One-time VP Dick Cheney: A Look Back on the Powerful Government Service
The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was considered one of the most powerful incumbents of that office in the nation's history. While countless vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded enormous power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "real president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and stated the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the downing of any unidentified planes heading toward the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, making him become focused on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view today."
Yet during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had written a memorandum outlining scenarios in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be positioned to act independently when collective action cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's face that each person had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating attacking Iraq, frequently quoting information documents that were both weak or totally deceptive. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in monikers given to him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? It's a effective way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had limited background in business but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his time at the firm increased from his $258,394 while military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
