Dick Cheney inks $2 million deal for memoirs

25 Jun 2009

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Dick CheneyAs widely expected, former US vice president Dick Cheney has signed a deal with an imprint of Simon & Schuster to write his memoir. Mary Matalin, his close friend and adviser, is editor in chief of Threshold Editions, which will publish the book.

The memoir is scheduled for release in the spring of 2011 and will cover his time in four presidential administrations and as chief executive officer of the oilfield services provider at Halliburton Co. Cheney will reportedly be paid about $2 million for the book.

Cheney, 68, is mainly known for his role as secretary of defence under George H W Bush. Earlier, he was White House chief of staff under Gerald Ford; before that he also served in the administration of Ford's predecessor Richard Nixon. From 1978 to 1989, he was a US representative from Wyoming.

Cheney, who had been looking for a publisher for about two months, joins a roster of Bush administration figures writing memoirs, including previous president George W Bush; his wife Laura; former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice; former treasury secretary Henry M Paulson Jr; former defense secretary Donald H Rumsfeld; and Karl Rove, the former presidential political adviser.

The deal was negotiated by Robert Barnett, a Washington lawyer who also represents President Barak Obama, his predecessors Bush and Bill Clinton.
The former vice president is working with his eldest daughter, Liz Cheney, on the memoir. Liz is helping with research and ''filling in the gaps''.

Cheney wielded considerable influence in the Bush administration. If he writes frankly, he could provide some insights into what happened during those years in the White House. But most observers think such candour is unlikely.

It will be interesting to see how he justifies the failed Iraq war and the illegal detentions at Guantanamo Bay, which have left him with a malodourous global reputation.

His earlier stints with Richard 'Tricky Dick' Nixon and his pardoner Gerald Ford have not enhanced his credibility. Thus one may be justified in thinking that his biography is likely to be only an elaborate justification of failed US policies.

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