Ex- VP Dick Cheney: A Look Back on the Impactful Time in Office
The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. Although countless vice-presidents were confined to peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised huge sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "actual president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the connection was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite these denials, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the downing of any unidentified airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney said the strikes altered his perspective, making him become determined on revenge. Along with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the harsh treatment of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the correct action to do then. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
But even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, falsehoods, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a memo outlining circumstances in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be prepared to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's countenance that each person had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most vociferous behind invading Iraq, frequently citing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Addressing a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had come from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his lair? That is a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in business but strong connections in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US deals totaling substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his period at the corporation rose from his $258,394 while military head to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
