Vice

Dick Cheney is the most powerful yet most unpopular vice president in U.S. history. He has thrived alongside a president with little interest in policy and limited experience in the ways of Washington. Yet Cheney's quiet, steady rise to prominence over a span of three decades occurred largely behind the scenes. Now journalists Dubose and Bernstein reveal the disturbing truth about the man who has successfully co-opted executive control over the U.S. government, becoming the de facto "shadow president." Revelations include: the intimidation of CIA officials by a vice president bent on obtaining intelligence to support a foregone conclusion; Cheney's secret energy task force, including his meeting with Enron chief Ken Lay months before Lay was indicted; how Cheney helped to kill 2003 diplomatic overtures from Iran to discuss concessions on its nuclear program and policy toward Israel; Cheney's role in engineering multibillion-dollar military contracts in Iraq to benefit Halliburton, the company he once ran.--From publisher description.