One-time VP Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on the Influential Time in Office
The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was considered among the most influential incumbents of that office in American history. While countless VPs had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that featured Pentagon chief 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. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any unidentified airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, making him become focused on retaliation. Together with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the proper decision to do then. I had faith at the time and I hold that view today."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had written a memo detailing situations in which US concerns might be endangered (encompassing "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," specifically mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating invading Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were whether thin or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to catch the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his hole? It's a nice way to operate, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum companies, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
