Ex- VP Dick Cheney: A Look Back on His Powerful Political Career
The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered one of the most powerful holders of that office in US history. Although countless VPs had to settle for peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney exercised enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and said the dynamic was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, invariably addressing him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a partnership because it suggested that they were peers. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the relaxed president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a contingent of conservative hawks that encompassed Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush made his way to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any unidentified airplanes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the assaults altered his perspective, making him become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the military action of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the waterboarding of suspects captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on misleading reports echoed by Cheney, was the right decision. "It was the right thing to do at that time. I believed it then and I believe it today."
Yet during that period, there were opposing views at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, deception, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had written a document setting out situations in which US concerns might be threatened (including "access to essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be arranged," particularly citing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the presidency generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to assassinate his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his father's face that each person had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, consistently citing information documents that were either insubstantial or totally misleading. He backed what the Bush government indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no useful information had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place initiatives to apprehend the individuals who murdered 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it was not repeated. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels given to him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the journalist's 2013 book about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Am I the malevolent mastermind in the background that operates invisibly leave his domain? This represents a advantageous way to work, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in security, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US agreements valued at substantial sums.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm rose from his previous salary while military head to over four million. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling over $20m|twenty
