Ex- VP Dick Cheney: An Examination on the Influential Time in Office
The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as among the most influential occupants of that position in US history. While countless VPs were confined to peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. In spite of such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of individuals captured after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It proved to be the right thing to do then. I was convinced then and I believe it now."
Yet even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, inaction, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had written a document detailing situations in which American interests might be endangered (featuring "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the White House vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to kill his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his parent's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were whether insubstantial or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the torture, Cheney rejected the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed labels assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the background that operates invisibly come out of his domain? This represents a advantageous way to operate, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals valued at multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his time at the company grew from his quarter-million dollars while military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty
