Former VP Dick Cheney: A Look Back on the Influential Time in Office
The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most significant incumbents of that office in American history. Although numerous VPs were limited to marginal or ceremonial roles, Cheney exercised substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and stated the relationship was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently addressing him in public settings as President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were equals. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the easygoing president pliable on a wide array of policy decisions.
A Aftermath of 9/11
At the head of a faction of conservative hawks that featured Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the 9/11 attacks 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. Whereas Bush headed for a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the downing of any unresponsive planes nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, causing him to be determined on revenge. Along with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Decisions
He voiced no apologies about the invasion, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, or about the enhanced interrogation of detainees captured after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on inaccurate reports circulated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I believed it back then and I believe it now."
However even then, there were opposing views at a senior level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he subsequently stated "clear negligence, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, deception, unfitness, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had composed a memo outlining scenarios in which US concerns might be endangered (featuring "access to crucial commodities, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "America should be positioned to operate alone when cooperative measures prove impossible," particularly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the White House somewhat determined on executing what his father had specifically avoided to do in 1991; topple Saddam. Following he had been fired by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his objective of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed armed intervention against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been behind a plot to murder his predecessor, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his parent's countenance that each person had to step on.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken behind striking Iraq, consistently referencing agency briefings that were whether insubstantial or totally deceptive. He backed what the Bush White House euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate document in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney rejected the report as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and create initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That was specifically what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney took pleasure in monikers imposed on him by critics such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 book about the pair, 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 remains unseen leave his hole? It's a nice way to work, actually."
Business Interests
Debate over his business interests followed him through his period as vice-president. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but strong connections in security, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations, in 1995 as leader and chief executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts worth substantial sums.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the company grew from his $258,394 during his time as military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
