In My Time - Dick Cheney [0]
In the Oval Office on April 28, 1975, with President Ford and Don Rumsfeld, two men who changed my life. (Official White House Photo/David Kenner)
With President Bush in the White House residence on Sunday, February 24, 1 991, the morning after we launched ground operations in Operation Desert Storm. I'm briefing the president on our progress in the first hours of the ground war. (Official White House Photo/Dave Valdez)
With President Bush in rhe Oval Office. In 2000, George W. Bush told me he wanted a vice president who would play an important role in helping to govern the nation, and he was true to his word for the entire eight years we served together. (Official White House Photo/David Bohrer)
THRESHOLD EDITIONS
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Copyright © 2011 by Richard B. Cheney
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN 978-1-4391-7619-1
ISBN 978-1-4391-7623-8 (ebook)
To Lynne, who helped me write my life
CONTENTS
Prologue: 9/11
ONE Beginnings
TWO Anybody Here Named Cheney?
THREE Backseat
FOUR The Gentleman from Wyoming
FIVE Mr. Secretary
SIX Desert Shield
SEVEN Desert Storm
EIGHT Out of the Arena
NINE Big Time
TEN Angler
ELEVEN A Nation at War
TWELVE Liberating Iraq
THIRTEEN Intelligence and Politics
FOURTEEN Surge
FIFTEEN Setback
SIXTEEN Endings
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
IN MY TIME
PROLOGUE
September 11, 2001
Special Agent Jimmy Scott burst through the door. “Mr. Vice President, we’ve got to leave now.” Before I could reply he moved behind my desk, put one hand on my belt and another on my shoulder, and propelled me out of my office. He rushed me through narrow West Wing hallways and down a stairway toward the “PEOC,” the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, located underneath the White House.
Being evacuated from my office in the West Wing by Secret Service Agent Jim Scott. September 11, 2001 (Official White House Photo/David Bohrer)
We stopped at the bottom of the stairs in a tunnel outside the PEOC. I watched as Secret Service agents positioned themselves at the top, middle, and bottom of the staircase, creating layers of defense in case the White House itself should be invaded. Agent Scott handed out additional firearms, flashlights, and gas masks. He’d evacuated me from my office, he said, because he’d gotten word over his radio that an inbound, unidentified aircraft was headed for “Crown,” code name for the White House.
Within moments another report came in. “Sir,” Scott said, “the plane headed for us just hit the Pentagon.” Now I knew for certain that Washington as well as New York was under attack, and that meant that President Bush, who had been at an elementary school in Florida, had to stay away. I turned to one of the agents in the tunnel. “Get me the president.” He picked up the handset