One-time VP Dick Cheney: An Examination on the Powerful Political Career
The late US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at the age of 84, was seen as arguably the most significant incumbents of that office in the nation's history. Whereas numerous VPs were confined to peripheral or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was frequently referred to as the "actual president".
Bush resented that description and stated the relationship was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was respectful, always referring to him in public as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their association as a team because it implied that they were equals. Regardless of these denials, Cheney viewed the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
Leading of a contingent of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been taking part in a session at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating planes approaching the Capitol building.
Cheney said the strikes changed him, leading him to become focused on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the invasion of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Actions
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the enhanced interrogation of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on faulty reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I was convinced then and I believe it now."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the post. "I observed, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, falsehoods, incompetence, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a memorandum setting out circumstances in which national priorities might be threatened (featuring "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be postured to act independently when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House generally inclined on executing what his parent had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of diminishing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a scheme to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally disliked that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a portrait of his parent's countenance that each person had to step on.
Interrogation Methods
But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken supporting striking Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were whether weak or totally inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the findings as "loaded with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of recognition."
Public Image
Cheney enjoyed nicknames given to him by critics such as the dark character and the dark figure, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 volume about the two, 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 background that operates invisibly leave his lair? That is a nice way to function, in fact."
Corporate Connections
Dispute over his corporate affiliations pursued him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had limited background in business but good contacts in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he left in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty
