One-time Vice-President Dick Cheney: An Examination on His Impactful Time in Office
The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered among the most powerful occupants of that office in US history. Whereas countless second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney held substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "real president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of such protestations, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any non-communicating planes heading toward the government building.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on faulty information circulated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I had faith then and I believe it today."
However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a memo setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House somewhat determined on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's face that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were whether weak or completely deceptive. He supported what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish initiatives to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that operates invisibly leave his hole? This represents a effective way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
