Former VP Dick Cheney: An Examination on His Powerful Time in Office
The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most influential incumbents of that position in the nation's history. Whereas many vice-presidents had to settle for minor or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the connection was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in public as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president malleable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a group of neo-cons that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. As Bush made his way to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the downing of any unidentified aircraft approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the harsh treatment of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the right thing to do at that time. I had faith at the time and I maintain that stance presently."
But even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the role. "I saw, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a memo outlining scenarios in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "access to vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the US should be postured to take unilateral action when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," explicitly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been sacked by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and suggested military action against Iraq.
Bush held a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a scheme to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was one of the most outspoken advocating attacking Iraq, repeatedly quoting intelligence reports that were either thin or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of interrogation method and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place initiatives to capture the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly come out of his hole? It's a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals valued at substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his tenure at the company increased from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth over $20m|twenty
