With Dick Cheney, What You See is What You Get

• Print Length: 576 pages
• Published: August 30, 2011
• Read It: September, 2011
• My Rating: 5 out of 5 (For a boring politician, his book is extremely well written and engaging)

A lot of us who follow politics closely have had an opinion about VP Cheney. Prior to the Iraq war, most of us probably admired him. Towards 2004, a lot of us started to dislike him. Disliking him probably had its routes with the way he conducts himself. Because he is so sure of himself, he sometimes comes off as rude and arrogent. Love him or hate him, when you followed Dick Cheney throughout the years, you knew that he is a principled man with unwavering commitment to his values.

Most memoirs of former leaders have their most interesting parts in the stories they tell of the their beginnings–the start of the journey that took them to the top. Cheney tells a fascinating story of a young college graduate student studying the history of congress’ voting record. Somehow he ended up working for Donald Rumsfeld, a congressman who later became Defense Secretary under Presidents Ford and Bush-II. This was the window from which he entered the political arena and lead to his transition from a Ph.D student in Milwaukee to Chief of Staff of President Ford. After Ford lost the presidency, Cheney served as a congressman for 10 years before becoming Defense Secretary under George Bush Sr.

Cheney describes himself as extremely hard working and focused and suspects that this may have been a reason for his numerous heart attacks starting as early as age 37. However, his doctor at the time disagreed with this analysis in saying:

“Hard work never killed anybody. What takes a toll is spending your life doing something you don’t want to do.”

This book did not lack Cheney’s strong personality and stubbornness. His voice comes out assured and unapologetic in the pages of this book. Cheney may not be a charismatic politician, but he is smart and takes on issues head-on. While reading this book, you can easily write down the names of the people he liked and of those he didn’t. Collin Powell and Condalisa Rice both had the lion’s share of criticisms centered around their lack of support for Cheney’s convictions. During the Bush-II years, the government made it clear that if you were not in agreement with the United States’ policies, you were an enemy. Dick Cheney treated people around him in a similar manner; if you did not agree with him, you were most likely considered to be his enemy. It is cristal clear that this is how Cheney sees the world; as bipolar. Here’s what he thinks about the direction Erogan’s government is headed:

“Today, Turkey appears to be in the middle of a dangerous transition from a key NATO ally to an Islamist-governed nation developing close ties with countries like Iran and Syria at the expense of its relations with the United States and Israel”

Being from Kuwait, I particularly was very interested in reading his account of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the United States’ subsequent efforts to liberate it. At that time, Cheney was Secretary of Defense. In July 19, 1990, the US government showed the Kuwaiti government images of  Iraqi forces massed along its border with Iraq. However, Hosni Mubarak assured that this intra-arab dispute will be solved internally without the use of force. Two weeks later, Saddam invaded Kuwait in a few hours and without any resistance. In the discussions that took place later in August of 1990 between Cheney and King Fahad about the deployment of American troops to protect the Kingdom, he quotes the King as saying:

“‘The Kuwaitis waited,’ [King Fahad] said, ‘and now they are living in our hotels.’”

After the green light from the King, the americans deployed 200,000 troops to go against Iraq’s 400,000 army in an effort to protect the Kingdom and, later on, liberate Kuwait.

It’s too bad that Cheney did not spend more time discussing the five years he had spent as Chairman and CEO of Haliburton, the large contracting and oil services company. He only mentions it in one or two places in the book when he talked about how he was chosen for that job. Being interested in business, it would have been interesting to hear his account of his experience running this large company. It is certainly a grey area in his history that a lot of people link with the Iraq war. Opening up Iraq meant huge business opportunities for US oil companies.

Overall, regardless of the opinion we may have about this man, it remains true that he is an interesting figure in interesting times. Hearing his account of history is an important part of the puzzle that makes up world history. He was a leader in a sensitive time in his country’s history, and his decisions will have a lasting effect on the United States for years to come. He was never a politician who looked at poll numbers, he was more like a CEO who focused on the long-term success of his company and ignored the short-term fluctuation of the stock market.