WASHINGTON – Former Secretary of State Colin Powell dismissed the criticism leveled at him and others in former Vice President Dick Cheney’s memoir, calling them “cheap shots.’’

It was the latest volley in a clash that stretches back to their first years in former President George W. Bush’s administration.

Powell said that if Cheney’s staff and others in Bush’s White House had been as forthcoming as the State Department in the case involving CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson, the indictment and conviction of Cheney’s friend and former chief of staff wouldn’t have happened.

Powell made the remarks on “Face the Nation’’ ahead of the release of Cheney’s book, “In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir.’’

Cheney said in an earlier NBC interview that the book would cause “heads to explode’’ in Washington, a description Powell said he expected from a supermarket tabloid and not a former Vice President.