Interview with Vice President Dick Cheney

I’d like to ask you about two of the comments that you have made that have gotten a lot of attention with respect to Iraq. Much has been made about what you said about being greeted as liberators, and about a year ago when you said the insurgency was in its last throes. More recently, you defended that as, “basically accurate.”  With all due respect, sir, isn’t that wrong?

Which?

Both of those?

Both of those. No, I think with respect to the question of were we greeted as liberators, I think we clearly are viewed as liberators by the vast majority of the Iraqi people. No question we’ve had problems with a group of terrorist insurgents, but that’s a very small minority. And I really believe that when the history books are written that what we’ll find is that 2005 was the turning year, the watershed year for Iraq operations. Why? Well, primarily because that’s the year which the Iraqis first had an election in January, when they elected an interim government. That’s the year in which they wrote a constitution—the most up-to-date modern constitution in the Arab world. That’s the year when they ratified that constitution, and finally, you had national elections. They had three national elections last year. In their last national election, they turned out by the millions to participate in that process.

And I think when we look back from the perspective of history, we’ll see that that was the turning point, that was the period of time when the Iraqis stepped up and began to take responsibility for their own fate, for their own affairs, developed a political system and put it in place, as well as participated in a major way in the training of their own security forces—now got some 250,000 of them in the field. And that will have been the time when we turned the corner, when—in effect, got on top of the situation in Iraq and will ultimately succeed in completing our mission.

I don’t think you can judge it just day by day, or what’s happened this week, or what happened last week. I do think you need to have some historic perspective on this, and I think if you take a historical perspective on what we’ve done in Iraq, that, in fact, that will have been the watershed year, if you will.

Back in February you talked about the hunting accident as one of the worst days of your life. Since then it has become a punch line—even for the president. Are you OK with that?

Yes, I am. Fortunately, Harry Whittington is in great shape, and no lasting damage done. But I say it will always be a difficult memory for me in terms of what happened to Harry that day. But, yes, people have had a lot fun with it. And I’ve even used it a few times myself in remarks. And it’s—you need to have a sense of humor if you’re Vice President. There’s no question about that.

At that time you also said you needed some time to think about whether you would hunt again. It has been an important hobby for you. Will you hunt again, sir?

I expect I will.

I also want to ask you about some other personal things for you. Mrs. Cheney is an author. Now your daughter Mary has written a book, and in it she talks about her life in politics. And included in that, she recounts how she came out to you and Mrs. Cheney. You’ve been very private about that.

I have.

How do you feel about her making that public and putting it in print?

Well, Mary — that was Mary’s choice. And she wrote the book and had a lot of fun doing it. I can’t say it was a family enterprise. We all talked about it. We spent several hours, the four of us, two daughters and Lynne and myself, sitting down around the table recalling events that Mary wanted to put into the book. It is — I think for Mary it was a very personal kind of endeavor to write about it. It’s her life. She’s entitled to talk about it if she wants, and I certainly support her.

Is it harder to be the protective father when she chooses to make it public and to put it in—

Well, I’m a very private person. And that hasn’t changed. From the standpoint of Mary’s own life, I think it’s perfectly appropriate for her to talk about it if she wants to. And she choose to do that. And I think it’s a good book.

Speaking of books, Valerie Plame Wilson has gotten a book contract, the CIA officer who became known through the CIA leak case. Any interest in reading that book?

No, I didn’t read her husband’s book either.

You have been in public life for a very long time. Do you think the American people really have a sense of who you are?

Well, some of them do, perhaps. But that’s not why I got involved in public life in the first place. I feel enormously privileged to have had the opportunity over the years to work for several different Presidents. When I started in the White House back in the Nixon administration, I was one of the youngest people in the West Wing, now I’m the oldest. The intervening periods, I’ve worked directly for four Presidents and worked closely with others from the perspective of the Congress. It has been a remarkable career from my perspective. I’ve loved it and still enjoy very much doing it. History will decide how I did. Others can evaluate my performance. A lot of voters have had that opportunity over the years. Fortunately, I’ve never lost an election. That doesn’t mean that I might not lose one if I continued long enough in the business, but I’m not going to be in the business that much longer anyway.

Mr. Vice President, thank you so much for taking time to talk with us.

Thank you, Kelly.

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