Former VP Dick Cheney: An Examination on His Impactful Time in Office
The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as among the most influential occupants of that office in the nation's history. Whereas numerous VPs had to settle for peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney held huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and said the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any unidentified aircraft approaching the government building.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it then and I maintain that stance presently."
However even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum outlining scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when collective action prove impossible," specifically citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had assumed the White House generally inclined on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his parent's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating striking Iraq, consistently quoting agency briefings that were either thin or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and establish programmes to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his lair? That is a effective way to operate, truthfully."
Business Interests
Debate over his business interests followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling over $20m|twenty
