One-time VP Dick Cheney: An Examination on His Influential Government Service
The deceased US VP Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was seen as arguably the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in American history. Whereas countless VPs were limited to marginal or symbolic roles, Cheney wielded substantial power during the administration of George W Bush, so much so that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush objected to this portrayal and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He noted that Cheney was respectful, invariably addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their association as a partnership because it indicated that they were on equal footing. Despite these objections, Cheney viewed the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a contingent of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. At the time of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been participating in a session at a school in Florida. While Bush traveled to a underground facility in Nebraska, Cheney took charge, ordering the shooting down of any non-communicating planes nearing the government building.
Cheney said the assaults altered his perspective, causing him to be focused on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Controversial Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, or about the harsh treatment of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on inaccurate information repeated by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It represented the right thing to do then. I was convinced at the time and I believe it today."
But during that period, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "obvious failure, negligence, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, unfitness, and corruption."
Broader Context
Cheney was not entirely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had drafted a memorandum detailing situations in which national priorities might be endangered (encompassing "obtaining crucial commodities, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be prepared to take unilateral action when joint efforts prove impossible," particularly referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush also had arrived in the Oval Office generally inclined on implementing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his intention of lowering America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been involved in a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He additionally resented that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his parent's visage that all visitors had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was part of the most outspoken advocating striking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were either insubstantial or totally misleading. He supported what the Bush government euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of simulated drowning and harsh treatment.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to implement measures and establish initiatives to apprehend the perpetrators who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they merit a lot of praise."
Public Image
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power manipulating Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the two, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his hole? That is a effective way to work, actually."
Business Interests
Debate over his commercial relationships followed him during his tenure as second-in-command. Even though he had limited background in business but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he became Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Contentiously, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US deals valued at multiple billions.
It significantly boosted his finances. His annual income during his period at the company rose from his $258,394 while defence secretary to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a compensation package valued at over $20m|twenty
