Ex- Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Look Back on His Impactful Government Service
The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as among the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. While numerous VPs were confined to marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney held huge power during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "actual president".
Bush objected to such a characterisation and claimed the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was courteous, always referring to him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, making him become intent on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Disputed Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on inaccurate information echoed by Cheney, was the right path to take. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view today."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a memorandum outlining situations in which national priorities might be endangered (featuring "availability of essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be prepared to act independently when collective action prove impossible," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired 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 announced his plan of lowering America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and suggested defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been behind a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that everyone had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were whether thin or completely deceptive. He supported what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that determined that no useful information had been obtained through the torture, Cheney dismissed the conclusions as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place initiatives to catch the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the evil genius in the corner that remains unseen come out of his hole? It's a advantageous way to operate, actually."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as VP. Even though he had limited background in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals worth multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his time at the corporation rose from his $258,394 during his time as defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty