Cheney and Powell: A Fractured Friendship

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, we listen in on a book talk given by James Mann, author of The Great Rift: Dickey Cheney, Colin Powell, and the Broken Friendship that Defined an Era. Mann, a journalist and prolific author who has previously written about foreign policy in the Regan, Bush, and Obama administrations, is currently an author-in-residence at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. In his book, Mann explores the relationship between Colin Powell and Dick Cheney during the post-Cold War period from 1988 to 2008. Mann discusses the differences in how the two men saw themselves, whether as politicians, policymakers, or career public servants. This difference sowed the seeds of what would ultimately become a fracture in a friendship that first developed during the Reagan administration. This talk took place at the University of Texas at Austin and was sponsored by the Clements Center.