Former Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Look Back on His Impactful Time in Office
The late US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as among the most influential occupants of that office in US history. While numerous VPs had to settle for marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney held enormous sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "true president".
Bush disliked that description and said the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in public settings as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any unidentified aircraft approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, causing him to be focused on revenge. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the right thing to do then. I had faith then and I believe it now."
However during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had written a document setting out circumstances in which US concerns might be endangered (including "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be prepared to act independently when joint efforts prove impossible," particularly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the Oval Office somewhat determined on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a scheme to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were either insubstantial or entirely inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the application of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no actionable intelligence had been obtained through the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to catch the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames given to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the sinister strategist in the background that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? That is a advantageous way to operate, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his business interests followed him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in commerce but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his period at the corporation rose from his previous salary during his time as defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at more than $20m|twenty
