One-time Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on His Influential Political Career
The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as among the most influential occupants of that position in US history. Although numerous vice-presidents were limited to marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney held huge power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was courteous, always calling him in public settings as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it indicated that they were equals. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of governmental choices.
The Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney claimed the strikes transformed him, causing him to be focused on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I was convinced then and I believe it presently."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had written a document detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "availability of vital raw materials, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning military moves against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on carrying out what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked 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 declared his plan of lowering America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous advocating invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were whether weak or entirely deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the findings as "loaded with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to capture the perpetrators who killed 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 enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that nobody ever sees emerge from his domain? This represents a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations followed him throughout his time as vice-president. Even though he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts totaling billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the company increased from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a package valued at over $20m|twenty