In My Time - Dick Cheney [172]
After the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, America faced new threats. The number of nations with ballistic missile technology was growing and among them were rogue regimes willing to pass on and potentially use their capabilities. We had to be able to build systems that could intercept incoming missiles if we were to keep the country safe, but the ABM Treaty wouldn’t permit us to do it.
I’d been an advocate for a long time of abrogating the ABM Treaty, which we had the right to do, but during the Bush administration’s first months it became clear that the State Department had another view. There was concern that withdrawing from the treaty would put unnecessary strain on our relations with Russia, which led Secretary Powell to argue that we should stop short of abrogation and negotiate loopholes in the treaty for developing missile defenses. As I saw it, the State Department had it backward. Rather than compromising on policies that were in our national interest out of concern that we would offend other nations, we should do what served our security best, while undertaking diplomatic efforts to bring our allies and partners along.
President Bush had promised during the campaign to develop and deploy defenses against missiles, and he was good on his word. After lengthy consultations that included the Russians and our European allies, he called Vladimir Putin in December 2001 to formally give six months’ notice of our intent to abrogate. All the dire warnings about an adverse Russian reaction turned out to be wrong. Putin accepted the president’s decision and reassured him that any negative reaction in Russia would be manageable.
It was during discussions about the ABM Treaty in June 2001 that Presidents Bush and Putin met for the first time. After this meeting President Bush praised Putin and talked about looking into his eyes and getting a “sense of his soul.” The president was criticized for the remark, but I think it reflected the hopes of the time that Putin would be a different kind of Russian leader, one who would put his nation on a path to greater freedom. I must say I was never too optimistic about Putin. When I looked into his eyes, I saw an old KGB hand. I didn’t trust him and still don’t, but then I’m not much given to trusting Russian or Soviet leaders.
President Bush’s decision to abrogate the ABM Treaty was exactly the right thing to do. Today, we are faced with a nuclear-armed North Korea experimenting with intercontinental ballistic missiles, an Iran that is trying to acquire nuclear weapons, and a China that is increasing its capabilities. Thanks to George W. Bush—and to the excellent leadership of Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld—we have developed and deployed a number of interceptors. And we are safer for it.
AS I WAS SETTLING into the vice presidency, Lynne and I were also settling into the house that would be our home for the next eight years, the Vice President’s Residence at the U.S. Naval Observatory. In warm weather, our grandkids swam in the pool, drove their battery-operated cars around the driveway, and roamed the grounds, stopping in to chat with the uniform division Secret Service agents at the guard posts.
With my oldest granddaughter, Kate Perry, enjoying an early summer day on a hammock on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. (Official White House Photo/David Bohrer)
When it snowed, there were great sledding hills. Most weekends when we were in town, the grandkids would unroll their sleeping bags on the floor of our bedroom for sleepovers. We also shared our home with three wonderful Labs—Davie, who died and is buried there in the shade of a beautiful oak tree; Jackson, who came to live with us after 9/11; and Nelson, who was a bit of a misguided Mother’s Day gift for Lynne, but who quickly won a special place in all our hearts.
The vice president’s house was a great