Those who have looked again at Cheney's biography are struck by his very young age when Gerald Ford named him chief of staff at the White House. It is reported that he had there, in the turbulent days following the resignation of Nixon, a steadying effect, both within the White House and on executive-legislative relations. He is a man of peace, which goes well with a sometime secretary of defense.
I had a personal experience with him that brings to mind his gift for avoiding war. At a dinner party I told him of my bright idea and serial frustrations. I thought to do one of the regular two-hour "Firing Line" television debates on the subject, "Resolved: That the U.S. military should exclude women from combat duty" and stage it at West Point. Management said, Negative! So? -- I would do it at the Naval Academy. Nix.
So at dinner I asked the secretary of defense if he would consider overruling the colonels and commodores. He said quietly, consolingly: Let's go for the Air Force Academy. Months later he had done nothing, and avoided telephone conversations. The debate was held at George Washington University, in the shadow of the Pentagon, but safely removed from it. Mr. Cheney displayed diplomatic skills.
These he will employ, in the months to come, by self-effacement. This is something vice presidential candidates regularly do, and Mr. Cheney is by temperament a quiet operator. But there will be one debate between the two men competing for the vice presidency. That night he will find himself pitted against ... Gephardt? Bradley? Oprah? And he will be up front to speak, as a former secretary of defense, on the question of anti-missile missile development. He will do well, though not too well -- that might dim the spotlight on the No. 1 man, and Cheney will not forget who that is.