Ex- Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on the Powerful Government Service
The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was considered among the most influential occupants of that office in US history. Although countless second-in-commands were confined to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney held huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and said the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the assaults changed him, leading him to become determined on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on inaccurate reports circulated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I was convinced back then and I hold that view presently."
But even then, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had composed a memo outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his parent's face that all visitors had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were both thin or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "advanced techniques", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his hole? It's a nice way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him through his period as vice-president. While he had little experience in business but good contacts in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation rose from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling more than $20m|twenty
