Cheney's Memoir Irks Former Bush Officials

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright September 2, 2011
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           Former Vice President Dick Cheney’s memoir “In My Time” [Simon & Schuster, 2011] lived up to his promise of “exploding heads,” drawing more ire from former Secretary of States Condoleezza Rice and Colin L. Powell and Powell’s former chief of staff Lawrence Wilkerson.  Before the books official, Tues., August 30 release date, Powell objected to Cheney’s “cheap shots,” denying that he had anything to do with Powell’s resignation.  Three years into Powell’s term as secretary of state, White House officials led by Cheney urged Powell to present the U.S. case for war against Saddam Hussein in the U.N. Security Counsel March 6, 2003.  Armed with a convincing multimedia presentation prepared by Wilkerson, Powell pitched the administration’s case for war.  Once the invasion was complete in April 2003, Powell found out the hard way that his presentation was bogus.

            Powell reluctantly presented the White House case, party because he knew the consequences of toppling Saddam Hussein.  Back in 1991 during the firs Gulf War, Powell, as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Secretary of State James Baker and National Security Advisor Brent Scocroft urged former President George H.W. Bush to avoid toppling Saddam.  All believed that it would cause a power vacuum, opening the door for Islamic extremism and anarchy.  Powell took Iraq’s post-invasion especially hard, watching the chaos and death toll mount on U.S. troops.  Powell knew that Cheney’s handpicked cabal of “neocons” led by Douglas J. Feith Jr at the Pentagon’s Office of Special Plans supplied the White House the phony intel on Saddam’s alleged arsenal of weapons of mass destruction.  Powell got burned presenting Cheney’s cherry-picked case for war.

            Powell objected to Cheney’s description in “In My Time” that he pushed him into resigning.  When you consider all the events, Powell’s lingering bad taste from Cheney influenced his decision to bail on the Bush administration.  Powell’s endorsement of President Barack Obama in 2008 prompted Cheney to question the former secretary’s Republican credentials.  Following Powell’s lead, Rice also disputed Cheney’s version that she didn’t keep former President George W. Bush informed about nuclear negotiations with North Korea.  “You can talk about policy differences without suggesting that your colleague somehow misled the president,” said Rice.  “You know, I don’t appreciate the attack on my integrity that that implies,” raising disturbing questions about the factual accuracy of Cheney’s book.  Rice also objected to Cheney’s view about Bush 2003 State of the Union Speech.

            Cheney insisted in “In My Time” that Rice was tearful going to Bush about the part of the State of the Union message that said Saddam tried to buy “yellocake” uranium from an African country, bolstering the case for war against the alleged nuclear weapons program.  It wasn’t until former Iraq Amb. Joseph C. Wilson published his op-ed “What I Didn’t Find in Africa” in the New York Times July 6, 2003 that the real scandal brewed in the Bush White House.  Wilson found no evidence that Saddam ever tired to purchase “yellowcake.”  On July 14, 2003, only eight days after Wilson’s op-ed, the late syndicated columnist Robert Novak outed Wilson’s wife Valerie Plame as a covert CIA agent.  Much investigation traced the leak to Asst. Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz’s assistant Richard Armitage.  Plame’s outing prompted an intense investigation by Chicago’s U.S. Atty. Patrick J. Fitzgerald.

             Fitzgerald’s investigation led to Cheney’s former Chief of Staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby conviction of perjury and obstruction of justice March 6, 2007.  While Bush commuted Libby’s sentence July 3, 2007, he refused to pardon the 61-year-old former Chief of Staff, causing a rift with Cheney.  While Libby refused to tell the truth, it’s inconceivable he gave Armitage Plame’s information without Cheney’s direction and approval.  Responding to Cheney’s book, Bush played down the squabbles among his former employees.  :”I’m glad members of my family are giving their version of what it was like to serve the country,” said Bush, dismissing the row.  “Eventually objective historians will analyze our administration and draw objective conclusions,” glossing over today’s spat with key Bush officials.  Powell and Rice’s objections indicate problems with Cheney’s account.

            Cheney’s memoir “exploded heads” not because it reveals new information about the Bush administration but precisely because in covers it up.  Calling Rice a crybaby as Secretary of State, Cheney didn’t win friends and influence people.  “It certainly doesn’t sound like me, now, does it?” asked Rice.  “I would never—I don’t remember coming to the vice president tearfully about anything in the entire eight years that I knew him,” attesting, if nothing else, to dramatically different recollections.  “I did the same thing.  I put my version out there,” said Bush, practically admitting that his or Cheney’s “version” don’t match reality.  While serving eight years, Cheney was considered the most powerful VP in U.S. history, having arguably more influence on foreign and domestic policy than the president.  “The only person Cheney doest not seem to find fault with is Cheney,” said Wilkerson, telling the whole story.

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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