In this March 15, 2009 file photo, former Vice President Dick Cheney appears on CNN's "State of the Union" in Washington.
(Kevin Wolf/AP Photo/AP Photo)
Former Vice President Dick Cheney has signed a book deal with a conservative imprint of Simon & Schuster and said he hopes readers of all ideologies will be interested in his story. The memoir by Cheney, widely considered the most powerful vice president in history, is expected to be published in Spring 2011, a few months after President George W. Bush's book comes out.
Cheney's work is currently untitled and will cover his long career in government, from chief of staff under President Ford to vice president under Bush, from Vietnam and Watergate to the first Gulf War and the Sept. 11 attacks.
In a telephone interview Tuesday with The Associated Press, the 68-year-old Cheney noted that he had never written a book about his years in government, which dates back to the 1960s.
"I'm persuaded there are a lot of interesting stories that ought to be told," Cheney said. "I want my grandkids, 20 or 30 years from now, to be able to read it and understand what I did, and why I did it."
Financial terms were not disclosed. A publishing official with knowledge of the negotiations, but not authorized to publicly discuss, said the deal was likely worth at least $2 million. Cheney's literary representative, Washington attorney Robert Barnett, declined comment.
Known for his secrecy while in the Bush administration, Cheney has made it clear since leaving office that he was planning a memoir. He is working on the book — in longhand and on computer — at his home outside of Washington, D.C., and in collaboration with his daughter, Liz Cheney.
Books by former vice presidents rarely attract a lot of interest unless the author is likely to run for president (Richard Nixon had a best seller in the early 1960s with "Six Crises"), or claims an expertise outside of electoral politics (Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth," released in 2006 and the companion to the Academy Award-winning documentary about global warming).
But Cheney's influence is like no other vice president's and his side of the story should at least catch the attention of the general public, including the many who don't like him. An architect and aggressive defender of Bush administration policies, from the Iraq War to the treatment of suspected terrorists, Cheney has consistently had low approval ratings, sometimes under 30 percent, but he is deeply admired by those that stand by him.
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