One-time VP Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on His Impactful Government Service
The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most significant occupants of that position in American history. While many second-in-commands were confined to minor or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded huge influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently described as the "true president".
Bush objected to that description and said the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their association as a team because it suggested that they were peers. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president accommodating on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a group of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the assaults transformed him, leading him to become focused on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It represented the correct action to do then. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance presently."
Yet during that period, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, at the very least," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had composed a document setting out scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that all visitors had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were whether insubstantial or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to catch the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating 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 remains unseen emerge from his lair? It's a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US agreements worth multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his period at the company grew from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling more than $20m|twenty
