Former VP Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on the Influential Political Career
The former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was considered among the most significant incumbents of that position in US history. While many VPs were limited to marginal or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded huge power during the term of George W Bush, so much so that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the dynamic was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was deferential, invariably calling him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the easygoing president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a group of neo-cons that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a gathering at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive planes heading toward the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults transformed him, leading him to become intent on retaliation. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the invasion of Iraq, although there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Policies
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the waterboarding of individuals rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I was convinced at the time and I hold that view presently."
However even then, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I saw, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "obvious failure, carelessness, and irresponsibility: at worst, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely accountable for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had composed a document setting out situations in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency generally inclined on implementing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to kill his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore disliked that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a likeness of his father's visage that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind attacking Iraq, frequently referencing information documents that were whether insubstantial or entirely deceptive. He supported what the Bush government indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the use of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the torture, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place programmes to capture the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames given to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 volume about the pair, 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 shadows that remains unseen come out of his hole? That is a nice way to function, actually."
Business Interests
Debate over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's running mate for the White House. Debatably, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US deals valued at substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his time at the company increased from his $258,394 during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement totaling in excess of $20m|twenty