The New York Times released highlights from the memoir, "In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir," due out next week.
According to the paper, Cheney writes that he was "a lone voice" for military action against Syria in 2007. Other advisers were reluctant, Cheney says, because of ""the bad intelligence we had received about Iraq's stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction" before the 2003 invasion of that country.
He says former President George W. Bush rejected his advice to bomb a suspected nuclear site in the country. The Israelis later bombed it in 2007.
Cheney's autobiography also discusses his history of health problems. He said he had a secret resignation letter signed and stored in a safe in case he became incapacitated, and that only Bush and one of the vice president's staff members knew the letter existed.
The New York Times also says Cheney accuses former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of naiveté, and says former Secretary of State Colin Powell tried to undermine the president "by criticizing administration policy to people outside the government." Powell's resignation after the 2004 election "was for the best," Cheney writes.
"In My Time" will be published next week by Simon & Schuster.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
