One-time Vice-President Dick Cheney: An Examination on the Powerful Political Career
The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as among the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in US history. Although many second-in-commands had to settle for marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was deferential, consistently calling him in public settings as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush made his way to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any unresponsive aircraft approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes transformed him, leading him to become intent on revenge. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty reports circulated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do back then. I had faith at the time and I believe it now."
But during that period, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had drafted a document detailing circumstances in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the White House generally inclined on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's face that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, frequently quoting agency briefings that were both weak or completely deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and create programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his domain? It's a advantageous way to function, actually."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as VP. While he had little experience in business but strong connections in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm increased from his previous salary while military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a package valued at more than $20m|twenty
