One-time Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on His Influential Political Career
The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was regarded as among the most influential occupants of that office in the nation's history. Whereas countless VPs had to settle for peripheral or figurehead functions, Cheney held huge sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush objected to that description and said the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response 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 traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive planes approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults changed him, causing him to be determined on retribution. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Decisions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on inaccurate reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the proper decision to do then. I had faith at the time and I believe it presently."
However during that period, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had written a memorandum outlining scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "availability of essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering 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 behind a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also disliked that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his predecessor's face that everyone had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were whether weak or completely misleading. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and torture.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create programmes to capture the perpetrators who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the background that operates invisibly come out of his domain? That is a advantageous way to work, actually."
Business Interests
Dispute over his commercial relationships followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in commerce but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was given US contracts totaling billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his time at the company increased from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
