Customer Reviews

Cheney: The Untold Story of America's Most Powerful and Controversial Vice President

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Stephen F. Hayes's new biography of Vice President Cheney is narrative history at its best. Decidedly not an authorized biography, the book is unsparing in its account of Cheney's development from an "analytical" political scientist, primarily interested in political methods, into the most powerful American conservative since President Reagan. Hayes shows how Cheney's experience in the Nixon and Ford administrations encouraged his development from a "moderate" without ideological moorings into a principled conservative whose skepticism of governmental solutions to human problems is founded upon firsthand knowledge of governmental failures.

Hayes is interested in neither gossip nor dirt. If you want that, you'll have to find a different book. Nor is it accurate to say that Hayes offers little new information. I had not known, for example, that Cheney went from being a Yale dropout and electrical-company lineman (with two drunk driving arrests) to White House insider in just a decade. If a man capable of such improbable progress fascinates you; if you do not want your preconceptions confirmed, either for or against the man; if you are curious how the "most powerful and controversial vice president" in American history came to assume that title; if you are convinced that a man ought to be judged by how he explains himself rather than by conspiracy theories; if you want to learn about the Vice President's moral and intellectual development and if you believe that it is possible, even for your political opponents, to act from moral and intellectual principle; then this is the book for you.

Hayes is a political journalist, and writes like one. As a consequence, the book is not without its faults. It is more of an "oral" biography, depending largely upon interviews, than a "literary" one, depending upon documents. Similarly, it is not scholarly biography, which might supply more background information on events, movements, and the lesser figures in Cheney's life. Because the focus is exclusively on Cheney, things get dropped without explanation. Hayes discusses Cheney's disagreement with Henry Kissinger over whether President Ford should meet with Alexander Solzhenitsyn, for example, but never reports the outcome. (Ford declined to meet with him.) These are small flaws, though, especially given the book's informativeness and easy readability. Overall, this is a superb look into the inner political machinery of the Republican Party over the past three decades, which should appeal to fair-minded opponents and supporters of Vice President Cheney alike.

I was one of those people who hated GWB and Dick Cheney. I thought they both came from the devil and had nothing and did nothing for this country except cause misery and harm. But after the Current President was elected I decided to research these two men myself starting with this book. I don't care what people say but this book is not biased in any way. It gives you a real look at a man people don't know much about nor do they care too, they just want to keep hating and hating him and too me that's quite unfair. Im not even half way through with this book but I find it fascinating and enlightening. Dick Cheney is not Satan nor Darth Vader or whatever it is people want to call him. He started out just like any American, and with alot of hard work and a bit of luck he is what he is today. Sure I disagree with some of the things like the war in Iraq but like I said don't judge a book by it's cover. To those who want to get off their butts and really research this man I recommend you start here at this book and I hope in the end you can look at him in perhaps a different way.

The most important fact this book provides about the vice-president is how effectively he fills a unique role in American history. I am currently reading Harry Truman's memoirs. The contrast between the role Truman filled during his 87 days as vice-president, and the role Dick Cheney has played could not be greater. One reason why Cheney has been so effective is his willingness to subordinate his public image to the desires of the Bush Administration. During the vice-presidential debate, Hayes quotes several observers as saying that Cheney and Lieberman should have been at the top of their respective tickets.(Page 295) On several occasions, the Bush handlers have limited Cheney's contacts with the press to avoid unfavorable comparisons to Bush. This has resulted in the "secrecy" image of Cheney being even more persistent than his own inclinations might have wished. It has also resulted in his poor approval ratings, a new phenomenon for a man whose public image for 25 years was positive and even moderate rather than conservative. His rapid rise in government is chronicled after the false start of his Yale years. I liked this part and it reminded me of a similar situation described in General Tommy Franks' biography. He, too, flunked out of college as a result of too much partying and not enough motivation. Maybe I am more sympathetic from my own experience at that age. Cheney was a varsity athlete and star graduate of Natrona County High School in 1959. After the Yale fiasco, he returned to Wyoming and had a few years where his future wasn't promising. He and his high school sweetheart, Lynne, were married in 1964 and he returned to the University of Wyoming to finish his degree and go on to graduate school. Both worked on PhD programs and he gave up his ambition to be a professor only when the offers in politics became too difficult to turn down.

In 1969, he went to work for Donald Rumsfeld in the Nixon Administration and by 1975, he was Chief of Staff for President Ford. When Ford lost the 1976 election to Jimmy Carter, Cheney returned to Wyoming and, in 1978, was elected as Wyoming's sole member of the House of Representatives. Ironically, his degree from the University of Wyoming was far more helpful there than a Yale degree would have been. It was during that campaign that he suffered his first heart attack. He was 37. His Congressional career was highly successful and he was in line to be Speaker of the House when President George Bush asked him to become Secretary of Defense in the wake of the failure of the John Tower nomination. His famous discretion was in full display during an Evans and Novak TV interview after he had been offered the job but had not yet accepted it. They discussed possible candidates to replace Tower and Cheney said not a word. Novak had to scrap the interview tape the next day when Cheney was announced as the nominee.

The history of his time in the second Bush Administration is more familiar but has been grossly distorted by the hostile press. Some of this was due to the reluctance of the Bush staff to see Cheney on TV. He is extremely capable and light on his feet in interviews with the single exception of his famous mis-speaking that Saddam Hussein had "reconstituted" nuclear weapons in the run up to the Iraq War. It was a rare slip. This biography provids a rare view of this private man. His reticence is unusual in a politician and his reputation will recover after the slings and arrows of contemporary politics fade. He is one of the most important political leaders of the past 50 years and the biography should be required reading for anyone who wishes a full understanding of the post-Vietnam era of American government.

Stephen Hayes writes a biography of Cheney from the view of the right with the most access to the vice president than anyother reporter has ever had. With that being said Cheney is still a very private man who shares little about his life. Hayes is very thorough and provides an excellent look at how Cheney got to where he was from Yale dropout to rising academic that chooses to go into public service in the Ford administration as a chief of staff working with Donald Rumsfeld. After going into elected office and serving as Secretary of Defense Cheney retired from public life to become a board member at Halliburton. What would become one of the most controversial parts of the Bush administration when the government would award no bid contracts to the company.

As with any political book bias is a huge concern. When it comes to Cheney's early years much of what is written matches up with other biographies on Reagan and Ford and really paints a picture of how those offices worked. His recounting of the 9/11 events also is in line with those reports by George Tennet, Richard Clarke and others. When it comes to the war in Iraq there is a lot of dancing around and I found this to be the least helpful part of the book since it seemed to contradict what others had written. Now the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle and I doubt we will ever know if this administration came in with the intent to go to war in Iraq. One thing this book makes very clear is the Bush cabinet was a product of Dick Cheney. He surrounded Bush with close friends like Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Rice and Powell.

As to the charge of Cheney being the puppet master it is hard to get a sense. Cheney was selected as VP because he had the experience in government that George Bush did not and he would use that experience to be an effective administrator. Given Cheney's already reluctant and private nature it created the appearance of a more sinister front than seems to be presented here. Overall it is a very interesting look at Cheney's life and worth the time to read.

"'Am I the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his hole?' Cheney said in 2004. 'It's a nice way to operate, actually'"

There is much more to this than what most people know. For all intents and purposes, Stephen Hayes is correct: Cheney acted as the Secretary of State for many years. He was instrumental in replacing Powell with the much weaker Rice in 2004, as Powell had stood up to Cheney and the neocons for several years, despite delivering his highly controversial UN testimony. In many areas around the world, Cheney was acting outside of the normal avenues of the administration. With a half a trillion dollars per year in the hands of Rumsfeld in the Pentagon, he could do that. Unfortunately for him, you can't kill flies with hammers.

I think this book needs to be read for context of the Cheney administration. He controlled all the information presented to the President. However, something happened in 2007 that made Bush more aware of what was going on at the time. Those events can't be discussed by Hayes or anyone, but it resulted in Bush distrusting Cheney to a degree.

Cheney's senior intelligence apparatus had been replaced in 2006 in the CIA, the Pentagon and the NSC. His ability to operate the national security levers had altered radically in 2007, resulting in his inability to vet the "proper" intelligence for Bush. The most dangerous period, after Powell left, was between 2004-2007, where an enormous amount of disinformation was being entered into the system. It's still there for all to view, some even entering in Congress.

There's much to be mined here for information. I encourage any real journalists to examine this information and start from there to truly investigate the events that went on during the former Global War on Terror.

For more than a quarter-century in public life, virtually no one from any part of the political spectrum had a bad word to say about Dick Cheney. In fact, even rabid partisans like Ted Kennedy Tip O'Neill had words of praise for Dick Cheney.

