that he urged Bush to bomb Syria is in no way surprising.

I am eager to read Cheney's justification for killing a diplomatic initiative that might have neutralized Iran as a threat to Iraq, Israel, and the United States.

In May 2003, Iran approached the U.S. government with an urgent request to open up negotiations, according to what Col. Lawrence Wilkerson told me five years ago when I was working on a book about Cheney. (Wilkerson worked for Colin Powell at the Defense Department and the Pentagon.)

Iran's leaders had watched U.S. forces quickly dispose of the Iraqi military, and feared that once Baghdad was under U.S. control the American Army would turn toward Tehran.

Through the Swiss embassy, the Iranian government sent a letter offering to negotiate their nuclear program; their relationship with Israel; their support of Hezbollah; and an exchange of al-Qaeda prisoners they held.

"The moderates in Iran wanted to deal," Wilkerson told me and my co-author Jake Bernstein. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was not yet president and Iranian moderates were still in power.

The U.S. had spent more than $100 billion on a war war in which tens of thousands of Americans and Iraqis were killed. The militarized diplomacy that Cheney and the neocons advocated had acheived its objective, convincing the Iranians that negotiation was in their interest. Secretary of State Colin Powell was eager to explore the first official discussions with Iran since the hostage crisis at the end of the Carter administration.

"Cheney said 'no'", Wilkerson said.

Cheney even reprimanded the Swiss ambassador for interfering in U.S. diplomatic affairs. (Iran relied on Swiss diplomats to communicate with the U.S. because Tehran has no diplomatic relations with Washington.)

Cheney has a lot of explaining to do. I'm eager to see what he delivers.