Dick Cheney's Long-Awaited Memoir

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright August 29, 2011
All Rights Reserved.                                         

              Firing back at his critics, former Vice President Dick Cheney set the record straight “In My Time” [Simon & Schuster, 2011], blasting his foes and praising his supporters.  Calling “In My Time” a series of “cheap shots,” former Bush Secretary of State Colin L. Powell objected Cheney’s 400-page whitewashed version of history, taking exception with Cheney’s view of Powell’s loyalty.  Complaining to CBS’s Bob Schieffer on “Face The Nation,” Powell found little to cheer about in Cheney’s memoir.  Cheney was especially critical of Powell for operating independently of the White House once he realized he’d been duped by phony intel after pitching Bush’s case for war against Saddam Hussein to the U.N. Security Council Feb.6, 2003.  Once weapons of mass destruction were not found in Iraq, Powell realized he’d been had by Cheney’s Pentagon cabal.

            In the year lead up to the Iraq War, Bush administration officials, especially Powell, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice routinely appeared on national TV and radio talks shows warning of Saddan’s dangerous arsenal of WMD.  “Well who went to the United Nations and, regrettably, with a lot of false information,” Powell told Schieffer, railing against Cheney’s criticism of Powell’s disloyalty to the Bush administration.  Without naming names, this was Powell’s coming out party, finally admitting that he was set up to spew Cheney’s propaganda to the nation and U.N.  In the run up to war, Cheney was fed intel not by George J Tenet’s CIA or the Louis J. Freeh’s FBI—or any other reliable source—but by a group of his handpicked hacks led by Douglas Feith Jr. at the Pentagon’s Office of Special Plans. 

            Powell knows he made a fool of himself at the U.N. selling Cheney’s cherry-picked intelligence about Saddam’s alleged arsenal of WMD.  Powel said he had ”no doubt” to the Security Council about Saddam’s nuclear weapons program.  “It was me.  That wasn’t Mr. Cheney,” Powell told Schieffer, expressing regret over every believing Cheney’s word.  Powell took strong exception to Cheney’s version of the Valerie Plame affair.  Cheney blamed leaking of Plame’s covert CIA identity on Asst. Deputy Defense Secretary Richard Armitage.  Instead of owning any responsibility for the leak to Armitage, Cheney blamed the matter on Armitagae, the State Department and Powell.  Cheney’s Chief of Staff I. Louis “Scooter” Libby was convicted March 6, 2007 of perjury and obstruction of justice.  Cheney let Libby fall on his sword to spare the White House—especially himself—more embarrassment.

            Whether admitted to or not by Cheney, the Plame Affair started when the Vice President decided to retaliate against former Iraq Amb. Joe Wilson who embarrassed former President George W. Bush by refuting his assertion in the 2003 State of the Union Speech about Saddam trying to buy “yellowcake” uranium from Niger, further proof the Bush administration used phony intel to justify the Iraq War.  Cheney had given up on Powell when Powell endorsed Barack Obama for president in 2008.  “I didn’t know he was still a Republican,” said Cheney about Powell in 2009 on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”  Cheney, the former CEO of oil servicing giant Halliburton who’s had several heart attacks and suffers from congestive heart failure, is now 70-years-old.  While he lives on a battery-powered heart pump, he not faint-of-heart and is one of the shrewdest and cleverest VPs in U.S. history.

            Cheney promised his book, due to for release Tues., Aug. 30., would “explode heads.”  “That’s quite a visual” said Powell.  “And in fact, it’s the kind of headline I would expect to come out of a gossip columnist or the kind of headline you might see one of the supermarket tabloids write.  It’s not the kind of headline I would have expected to come from a former vice president of the United States of America,” said Powell, expressing the kind of disdain rarely seen from former members of the same administration.  Powell hasn’t been able to get over how his good name was besmirched by Bush and Cheney to sell the Iraq War.  Powell ‘s March 6, 2003 speech to the Security Council destroyed his reputation as a man of integrity.  Powell demonized at the time the good name of U.N. Chief Weapon’s Inspector, Sweden’s Dr. Han Blix who begged the White House to let inspections continue.

            Cheney’s new book gives a whopping encore of the same propaganda that burned his reputation as the most shrewd and clever VP in U.S. history.  He continues to justify the U.S. war in Iraq that now looks like the kind of salesmanship that would have made P.T. Baranum proud.  Powell’s strong response to Cheney’s book reflects his lingering frustration from being used by the Bush White House to sell the Iraq War.  “There’s nothing wrong with saying you disagree. But it’s not necessary to take these kinds of barbs and then try to pump a book up by saying heads will be exploding,” said Powell, believing that someone from the administration had to set the record straight.  While Cheney’s entitled to his version of history, he’s not at liberty to continue trashing people at others’ expense, especially Powell and Condi.  Powell couldn’t kick back and let Cheney get away with blowing more smoke.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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