Former VP Dick Cheney: An Examination on the Influential Time in Office
The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most powerful holders of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While numerous vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or ceremonial functions, Cheney wielded huge influence during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often described as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and stated the connection was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably referring to him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a partnership because it implied that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any unidentified planes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, causing him to be focused on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It represented the proper decision to do then. I was convinced then and I believe it today."
But even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a memo setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a image of his father's countenance that everyone had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were either weak or completely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish initiatives to capture the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that remains unseen leave his hole? It's a advantageous way to operate, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth multiple billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars while defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
