Former Vice-President Dick Cheney: An Examination on the Influential Time in Office
The former US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most powerful incumbents of that position in US history. Although countless VPs were confined to peripheral or symbolic functions, Cheney exercised huge power during the term of George W Bush, to such an extent that he was commonly referred to as the "true president".
Bush disliked such a characterisation and stated the connection was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was respectful, invariably referring to him in public as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were peers. In spite of such protestations, Cheney found the relaxed president pliable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that featured defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a meeting at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took command, commanding the destruction of any unidentified planes approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the assaults changed him, causing him to be determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, nor about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was predicated on faulty intelligence circulated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It represented the right thing to do back then. I was convinced back then and I believe it today."
Yet even then, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the White House's own delegates to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I saw, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, carelessness, and unaccountability: at worst, lying, unfitness, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for such action. He had written a document setting out situations in which national priorities might be compromised (including "obtaining essential resources, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to operate alone when collective action cannot be arranged," explicitly citing defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the Oval Office vaguely intent on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been dismissed by the White House, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of reducing America's engagement in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a personal grudge against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a scheme to assassinate his predecessor, 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 floor mural with a portrait of his father's countenance that all visitors had to walk over.
Interrogation Methods
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vociferous supporting invading Iraq, consistently citing intelligence reports that were whether thin or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House politely called as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and torture.
Answering a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had come from the torture, Cheney dismissed the findings as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and establish procedures to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of praise."
External Perception
Cheney took pleasure in monikers given to him by opponents such as Darth Vader and The Prince of Darkness, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his lair? It's a advantageous way to work, in fact."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his business interests accompanied him during his tenure as vice-president. Even though he had limited background in business but established relationships in defence, particularly in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations, in 1995 as leader and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Controversially, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US deals totaling multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his time at the company rose from his $258,394 while defence secretary to millions. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package totaling more than $20m|twenty