All that changed, of course, when Cheney accepted George W. Bush's invitation to become the Vice Presidential candidate. Within a matter of hours, seemingly, every left-winger in the world knew of Cheney as an evil man, a living Satan.

Such is the nature of partisan poltics in the contemporary United States.

Stephen F. Hayes, much to his credit, has written a true biography of Dick Cheney, not a hagiography. Cheney's life is extensively examined in more than 500 pages by friend and foe alike. Warts, such as Cheney's youthful arrests for drunk driving, are there along with Cheney's exemplary service to the nation as Chief Of Staff to President Ford and Secretary of Defense and as a Congressman.

Hayes provides an extensive bibliography of 32 pages, so critics will find themselves grasping at straws when they hurl what have become the standard smears of the political left, such as canards that Halliburton, which Cheney ran for a few years, has been awarded contracts in an irregular manner and that Cheney profits therefrom.

Hayes was accorded great access to Cheney through hours of one-on-one interviews.

There is no question that Hayes is well disposed to Cheney: anyone familiar with Hayes would know that before even picking up this book. But Hayes does not yield to his subject. In fact, his objectivity throughout is commendable.

There is a richness to this book. Dozens of details which might escape attention in the hub-bub of daily life are recalled here, such as the fact that Nancy Pelosi was one of the few members of Congress regularly briefed on the electronic intercept program that she so roundly condemned after The New York Times leaked its existence. In short, Pelosi fully approved the program before she fully condemned it, when that became poltically expedient.

Cheney throughout remains Cheney: an intelligent man who doesn't talk much, a thoroughly capable and competent administrator and, above all, a man who cares deeply about the future of the United States, which many of his detractors seem not to.

People opposed to Cheney as a matter of political partisanship will not be drawn to this biography because it does not cater to their need to malign Cheney, the same man who their leaders praised for more than a quarter-century. Conservatives will find illumination of a man many of them have grown to respect. Those who are simply interested in history in the making will find Hayes' work to be an excellent example of the craft of biography and will find themselves confronted with an interesting portrait of an interesting man.

Overall, Stephen Hayes has done the nation and the man a service with this commendable, objective and informative biography of Dick Cheney.

Jerry

As I write this, less than a week before President Bush and Vice-President Cheney enter their hard-earned retirement, I'm happy to say I finally found something to read that wasn't pitifully biased against this man. Even the "Tag Suggestions" that were provided with this review ("evil...neocon garbage, glorified excrement, lies, pathetic...") reflect what is wrong with much of America today -- a complete inability to find something good to say about certain people. I found this book informative and entertaining while providing rarely-seen insights into the background and character of one of American's best Vice-Presidents.

I read this book because I saw the documentary called "Cheney's Law" on PBS and was interested in learning more about Cheney.

This was a very good read in the life of Dick Cheney. How his life before meeting his wife was one of misdirection, and how Mrs. Cheney would be a huge influence on him to get his life together. Because of her, he went back to school to earn his BA and MA in Political Science, which created the interest which would propel him to be Vice President.

The book tells how he won a seat to congress and how his views would ferment into his view of a strong executive branch, that would form with the Presidency of George W. Bush. How he met Donald Rumsfeld and this friendship would create a dynamic duo that would change the face of Washington and the Presidency.

The book portrays Cheney as reluctant to take the VP slot, he was doing very well in the private sector and was reluctant to go back to Washington after the defeat of Bush in '92. GWB really wanted Cheney to be his VP, and kept involving Cheney in the campaign.

As VP, Cheney had suspicious view of the Media, which is why he hardly ever talks to them. He sees them has vultures who want to shred the next person and expose them as the next major headline. Also Cheney is very private person as well. He believes that the presidency should be able to do what it can to protect the American Republic, he views the laws that limited the presidency, such as the Church laws that restricted the CIA and laws that limited the presidency to 60 days of war before going to congress.

He believes the Presidency should be very limited with the interaction of congress. I did not get the impression that he wants a superior branch for the Executive, but a branch that has the authority and power to do what is needed to protect America, without getting bogged down by partisan wrangling in congress and partisan media bias, that may find actions by the president to be "harmful" to American interest.

He views the Media has done more damage to the Presidency and that Congress has created such a rift between the two branches that every action by the Executive Branch as suspicion. Since Watergate, the media has tried to bring down every president with scandal. Reagan with Iran Contra and Clinton with Monicagate and now Bush with "lying to the American people" ect.

