NEW YORK, Sept 1 (AFP) - US Vice President Dick Cheney on Wednesday savaged John Kerry, portraying the Democratic presidential contender as confused and unfit to govern America as it faces a historic threat to its security.
Cheney launched the ferocious salvo as he accepted the Republican nomination for a second term as right-hand man to his boss, President George W. Bush, at the party convention in New York.
The vice-president, a consummate behind-the-scenes power broker in Washington, launched into Bush's opponent in the November 2 poll for constantly vacillating over issues crucial to US national security.
"His back-and-forth reflects a habit of indecision and sends a message of confusion," Cheney said in an electoral warcry filled the tough "red meat" language Republicans had expected from him.
He lambasted the Democrat for changing his mind on military and national security issues during his 20-year US Senate career.
Kerry's fickleness put America at risk as it faced an unrivalled threat from terrorists armed with chemical, biological or even nuclear weapons and whose "hatred of us is limitless," he said.
To a rolling chorus of cheers, Cheney, 63, warned voters that defending the United States against terrorists was "the greatest challenge of our time" and the outcome of the election would affect US destiny.
"Moments come along in history when leaders must make fundamental decisions about how to confront a long-term challenge abroad and how best to keep the American people secure," Cheney said.
"This nation has reached another of those defining moments," he said.
He suggested that Bush had taken the steps needed to protect the United States, while Kerry was not up to the job.
"History has shown that a strong and purposeful America is vital to preserving freedom and keeping us safe, yet time and again Senator Kerry has made the wrong call on national security," he said.
"On the question of America's role in the world, the differences between Senator Kerry and President Bush are the sharpest, and the stakes for the country are the highest."
The vice president, architect of the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive attacks, also took aim at Kerry's opposition to the war in Iraq, which he said had been a "gathering threat" to the United States.
"On Iraq, Senator Kerry has disagreed with many of his fellow Democrats. But Senator Kerrys liveliest disagreement is with himself.
"Senator Kerry says he sees two Americas," Cheney said, picking up on a Kerry campaign slogan. "It makes the whole thing mutual -- America sees two John Kerrys."
Kerry could get away with changing his mind as a senator, but could not do so as president, he said.
Despite the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, Cheney said, Kerry did not fully appreciate the danger the United States faced and was too eager to cave in to countries opposed to US military action abroad.
Ridiculing Kerry's pledge to go to war only if the United States was attacked and to wage a "more sensitive war on terror," Cheney said the priority should be to thwart any new strike.
"We must do everything we can to prevent it -- and that includes the use of military force," he said in an apparent reference to the war in Iraq, which Kerry has accused Bush of launching by choice, not necessity.
Cheney eulogised Bush's handling of the September 11 attacks, saying he was a strong, decisive yet compassionate leader who defends US interests abroad.
He praised Bush for ousting Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein last year, the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001 and for helping stamp out nuclear proliferation.
"President Bush does not deal in empty threats and half measures, and his determination has sent a clear message," he said.
While portraying Bush as tough, Cheney said he was also a good man who carefully considered each decision, moving to dispel the image of Bush as a warmongering cowboy.
"I watch him at work every day. I have seen him face some of the hardest decisions that can come to the Oval Office -- and make those decisions with the wisdom and humility Americans expect in their president."
"He is a man of great personal strength, and more than that, a man with a heart for the weak, and the vulnerable, and the afflicted."
The climax of the convention was to come on Thursday, when Bush accepts the nomination.