One-time Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Look Back on His Powerful Political Career
The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most powerful incumbents of that office in US history. Although countless vice-presidents had to settle for peripheral or figurehead roles, Cheney held huge sway during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently described as the "true president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably calling him in official appearances as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a partnership because it indicated that they were peers. In spite of these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Post-9/11 Era
At the head of a faction of neo-cons that included Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command 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 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the downing of any unresponsive planes approaching the government building.
Cheney said the attacks transformed him, causing him to be focused on retaliation. Along with other conservative figures, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Policies
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the proper decision to do at that time. I had faith back then and I believe it presently."
But even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility: at worst, lying, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for comparable steps. He had composed a document setting out situations in which American interests might be endangered (encompassing "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be postured to operate alone when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House somewhat determined on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of reducing America's engagement in the regional tensions and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a scheme to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent accommodations in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his father's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly citing information documents that were whether weak or completely inaccurate. He endorsed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and put in place programmes to apprehend the bastards who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to 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 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his domain? That is a nice way to work, actually."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements totaling substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly earnings during his period at the company rose from his $258,394 while military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty
