Former Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Look Back on the Influential Government Service
The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most significant holders of that office in the nation's history. While numerous vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney held enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a team because it implied that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks altered his perspective, making him become determined on retribution. Along with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the correct action to do then. I was convinced then and I hold that view today."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for comparable steps. He had written a memo detailing scenarios in which US concerns might be threatened (including "access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," specifically referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had entered the White House somewhat determined on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's engagement in the regional tensions and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement behind striking Iraq, consistently referencing intelligence reports that were both insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to apprehend the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by critics such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the idea that he was a dark force directing 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: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly come out of his hole? That is a nice way to function, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his tenure at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars while military head to $4.4m. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
