Ex- Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on His Influential Time in Office
The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most significant incumbents of that position in US history. While numerous VPs were confined to peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney wielded enormous power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often referred to as the "real president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and stated the connection was more complex. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their relationship as a collaboration because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a broad range of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating planes nearing the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I hold that view presently."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and unaccountability: in the worst case, falsehoods, ineptitude, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had drafted a memorandum detailing situations in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House vaguely intent on executing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of reducing America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his father's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken supporting invading Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were both weak or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in labels assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the corner that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? That is a nice way to operate, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests pursued him throughout his time as second-in-command. While he had limited background in commerce but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty
