Ex- Vice-President Dick Cheney: An Examination on the Impactful Political Career
The former US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as among the most significant holders of the vice-presidency in American history. While countless VPs had to settle for marginal or ceremonial positions, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly called as the "actual president".
Bush resented that description and said the dynamic was more complicated. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in official appearances as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a contingent of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any unidentified aircraft nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, leading him to become intent on revenge. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on faulty reports echoed by Cheney, was the proper course of action. "It was the proper decision to do then. I believed it back then and I believe it now."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he later wrote "true dereliction, negligence, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a memo setting out scenarios in which American interests might be threatened (including "availability of crucial commodities, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be arranged," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a scheme to assassinate 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 father's face that everyone had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were whether weak or entirely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush government politely called as "enhanced interrogation", the application of waterboarding and harsh treatment.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place procedures to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it was not repeated. That's exactly what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by detractors such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a shadow power directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the background that operates invisibly emerge from his lair? This represents a effective way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as VP. Although he had little experience in commerce but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his period at the company grew from his previous salary while defence secretary to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
