Condi Rice

However, according to US vice-president Dick Cheney's new biography, Rice was once so fazed by ex-defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld that she broke down to tears at a meeting in the White House.

The story dates back to 2004. Rice, the then national security adviser, tried repeatedly to organise a meeting with the senior most government figures to discuss setting up of military tribunals for Guantanamo Bay, The Sunday Telegraph reported.

Rumsfeld twice refused to attend, sending his deputy Paul Wolfowitz instead. He did not regard her as an equal and barely hid it. The opinions of her staff did not interest him," author Barton Gellman wrote.

Something happened to Rice's face, control melting away. Her eyes welled up and her next words caught in her throat. 'She started to cry,' said one of them. And she said... 'We'll talk about this again', and she turned and walked quickly out of the door", Gellman added.