Ex- Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Look Back on the Influential Time in Office
The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in American history. While numerous vice-presidents had to settle for marginal or figurehead functions, Cheney wielded huge influence during the presidency of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and stated the relationship was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in official appearances as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of such protestations, Cheney viewed the relaxed president accommodating on a whole raft of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, causing him to be intent on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the harsh treatment of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate information circulated by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It proved to be the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced then and I believe it presently."
Yet even at the time, there were opposing views at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I witnessed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, inaction, and recklessness: at worst, falsehoods, ineptitude, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely responsible for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for similar measures. He had drafted a document setting out situations in which US concerns might be threatened (featuring "obtaining crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly referencing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush also had entered the Oval Office vaguely intent on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of lowering America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a scheme to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the largest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's visage that all visitors had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly quoting agency briefings that were whether thin or totally misleading. He endorsed what the Bush government indirectly described as "enhanced interrogation", the use of interrogation method and harsh treatment.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a dark force manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen leave his domain? That is a effective way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships accompanied him through his period as VP. While he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's running mate for the presidency. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm rose from his $258,394 while military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth over $20m|twenty
