Former Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: An Examination on the Impactful Government Service
The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as among the most powerful occupants of that position in American history. Whereas countless VPs had to settle for marginal or ceremonial functions, Cheney held enormous influence during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often referred to as the "real president".
Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, consistently addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even descriptions of their partnership as a partnership because it implied that they were peers. Regardless of these objections, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a group of neo-cons that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the armed incursion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. Whereas Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating planes heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney said the attacks altered his perspective, leading him to become focused on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, 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, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the enhanced interrogation of detainees apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on misleading intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the correct action to do at that time. I was convinced at the time and I maintain that stance now."
Yet during that period, there were contrary opinions at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the post. "I saw, as a baseline," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and unaccountability: potentially, lying, unfitness, and graft."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not solely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum outlining situations in which US concerns might be compromised (including "availability of essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be postured to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush too had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Subsequent to he had been fired by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his objective of lowering America's participation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggested armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a scheme to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his parent's face that each person had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, repeatedly quoting information documents that were either thin or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had been obtained through the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the findings as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to apprehend the bastards who murdered 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 credit."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? That is a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but good contacts in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as chairman and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Controversially, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the company rose from his quarter-million dollars when he was defence secretary to millions. When he left in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at in excess of $20m|twenty
