Ex- Vice-President Dick Cheney: An Examination on His Powerful Political Career
The deceased US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most powerful incumbents of the vice-presidency in US history. While many second-in-commands had to settle for peripheral or ceremonial positions, Cheney exercised substantial power during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "actual president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was courteous, always addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a collaboration because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney found the relaxed president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney said the attacks changed him, causing him to be focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was based on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I had faith back then and I believe it now."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he later wrote "obvious failure, carelessness, and recklessness: in the worst case, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had composed a document detailing situations in which national priorities might be threatened (encompassing "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "America should be prepared to act independently when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the White House vaguely intent on implementing what his father had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, thinking he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his father's visage that each person had to walk over.
Questioning Techniques
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, repeatedly referencing agency briefings that were both insubstantial or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create procedures to capture the bastards who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the malevolent mastermind in the background that nobody ever sees leave his domain? That is a nice way to work, truthfully."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had minimal expertise in commerce but established relationships in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US deals worth substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the company rose from his previous salary when he was military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at over $20m|twenty
