One-time Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Look Back on the Impactful Government Service
The former US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered arguably the most influential holders of that office in American history. While countless second-in-commands had to settle for minor or ceremonial functions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and said the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, consistently calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a broad range of governmental choices.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a faction of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the destruction of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the attacks altered his perspective, making him become determined on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the correct action to do then. I had faith then and I believe it presently."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, carelessness, and irresponsibility: potentially, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a memo setting out situations in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a private grievance against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his parent's countenance that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, consistently quoting agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or entirely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of simulated drowning and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to catch the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by opponents such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his lair? It's a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his business interests pursued him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in military, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the company increased from his previous salary when he was defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth more than $20m|twenty
