In My Time; A Personal and Political Memoir

New York: Threshold Editions, 2011. First edition. First printing [stated]. Hardcover. Near fine/Very good. [8], 565, [1] p. Illustrations (some in color). Notes. Index. Bookplate signed by Dick Cheney facing title page. Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney (born January 30, 1941) is an American politician and businessman who was the 46th Vice President of the United States from 2001 to 2009, under President George W. Bush. Cheney attended the University of Wyoming, where he earned a BA and an MA in Political Science, and began his political career as an intern for Congressman William A. Steiger, eventually working his way into the White House during the Nixon and Ford administrations, where he served as the White House Chief of Staff, from 1975 to 1977. In 1978, Cheney was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives representing Wyoming's At-large congressional district from 1979 to 1989; he was reelected five times, briefly serving as House Minority Whip in 1989. Cheney was selected to be the Secretary of Defense during the presidency of George H. W. Bush, holding the position for the majority of Bush's term from 1989 to 1993. Cheney oversaw the 1991 Operation Desert Storm, among other actions. Cheney was chairman and CEO of Halliburton Company from 1995 to 2000. During Cheney's tenure as Vice President, he played a lead behind the scenes role in Bush Administration's response to the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks and coordination of the War on Terror. He was a proponent of the Iraq War and defender of the Administration's record on terrorism. In 2011, Cheney published his memoir In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir, written with daughter Liz Cheney. In his #1 New York Times bestseller, former Vice President Dick Cheney delivers a forty-year portrait of American politics and shares unyielding reflections on his role as one of the most steadfast and influential statesmen in the history of our country. In his enlightening and provocative memoir—a stately page-turner with flashes of surprising humor, remarkable candor, and powerful resonance—former Vice President Dick Cheney takes readers through his experiences as family man, policymaker, businessman, and politician during years that shaped our collective history. Eyewitness to events at the highest levels, Dick Cheney brings to life scenes from past and present: He chronicles his coming-of-age as a high school athlete in Casper, Wyoming, and courting homecoming queen Lynn Vincent, his future wife. He describes driving through the White House gates just hours after the 1974 resignation of Richard Nixon, to manage the Ford transition. He portrays his response to the national crisis of 9/11, when he conveyed orders from the White House bunker to shoot down a hijacked airliner if it would not divert. And he reveals how his political vision has endured through his extraordinary ascent to the heights of American public life. Derived from a Kirkus review: Cheney is a company man through and through, a servant of Republicans from the time of LBJ to the recent past—if there is anything to be learned from this memoir, it is that. The author opens with the outrage of 9/11, in which one thought was foremost on his mind, apart from clearing the sky of planes: namely, "guaranteeing the continuity of a functioning United States government." In this, he writes, he was the essential element without which that continuity was unsustainable. Cheney's memoir is political to the extent that he plays the games of hardball politics with everyone he meets, and he makes sure to constantly remind readers of American supremacy. Colin Powell was his ally until his taste for the war in Iraq weakened, whereupon it was clear to Cheney that Powell had to go. Ditto Condoleezza Rice and Donald Rumsfeld. Cheney's take on the world is scholarly, much like that of Henry Kissinger. He is methodical, as when he carefully accounts for his holdings in a certain corporation at the time of his vice presidency: The underlying point of the book is that Bush/Cheney were right in invading Iraq. Let the reader be the judge—until, that is, history decides on the matter.