Ex- Vice-President Dick Cheney: A Retrospective on His Powerful Time in Office
The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as among the most significant occupants of that office in US history. Although numerous VPs were confined to marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised substantial sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was often called as the "actual president".
Bush resented that description and said the dynamic was more complicated. He observed that Cheney was courteous, invariably referring to him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even portrayals of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were equals. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the easygoing president accommodating on a whole raft of policy decisions.
The Aftermath of 9/11
Leading of a faction of conservative hawks that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz, he vigorously promoted the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any unresponsive aircraft heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney stated the assaults altered his perspective, leading him to become determined on retribution. Together with other neo-cons, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a occupation of Afghanistan in an attempt to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Controversial Actions
He expressed no regrets about the military campaign, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the harsh treatment of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion, which was founded on inaccurate reports repeated by Cheney, was the correct decision. "It proved to be the proper decision to do back then. I believed it back then and I hold that view presently."
But even then, there were opposing views at a high level about the botched execution of Iraq. One of the government's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the role. "I witnessed, as a baseline," he later wrote "true dereliction, carelessness, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and graft."
Broader Context
Cheney was not completely responsible for the Iraq military action. Before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for comparable steps. He had composed a document detailing situations in which American interests might be endangered (including "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "America should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically referencing military moves against Iraq.
Bush additionally had assumed the Oval Office generally inclined on executing what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Following he had been dismissed by the administration, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had stated his plan of reducing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and proposed defense operations against Iraq.
Bush carried a individual resentment against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest establishments in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his predecessor's countenance that each person had to tread upon.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement advocating attacking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were either thin or entirely inaccurate. He supported what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the use of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate analysis in 2014 that found that no actionable intelligence had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "riddled with crap". He told Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to capture the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney enjoyed nicknames assigned to him by critics such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the idea that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the shadows that remains unseen emerge from his domain? This represents a advantageous way to operate, actually."
Business Interests
Controversy over his commercial relationships followed him throughout his time as vice-president. Although he had little experience in business but established relationships in security, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy companies, in 1995 as chair and chief executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's VP candidate for the presidency. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was given US agreements worth billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his tenure at the firm rose from his previous salary while military head to over four million. When he left in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
