Ex- Second-in-Command Dick Cheney: A Look Back on His Powerful Time in Office
The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who died at the age of 84, was considered arguably the most influential holders of that position in the nation's history. While countless VPs had to settle for marginal or figurehead roles, Cheney exercised enormous power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush disliked this portrayal and said the dynamic was more complex. He pointed out that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in official appearances as President, while he called him as Dick. Bush disputed even portrayals of their association as a collaboration because it suggested that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney found the laidback president malleable on a whole raft of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a contingent of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in reaction to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 assault, Bush had been attending a session at a educational institution in Florida. Whereas Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, commanding the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft nearing the Capitol building.
Cheney said the assaults changed him, making him become intent on retribution. Together with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned 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 insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Decisions
He showed no remorse about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis perished, nor about the enhanced interrogation of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was predicated on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the proper decision. "It represented the correct action to do then. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance presently."
However during that period, there were opposing views at a high level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq campaign. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a memorandum outlining situations in which American interests might be compromised (including "obtaining essential resources, mainly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to take unilateral action when collective action cannot be orchestrated," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the White House generally inclined on executing what his parent had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. After he had been fired by the White House, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his objective of reducing America's engagement in the regional tensions and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, believing he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally objected to that one of the largest accommodations in Baghdad had a floor mural with a image of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were either thin or entirely misleading. He supported what the Bush White House politely called as "advanced techniques", the employment of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate document in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had come from the torture, Cheney disregarded the report as "full of crap". He informed Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and put in place procedures to catch the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That was specifically what they did and they merit a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in labels imposed on him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the idea that he was a dark force 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: "Do I represent the malevolent mastermind in the shadows that operates invisibly leave his hole? That is a effective way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his corporate affiliations followed him throughout his time as second-in-command. Although he had little experience in corporate affairs but good contacts in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's most substantial energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the executive branch. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was awarded US contracts worth billions.
It made him rich. His yearly compensation during his time at the firm grew from his quarter-million dollars during his time as Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
