One-time VP Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on the Influential Political Career
The late US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was regarded as one of the most influential incumbents of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. Although numerous VPs were confined to marginal or ceremonial roles, Cheney wielded enormous influence during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly called as the "true president".
Bush objected to that description and said the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, always calling him in public as Mr President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their partnership as a team because it implied that they were equals. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a contingent of neo-conservatives that encompassed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified planes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the strikes altered his perspective, leading him to become intent on revenge. Along with other neo-conservatives, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of suspects rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on misleading information circulated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I believed it back then and I maintain that stance 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 representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, incompetence, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely 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 "availability of crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," specifically referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the Oval Office somewhat determined on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of lowering America's participation in the Middle East dispute and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a conspiracy to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind invading Iraq, consistently referencing information documents that were both insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "advanced techniques", the use of interrogation method and torture.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the conclusions as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to establish protocols and establish procedures to apprehend the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Image
Cheney took pleasure in labels imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept 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 quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the background that nobody ever sees leave his domain? It's a advantageous way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. Even though he had little experience in corporate affairs but established relationships in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US agreements worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the firm increased from his previous salary while defence secretary to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a package totaling in excess of $20m|twenty