First published 2015
Fox News journalist James Rosen sits across from former Vice President Dick Cheney in his northern Virginia residence. The December 2014 interviews span three days and capture ten hours of unrestricted conversation with one of America's most polarizing political figures. Cheney speaks openly about his strained relationships with George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice during his second term decline in influence. He revisits his troubled youth, including dual drunk driving arrests and his Yale dismissal. The conversations cover his Watergate-era political awakening, his September 11th experiences, and his Iraq War decisions. Cheney discusses his involvement in CIA enhanced interrogation methods and NSA surveillance without warrants. He reflects on current threats from Syria and North Korea while sharing personal thoughts on mortality and faith. This complete record reveals the unfiltered perspectives of a vice president whose power and controversy defined early twenty-first century American politics.
Genres: biography, political-science, 21st-century, american-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: intimate, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Virginia, United States
Period: 2014, 2001, Watergate Era
256 pages · Hardcover · Regnery
Content warnings: alcohol-abuse