Former VP Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on His Influential Time in Office
The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered among the most significant incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While numerous second-in-commands were limited to marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush resented this portrayal and said the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was deferential, always addressing him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the destruction of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, making him become focused on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I was convinced then and I believe it now."
Yet even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memorandum setting out situations in which American interests might be compromised (including "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the US should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House somewhat determined on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his intention of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were both weak or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels assigned to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? This represents a advantageous way to function, actually."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the firm increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was military head to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
