The Great Rift: Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, and the Broken Friendship That Defined an Era

Dick Cheney and Colin Powell emerged on the national scene more than thirty years ago, and it is easy to forget that they were once allies. It was Cheney who pressed for Powell's appointment as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, over the initial skepticism of the White House. And the two men collaborated closely in the successful American wars in Panama and Iraq during the George H. W. Bush administration.



But from that pinnacle, conflicts of ideology and sensibility drove Cheney and Pow...