One-time VP Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on the Influential Time in Office
The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was regarded as arguably the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in American history. While numerous VPs had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush resented that description and stated the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in official appearances as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a faction of neo-cons that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a session at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, making him become intent on retaliation. In conjunction with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He showed no remorse about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty information echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the correct action to do then. I was convinced back then and I believe it now."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a document detailing situations in which American interests might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were either thin or completely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the findings as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to capture the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling 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: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the background that remains unseen emerge from his hole? This represents a advantageous way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as VP. While he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his period at the company rose from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
