united states. october 7th, the military launched operation enduring freedom. attacking al qaeda and the taliban regime in afghanistan. before the year was out, the taliban lost control of the country but the low-grade war would continue almost a decade, posing a serious challenge to american will, next, administration set its sights on iraq. a dangerous foe was believed to be building wupgs, and violating un sanks and dick cheney became a strong advocate for the war. there is no doubt that saddam hussien now has weapons of mass destruction. there is no doubt that he is amassing them to use against our friends and against our allies and against us. it was a radical turn from the first gulf war, when he said we should not spill american blood to force saddam from power. what changed?
it was a minor one. but a bump in the road for an already tumultuous transition. bush and cheney had lost the popular vote but won the electoral college and the presidency. after the supreme court ruled in their favor in a series of decisions on the florida recounts. as the new administration settled in, cheney helped get his longtime friend and mentor donald rumsfeld, a job. his old position, secretary of defense. enormous surprise. i had no more idea of going back into government fulltime than the man in the moon. bret: january 2001, when you are sworn in, in the oval office with cheney again. did you look at each other and say here we go? he wrote it on a piece of paper. bret: there it is. r rummy, who would have thought. dick. 31 years later. he faced his first
and frail cheney remerged. he and hises did are now considering a heart transplant. now 70-years-old, cheney is in a period of reflection as he finishes his memoir on his decades of public service. i ve had a great tour out of the last 40 years most in government, politics. i ve loved every minute of it. the vice president was someone in whom the president could trust to give him his best advice. to argue with people like me. and then when the president decided to [ inaudible ] bret: there are very few people who have the history that you two have. the pinnacle of u.s. power. you reflect on that when you get together? we don t. we talk about the future. we talk about the country. we talk about the world. he s a man who served his country noblely and did it
congressional seat. bret: cheney would be reelected six times. in congress he had two more heart attacks. in 1984 and 88. they wouldn t stop his rise. he became minority whip, the second in command among house republicans. though he was a leader in the legislative branch, he remained a forceful supporter of executive power. speaking out in favor of ronald reagan during the iran contra scandal. i think what the president was guilty of was making unwise decisions sending arms to iran. i think he had the legal authority to do that and seek funds from third countries to support contrast. he had the legal authority to withhold notification from congress. bret: back then cheney was one of the most popular republicans with the media in 1989 president george h.w. bush asked him to before in the executive branch as secretary of defense. i was the special assistant
after ford loses to carter, the rumsfelds go on vacation with the cheneys. right. bret: what did you talk about there? both of us were unemployed. we went down and played a little tennis and sat in the sun and talked about the future. i was clear that dick was thinking about going back to wyoming and interesting himself in politics. bret: cheney did go back to wyoming and ran for congress in 1978. in that first campaign, cheney a 37-year-old, three pack a day man with a family history of coronary disease suffered his first heart attack. having had a mild heart attack, led me to pause and reflect. upon reflection we decided we didn t want to continue the campaign. his wife stood in to enable cheney to take time off to get better and return to the campaign trail and win a congressional seat.