These seem to be the reason why the Bush Administration is so secretive and why Cheney is rarely seen in public. But this is also the irony of the Administration, their philosophy of keeping things quiet have created a scandal all its own.

So this is a good book on the power behind the presidency of George W Bush and the rise of Dick Cheney.

"Cheney" Is a life long-biography of the man whose vice-presidency was merely the culmination of a long span of public service. I would describe it as fairly even handed in its approach. Author Stephen F. Hayes overlooks neither his early drunk driving charges nor the controversy over the Scooter Libby conviction, but does not dwell on them merely to bash his subject. Overall I would rate the treatment as favorable, but not a campaign biography.

As I mentioned, this is a whole life biography and as such gives the reader a remarkable perspective on the man and an insight into our public figures. It begins with his youth and continues through his high school years in Wyoming, his unsuccessful studies at Yale and the completion of his degree at the University of Wyoming, all while his relationship with Lynne was deepening. At the age of 37 Cheney would suffer his first heart attack. From then on his cardiac health would always be just below or breaking the surface of his life voyage.

I think that we often think of political figures as one dimensional characters driven by political success to the exclusion of all else. This book reveals a man whose life story was shaped by a series of career choices which could have altered that story profoundly. Initially expected to pursue an academic career, Cheney eventually had to choose between that and government service. He chose government. His rapid assent to chief of staff in the Ford White House sets the stage for a segment of this book which takes readers not only into Cheney's role but also gives us a fly on the wall's view of the Nixon pardon, earned re-entry for Vietnam war resisters and the unsuccessful 1976 campaign. For me this was the first really good part of the book. After that defeat, Cheney had to choose between a private life and an entry into the political arena. While contemplating a run for the U.S. Senate, an opening in the Wyoming House seat led to the decision that would send him back to Washington. A rapid rise into the House Leadership set up another choice when President George H.W. Bush invited him back into the executive branch. After weighing his options, he again set his life story on its course which included crucial time spent as Secretary of Defense during the Gulf War. This segment of the book provides the reader with an invitation into the meetings that set the war into motion and carried it to victory. Here we see President Bush and Gen. Collin Powell up close. With Bush's defeat in 1992, Cheney faced another choice and this time renounced politics as he chose private business by joining the Halliburton firm, a decision that would bring him wealth, enhanced prestige and credentials. At this point it seemed that Dick Cheney's public career was over and he would make his mark in the realm of international commerce. The offer to run for vice-president with George W. Bush presented another choice between public and private life. As readers of my Amazon reviews know, I have read many biographies, but rarely do I encounter a subject whose life took so many turns of significance to himself and the world.

The last roughly half of the book covers that part of his career. In this segment we see up close the role of the man chosen to help govern, not campaign. We are brought up close to two campaigns, the molding of an administration, over which Cheney exerted enormous influence, 9-11 and its aftermath and the gradual unraveling of the administration and Cheney's personal influence.

I think that this is an excellent biography which helps us understand a man who, through his choices, guided his life and affected all of ours. Full disclosure is called for. I voted for the Bush-Cheney ticket twice and am glad that I did. A reader who is a Cheney hater and wants to find sinister motives in his every move will not enjoy this book. For a Cheney fan or a reader with an open mind, it presents a rare insight into a very real man and the national affairs of his era.

No political figure of our time is more worth knowing about than Dick Cheney. Discovering the truth about Cheney, his beliefs, his acts and his influence can not be accomplished by reading any single account. That said, having read several books about Cheney, this is one of the books you must read.

Some of the comments have confused the notion of bias with perspective. This account is no more biased than Bob Woodward's third book on the Bush administration. Both have their perspective. I enjoyed both author's accounts.

Ignored in most of the reviews is the clear history of Cheney working effectively with members of both parties as Secretary of Defense and a Republican leader in the House. He was approved on a 99-0 vote for Secretary of Defense with praise from Ted Kennedy and other liberal Democrats. The later attacks are at odds with the man who worked so hard to be practical and was known as the leader who could reach consensus when everyone else had given up trying to work a deal on a bill.

The most interesting and valuable insights presented for consideration was the extent, if at all, to which national security was politicized and used in such a way as to challenge the safety of the country and Cheney's belief and policies regarding the role of Congress and the Presidency in area of foreign policy and national security.

One thing is certain: Dick Cheney was no lightweight. He said and will probably continue to say little that would attack Bush, Powell, Rice, Tenet(CIA) or Bremer (Iraq). He clearly cared deeply for Gerry Ford and Don Rumsfeld. Read the book.